PentaxForums.com - View Single Post

cpopham · 08-13-2008, 10:59 PM

Originally Posted by daacon

Leaning towards the XPS - I will re-look at vista. I run a lot or Oracle products and I think there is support now for oracle and vista. Business or ultimate. I dual boot Vista here now just have not run it for a while (pre SP1) originally ran into way too many issues (oracle, SSH clients, sftp clients, a plethora of VPN clients (Cisco, Citrix, Sonicwall, etc...)

I think the XPS is the leading candidate for now - I can give Vista a shot and always go back to XP not that big a deal (4 or 5 hours to rebuild from scratch)

Ah, Oracle, say no more. What I'm saying is that you should be aware that laptops like the M1530 have no officially supported XP drivers - you either have to cobble together your own set, or use one of the various unofficial sets floating around forums. Personally, I would find that more hastle than it is worth.

If you're tied to XP by specific applications, then check out the Dell Vostro range - they're business machines so you can buy them with XP preinstalled.

Originally Posted by daacon

As for the 3 GB vs. 4 GB you are correct 32bit OS can only address a little over 3 but I thought an application like CS3 could take advantage? It's a pretty cheap upgrade ($100) to go from 3-4 and if I decide to go to a 64 bit OS at some point (be it Linux, Vista or if released before the machine becomes a boat anchor) Windows 2008.

No, applications cannot take advantage of that memory. Even the operating system cannot. The rest of the address space is being used for IO mapping. The only real benefit you are getting is the extra 0.2GB of RAM.

Note that the PM965 chipset used in the M1530 doesn't actually support more than 4GB of RAM, even for 64-bit OSes. You'd be able to benefit from the full 4GB however.

Originally Posted by troywhite

If possible, I'd rethink that rethink and stick with what you are planning to do. Use XP now and wait for the next version of Windows beyond Vista.

Everything you mentioned will work with XP and the overall experience will be much quicker than with the standard Vista bloat.

Vista isn't bloated, it performs just fine on decent hardware. I totally agree it is not worth purchasing with anything but a new computer, but only because hardware becomes obsolete so fast, and the cheaper OEM copies are tied to a machine. The only real reason not to use it is existing applications which won't work (9 times out of 10 the fault of the application vendor, too). Having said that, if you're required to use applications which don't run well, sticking with XP is the prudent choice.

Originally Posted by dws1117

The only thing I'm curious about and wonder what the masses think is whether onboard basic graphics card is fine

Given that you specifically mentioned not playing games, then no, a dedicated graphics card is not really essential.

08-13-2008, 10:59 PM	#11
cpopham Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Auckland, New Zealand Gallery Photos: 0 Posts: 294	Originally Posted by daacon Leaning towards the XPS - I will re-look at vista. I run a lot or Oracle products and I think there is support now for oracle and vista. Business or ultimate. I dual boot Vista here now just have not run it for a while (pre SP1) originally ran into way too many issues (oracle, SSH clients, sftp clients, a plethora of VPN clients (Cisco, Citrix, Sonicwall, etc...) I think the XPS is the leading candidate for now - I can give Vista a shot and always go back to XP not that big a deal (4 or 5 hours to rebuild from scratch) Ah, Oracle, say no more. What I'm saying is that you should be aware that laptops like the M1530 have no officially supported XP drivers - you either have to cobble together your own set, or use one of the various unofficial sets floating around forums. Personally, I would find that more hastle than it is worth. If you're tied to XP by specific applications, then check out the Dell Vostro range - they're business machines so you can buy them with XP preinstalled. Originally Posted by daacon As for the 3 GB vs. 4 GB you are correct 32bit OS can only address a little over 3 but I thought an application like CS3 could take advantage? It's a pretty cheap upgrade ($100) to go from 3-4 and if I decide to go to a 64 bit OS at some point (be it Linux, Vista or if released before the machine becomes a boat anchor) Windows 2008. No, applications cannot take advantage of that memory. Even the operating system cannot. The rest of the address space is being used for IO mapping. The only real benefit you are getting is the extra 0.2GB of RAM. Note that the PM965 chipset used in the M1530 doesn't actually support more than 4GB of RAM, even for 64-bit OSes. You'd be able to benefit from the full 4GB however. Originally Posted by troywhite If possible, I'd rethink that rethink and stick with what you are planning to do. Use XP now and wait for the next version of Windows beyond Vista. Everything you mentioned will work with XP and the overall experience will be much quicker than with the standard Vista bloat. Vista isn't bloated, it performs just fine on decent hardware. I totally agree it is not worth purchasing with anything but a new computer, but only because hardware becomes obsolete so fast, and the cheaper OEM copies are tied to a machine. The only real reason not to use it is existing applications which won't work (9 times out of 10 the fault of the application vendor, too). Having said that, if you're required to use applications which don't run well, sticking with XP is the prudent choice. Originally Posted by dws1117 The only thing I'm curious about and wonder what the masses think is whether onboard basic graphics card is fine Given that you specifically mentioned not playing games, then no, a dedicated graphics card is not really essential.