Maybe you should not upgrade to Vista

[DetroitBaseball]

My laptop is SEVERELY underpowered by today's standards. It's only a 1.7ghz single core machine. I'm going to replace it next year with a dual or possibly quad core laptop that has both BD and HD DVD support. Nonetheless, even with my lowly 1.7ghz and 2 gigs of ram Vista performs quite well for me. Of course, I'm one of those sick OS tweakers you read tales about. I've tuned this thing about as well as it'll get. No complaints even in games...surprisingly. Of course, with this hardware I'm not running anything higher than HL2 and Doom3 on this thing. My kids both have desktops that bury my machines. sigh. Like I said...next year.

Core 2 Duo is good enough for HD, you don't need a quad core.

 

[SamuriHL]

Core 2 Duo is good enough for HD, you don't need a quad core.

You underestimate the needs I may have for my next laptop I think. The more speed the better. However, we need software that can take advantage of the quad core architecture. By itself it's nothing more than a clever marketing trick. Until we get more software that can use it, it's not useful. However, when I want to re-encode that HD video, trust me, a core 2 duo is going to seem like the stone ages of computing.

 

[DetroitBaseball]

You underestimate the needs I may have for my next laptop I think. The more speed the better. However, we need software that can take advantage of the quad core architecture. By itself it's nothing more than a clever marketing trick. Until we get more software that can use it, it's not useful. However, when I want to re-encode that HD video, trust me, a core 2 duo is going to seem like the stone ages of computing.

A laptop with a quad core would cost a lot of money.

 

[SamuriHL]

A laptop with a quad core would cost a lot of money.

Today it would. Next year it won't. I spent 2 grand on this one. I'll budget probably close to that for my next one. I won't get it until it has *ALL* the features I want.

HD playback via HDMI 1.3a(or higher) including sound output
1080p native res(or higher)
whatever that new creepy video port is called that buries HDMI
express card(yawn)
sata 250 gigs or higher(yawn)
4 gigs of ram
Ideally a burner that can handle DVD, HD DVD, and BD.

That's my short list. There are a few other things this theoretical laptop will have to have. DX 10.x support, certainly.

So yes, until they can give me all that in an under 2k package, I'm all set with this one. Next year sometime I'm willing to bet someone pushes a laptop like that out.

 

[oldjoe]

My laptop is SEVERELY underpowered by today's standards. It's only a 1.7ghz single core machine. I'm going to replace it next year with a dual or possibly quad core laptop that has both BD and HD DVD support. Nonetheless, even with my lowly 1.7ghz and 2 gigs of ram Vista performs quite well for me. Of course, I'm one of those sick OS tweakers you read tales about. I've tuned this thing about as well as it'll get. No complaints even in games...surprisingly. Of course, with this hardware I'm not running anything higher than HL2 and Doom3 on this thing. My kids both have desktops that bury my machines. sigh. Like I said...next year.

A 1.7 Ghz CPU and 2 G's of RAM is more than sufficient for most any task, using any OS and most any game. The only thing your laptop would lack, for gaming, is sufficient graphics capability and no amount of CPU speed or RAM will compensate for that.

 

[SamuriHL]

A 1.7 Ghz CPU and 2 G's of RAM is more than sufficient for most any task, using any OS and most any game. The only thing your laptop would lack, for gaming, is sufficient graphics capability and no amount of CPU speed or RAM will compensate for that.

"Most any task"....right, except HD transcoding. Which no current CPU is fast enough for. I think people are underestimating just how much processing power HD video takes...

 

[DetroitBaseball]

HD transcoding is a long long ways away for me. By then, they will have CPUs that can do it efficiently.

 

[SamuriHL]

HD transcoding is a long long ways away for me. By then, they will have CPUs that can do it efficiently.

It's a year away for me. Think back to the early days of DVD and how horrifying that was for most machines to handle. We had hollywood real magic cards because we needed custom hardware to handle mpeg2 decoding. Now it's built into every onboard video card. In a few years HD will be built in, as well. But for transcoding, we need powerful CPU's and fast disk. In a year, I suspect we'll be pretty close to those goals for at least marginally "fast" results. I'm not looking for realtime, but, less than 3 days would be nice.

