Sat Oct 06, 2007 10:03 am
New Laptop (OT Thread nuked)
Okies, this here is the original thread rolled into one post, since I nuked the thread in OT.
Original Post
Yay, I just got a new laptop. It's a nice, shiny, serious - so no games, damn kids - and reasonably good value (I think).
Linky
Overall, it seems to be very well done. The wireless card has better reception than the PCI card with the enormous aerial that I stuck in my main computer (for all the good it does me) and it has all sorts of peripheral sockets whose purpose no normal person could ever hope to understand (Ok, I made that up but I'm someone who doesn't really understand things if they don't stick onto a motherboard). On the other hand, I don't know what the keyboard designer was smoking. The Fn key is on the end of the keyboard, instead of the Ctrl key. It's really awkward to use any of the classic keyboard shortcuts.
I had to buy XP Pro seperately because I didn't trust them not to put Vista x64 on and that would leave me with a work laptop that couldn't run most work programs.
I would've downloaded Open Office but then Microsoft came along and offered me a copy of Office Ultimate 2007 for the princely sum of £40. That's about half the price of Student Office '03 so I went and bought it.
I then spend around 3 hours downloading the various media codecs and all that, along with ZoneAlarm (on Taw's advice). I went and bought the whole security suite because I didn't want to buy a seperate license for AV software. (Inevitably, that will result in much shaking of the head, but I think the interface is fun).
Now, I just have to figure out how to migrate my entire collection of downloaded video and music - roughly 80GB - from the hard drives on my PC (which currently doesn't work - ooops) onto my laptop. Additionally, I need to find a way of reclaiming bandwidth from all the peons that live in and around my Halls. 10KB/s is NOT a reasonable speed. Any suggested solutions to these problems are greatly appreciated - though please don't recommend physical violence for the latter - even if I kill everyone, more people will just move in.
Taw's Reply
hardware forum, TET!
you could have saved money on the XP purchase as Vista is licenced for "downgrade" to XP. Your broken hard drive is a problem; does it not work at all, or just not boot? if the latter, then you can slave it to another drive and get your stuff off like that.
the connections you don't know about are probably things like those little iLink Firewire ports, and other stuff for AV work.
My subsequent reply
Sorry, I suppose it should have gone in Hardware... I wasn't paying attention at the time, mea culpa.
Anyway, I can't boot the computer up (I described the problem in my "Computer Doesn't Work" thread) and I don't fancy poking around inside my laptop to see if there's some kind of SATA connection I can plug into. I guess it isn't a major problem, I'll just give it to my parents to take to the only PC guy I trust not to screw me (they're coming round next weekend - I swear they don't trust me or something) and have him fix it.
I'm not entirely sure what possessed me to make this thread, I guess I just felt like boasting that I have a new shiny thing.
End
not quite - thank you for moving this to the hardware forum! my moving buttons broken, i can only edit, delete, or lock, and you know I only ever lock threads by Esq.
Edited by - Tawakalna on 10/6/2007 11:50:05 AM
Original Post
Yay, I just got a new laptop. It's a nice, shiny, serious - so no games, damn kids - and reasonably good value (I think).
Linky
Overall, it seems to be very well done. The wireless card has better reception than the PCI card with the enormous aerial that I stuck in my main computer (for all the good it does me) and it has all sorts of peripheral sockets whose purpose no normal person could ever hope to understand (Ok, I made that up but I'm someone who doesn't really understand things if they don't stick onto a motherboard). On the other hand, I don't know what the keyboard designer was smoking. The Fn key is on the end of the keyboard, instead of the Ctrl key. It's really awkward to use any of the classic keyboard shortcuts.
I had to buy XP Pro seperately because I didn't trust them not to put Vista x64 on and that would leave me with a work laptop that couldn't run most work programs.
I would've downloaded Open Office but then Microsoft came along and offered me a copy of Office Ultimate 2007 for the princely sum of £40. That's about half the price of Student Office '03 so I went and bought it.
I then spend around 3 hours downloading the various media codecs and all that, along with ZoneAlarm (on Taw's advice). I went and bought the whole security suite because I didn't want to buy a seperate license for AV software. (Inevitably, that will result in much shaking of the head, but I think the interface is fun).
Now, I just have to figure out how to migrate my entire collection of downloaded video and music - roughly 80GB - from the hard drives on my PC (which currently doesn't work - ooops) onto my laptop. Additionally, I need to find a way of reclaiming bandwidth from all the peons that live in and around my Halls. 10KB/s is NOT a reasonable speed. Any suggested solutions to these problems are greatly appreciated - though please don't recommend physical violence for the latter - even if I kill everyone, more people will just move in.
Taw's Reply
hardware forum, TET!
you could have saved money on the XP purchase as Vista is licenced for "downgrade" to XP. Your broken hard drive is a problem; does it not work at all, or just not boot? if the latter, then you can slave it to another drive and get your stuff off like that.
the connections you don't know about are probably things like those little iLink Firewire ports, and other stuff for AV work.
My subsequent reply
Sorry, I suppose it should have gone in Hardware... I wasn't paying attention at the time, mea culpa.
Anyway, I can't boot the computer up (I described the problem in my "Computer Doesn't Work" thread) and I don't fancy poking around inside my laptop to see if there's some kind of SATA connection I can plug into. I guess it isn't a major problem, I'll just give it to my parents to take to the only PC guy I trust not to screw me (they're coming round next weekend - I swear they don't trust me or something) and have him fix it.
I'm not entirely sure what possessed me to make this thread, I guess I just felt like boasting that I have a new shiny thing.
End
not quite - thank you for moving this to the hardware forum! my moving buttons broken, i can only edit, delete, or lock, and you know I only ever lock threads by Esq.
Edited by - Tawakalna on 10/6/2007 11:50:05 AM
I guess "reappropriate" would've been a better word to use.
