New 1720, where to begin?

I'll be getting my new 1720 in a few weeks and would like some feedback on recommended activities (tweaks, optimizing, clean-up, etc.) for the first few days... This is my first new notebook in about 10 years. I'd say that my tweaking skills are somewhere between Novice and Intermediate but, I pick up pretty quickly.

Here's the configuration:
Dell Inspiron 1720
Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz/800MHz FSB/4MB cache)
256MB nVidia GeForce 8600M GT
3GB Shared Dual Channel SDRAM DDR2@667MHz
Blu-ray Disc Drive
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme PCExpress w/Surround Sound Dock
Vista Ultimate

I've come across the Top Windows Vista Tweaks You Can Find thread, and the Latop Vista Reformat to Remove Bloatware thread. I'm wondering if the board has some consensus in using these procedures when getting a new laptop?

I'll be using my 1720 as a Home Theater PC and for some light home office duties (web, e-mail, SQL data extraction, Office Pro suite).

Any other suggestions resources for optimizing performance? Thanks in advance for any help!

 

Clean install!!
The reformat thing.

It'll be good to start from scratch, and yes, use the top windows vista tweaks

 

first you dont have 3gb shared dual channel ram. its single channel.

Anyways, i would start first thing by popping in the vista dvd and installing it again. This way you only have the blank os. From there head to dells website, get all the drivers and stuff and install them. Then run windows update many times till no more appear.

Then install your software from there. After all that, run windows defrag and reboot when its done and run it again even if it tells you you dont need to. Then get ccleaner and run it. Don't do any of the reg fixes though, just the disk cleaner.

Anyways thats what i would do.

 

thats a nice machine with 3gig ram and the blue ray fella !

im awaiting delivery of the 1720 in my sig in the next few days,cant wait


ive just downloaded that cc cleaner on to this old beast im on at mo, ive had to borrow this from my folks for a week from when i sold my old laptop on friday, until i get my new one in a few days, its got a pentium 4 1.8 and a tnt riva 32mb card hahahah !! after using this for a week my new ones gonne be like heaven !


why would there be need to degrag the drive twiice after a clean install ? , also would it be worth it to run something like dariks boot nuke and completly erasing the hd before the new vista install to make it 100% clean ?

 

i wouldnt use boot nuke, its not nessary for this. use that if you have a terrible virus and are reinstalling, (although not really necessary) or if you are selling the laptop and then gonna reinstall.

but defragging after installing windows because windows doesnt install perfect bit from bit from the cd (ie copying it). it extracts pieces from the dvd then "unzips" the compressed files then copies them. Windows updates further cause fragmentation and so does your software installations. Basically anytime you put something new on your machine (software wise) or take anything off of it, it is likely to get a little more fragemented

 

ok thanks man, i know about that, but just wondered why you said twice ?

when i do a re install i normaly get the machine 100% as i want with all drivers and everything working, then all my music/pics and software etc, then defrag it just the once, i normaly use registry mechanic aswell to keep the registry clean,does that work on vista or are there any better registry progs to use ?

how long does a vista install take then roughly compared with xp ? ,i wont bother doing the dariks then, i did it on the machine i just sold,as i always do when selling a machine,and it took forever to do 100gig

 

Thanks for the feedback nizzy. I copied word for word the description of RAM from Dell's spec's... I'm not doubting you, it just seems odd that Dell would list it one way, when it's really another? Would the performance be better or worse with 2Gb Dual?

 

i was just having a little nosey on the dell site, i put my service tag in and im just downloading all the latest drivers for my machine so its all ready

and ...i thought id check my delivery status, and ive just near cum in my pants ,it has already been sent out, and i checked on the couriers track and trace and it was somwhere or other today and said its expected to be delivered tomorrow !!!! its made my day,i cant believe it

 

Argh... who's the dolt who configured his notebook with 3Gb Single Channel... ya, that's me. So I could expect a 10%-15% drop in performance based on my costly error. I guess I'll wait until it arrives and see how A/V duties are impacted.

Worse case scenario, a quick look at newegg suggests that I can get 2Gb for ~$50 and 4Gb for ~$120.

Either way, I feel like a fool.

 

Hi,
I've just bought the vostro 1700, and now I'm not sure whether I have single or shared dual channel..
3072 MB 667 MHz Dual-Channel DDR2 SDRAM (1x1024 MB + 1x2048)
can someone reassure me please? I know it says dualchannel, but so did the original posters specifications...

 

The memory does run in dual channel but it does it in a strange fashion.

If you have 3gb, the first 1gb portion of ram on the 2gb stick will run in dual channel with the single 1gb stick, the second 1gb portion of the 2gb stick will run in single channel mode.

In other news, holy thread revival batman!

 

Thanks -- I guess that means it's okay? What would happen if and when I ever upgrade to 4GB? I'm not a gamer, but I do use voice operated software, hence the need for speed.

 

Then both sticks of ram will run in full speed proper dual channel mode.