 

[DetroitBaseball]

It's a year away for me. Think back to the early days of DVD and how horrifying that was for most machines to handle. We had hollywood real magic cards because we needed custom hardware to handle mpeg2 decoding. Now it's built into every onboard video card. In a few years HD will be built in, as well. But for transcoding, we need powerful CPU's and fast disk. In a year, I suspect we'll be pretty close to those goals for at least marginally "fast" results. I'm not looking for realtime, but, less than 3 days would be nice.

I probably won't even be getting a standalone player until next year. Then, I won't be able to get an HD-DVD burner with my computer until I get a new one which won't be for a few years. By then a lot of computers should have HD-DVD burners. Also better to wait since they get better and better. Faster speeds, etc.

 

[SamuriHL]

I probably won't even be getting a standalone player until next year. Then, I won't be able to get an HD-DVD burner with my computer until I get a new one which won't be for a few years. By then a lot of computers should have HD-DVD burners. Also better to wait since they get better and better. Faster speeds, etc.

Hence why I said I wasn't going to upgrade this laptop until *ALL* my needs are met. I generally will keep a laptop for 3 years. As for going to HD, well, I worked hard to get myself to HD this year. No going back for me. I've stopped buying DVDs now and will only get HD versions of things. Even Netflix I have set to BD and HD DVD over DVD. It makes a difference. HD gives a vastly improved experience. If you can wait, that's good. It will always get better. TVs that support HDMI 1.3a or higher will give you a great color experience. Good TVs will come down in price and give better performance. However, if you always wait for "the next best thing" then you never get to enjoy the technology. At some point you pull the trigger and jump in knowing that it'll be cheaper and better in a month. It doesn't matter. As long as you're happy with your purchase and it does what you want, the better/faster/cheaper nonsense doesn't really matter.

 

[SamuriHL]

http://global.acer.com/products/notebook/as9920.htm

That's CLOSE to what I'm looking for. You give them a year to improve and you're going to see a laptop that exceeds my expectations! That is a BEAST of a machine!!!!

 

[DetroitBaseball]

That is a BEAST of a machine!!!!

Totally agree. I wonder what the price is for it.

 

[SamuriHL]

Totally agree. I wonder what the price is for it.

I'm not going to look. I guarantee it's over 3 grand. Far too much for me. But, again, in a year, that thing will be affordable and standard feature set on even their midrange laptops. So what I'm asking for may seem ridiculous today, but, a year from now will all be "yawn" technology.

 

[DetroitBaseball]

I'm not going to look. I guarantee it's over 3 grand. Far too much for me. But, again, in a year, that thing will be affordable and standard feature set on even their midrange laptops. So what I'm asking for may seem ridiculous today, but, a year from now will all be "yawn" technology.

That's a downside to technology. You buy something new and a few weeks later it becomes outdated. Then you have to keep up and get the new thing, well some people do. It's hard to constantly stay on top unless you have a lot of money.

 

[SamuriHL]

That's a downside to technology. You buy something new and a few weeks later it becomes outdated. Then you have to keep up and get the new thing, well some people do. It's hard to constantly stay on top unless you have a lot of money.

I don't have that need anymore. Once I bite the bullet and buy something I'm quite pleased with it. The reason is I research whatever it is I want to buy and make sure I'm getting the best bang for the buck at the time. Take my Sony SXRD HDTV. I got it for 1800 bucks. 50" LCoS TV with remarkable PQ. If I look now I can find it for under 1500 and there are far better TVs out there now. It doesn't bother me in the least. I'm still enjoying the hell out of this TV and will do so for years to come. My Inspiron I've had for 2 and a half years now and love it. 3 years is a LONG time for me to keep a machine. I made sure that I got a machine that was going to last that long and not be outdated in a year. That's the same thing I plan on doing with my next laptop. The things I'm asking for may seem insane now, but, in 3+ years? It'll seem like a joke compared to what's out. So I tend to go a little over the curve, spending just a bit more to get a little extra, which will then payoff during end of life of that machine. Hence why I can run Vista on my Inspiron now and not have any problems with it. You just have to know what you want, find what matches your requirements for a price you can live with, and pull the trigger. Once you do, don't second guess it just because "the next new thing" comes out. There's ALWAYS a next new thing. That's what makes this industry great!

 

[DALE31]

Windows Vista

Just found this article
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6319845.stm
which basically reflects my personal opinion.

I enjoyed reading the article from the link. It was very informative. I had several questions for you.
1) I have Any DVD and Clone DVD and they are on my Windows XP Pro and they work great. I just had a computer customized and I opted for the Windows Ultima software.
Q...Will the Any DVD and Clone DVD work on Vista?
Q...In the article it says that Microsoft can remove programs. Is this referring to the Mocrosoft OS and some adware and spyware OR does this also mean programs like ANY DVD and CLONE DVD can be removed by Microsoft.
2) When the new computer arrives...will I be able to transfer or I think the term they used is migrate everything over from XP to Vista? OR do I need to reinstall Any DVD and Clone DVD on the new computer.
THANK YOU
DALE

 

[SamuriHL]

I enjoyed reading the article from the link. It was very informative. I had several questions for you.
1) I have Any DVD and Clone DVD and they are on my Windows XP Pro and they work great. I just had a computer customized and I opted for the Windows Ultima software.
Q...Will the Any DVD and Clone DVD work on Vista?
Q...In the article it says that Microsoft can remove programs. Is this referring to the Mocrosoft OS and some adware and spyware OR does this also mean programs like ANY DVD and CLONE DVD can be removed by Microsoft.
2) When the new computer arrives...will I be able to transfer or I think the term they used is migrate everything over from XP to Vista? OR do I need to reinstall Any DVD and Clone DVD on the new computer.
THANK YOU
DALE

A...AnyDVD and CloneDVD work just fine in Vista.
A...MS is not going to remove applications like AnyDVD and CloneDVD. Lawsuit

You will want to install AnyDVD and CloneDVD fresh on the Vista machine. Hopefully you backed up your registration information when you bought them.

 

[Clams]

That's a downside to technology. You buy something new and a few weeks later it becomes outdated. Then you have to keep up and get the new thing, well some people do. It's hard to constantly stay on top unless you have a lot of money.

Ya... I just built THREE identical machines: (home, work, HTPC)

CPU: P4 3.2g (Hyperthreading)
Mobo: ASUS P4P800-E (king of the 478 mobo's)
RAM: 2g PC3200 DDR400
Video: Nvidia 6200 256m
Audio: On-board Realtek 8 channel with SPDIF out
HD: A pair of 250 SATA per machine
Optical: One DVD-RW and one DVD-ROM per machine.
Cases: New POWMAX 450W light up cases.

And with creative use of Ebay and my existing drives - I built all three for under $700. This at the same time my buddy built one state of the art screamer for $1400. He's got a great machine... but for 1/2 the clams, I got THREE really good machines - that will handle Vista (if I'm forced) and will handle HD with no problems.

-W

 

[oldjoe]

Ya... I just built THREE identical machines: (home, work, HTPC)

CPU: P4 3.2g (Hyperthreading)
Mobo: ASUS P4P800-E (king of the 478 mobo's)
RAM: 2g PC3200 DDR400
Video: Nvidia 6200 256m
Audio: On-board Realtek 8 channel with SPDIF out
HD: A pair of 250 SATA per machine
Optical: One DVD-RW and one DVD-ROM per machine.
Cases: New POWMAX 450W light up cases.

And with creative use of Ebay and my existing drives - I built all three for under $700. This at the same time my buddy built one state of the art screamer for $1400. He's got a great machine... but for 1/2 the clams, I got THREE really good machines - that will handle Vista (if I'm forced) and will handle HD with no problems.

-W

If the PSU's came with the PowMax cases I would very strongly suggest replacing them. PowMax PSU's are very low quality.

 

[Clams]

If the PSU's came with the PowMax cases I would very strongly suggest replacing them. PowMax PSU's are very low quality.

Yes, you're not the only one to note this. So far.... I've had no trouble with any of the PowMax units. That said, I remain suspicious of them as they seem way too light for a good 450W supply. I'm running ASUS PC-Probe on the trio, and it would alert me of any supply deviations from normal range.

-W