Congrats to me... P-6860 FX owner

I haven't seen much of the Gateway users here (because I am mostly at the Alienware thread -- I miss those guys).

So, I just got my P-6860 FX for $1,299 that came with a free game and some BB Geek Squad Service (so it's still at BB, and I'll get it after an hour).



The first thing you guys do is a clean install of Vista, which I doubt I'll do because the P-6860 FX doesn't come with the OS cd (I am not sure, either). And in this thread I saw someone pointing out the massive post regarding tweaking Vista and some useful applications, so I might do it.

The thing I am thinking of is the clean install of Vista. does it come with a recovery partition, or recovery cds with the crapware and drivers?




I have the XP OS cd here, which I plan to use for a dual boot.







Sorry, too excited to check, so I might as well ask... Any suggestions on where to start when I get the unit? (I plan to take a video of its "unboxing" though I won't post it, lol)


thanks thanks

 

Congrats .......................

 

your right, it doesn't come with an os cd.... it comes with 32/64 bit vista clean install dvd. do not lose this dvd because it's pre-activated.

glad to see you finally got it. your gonna love it.

 

Congrats! How is it so far? How's the screen?

 

OMG! But how are you going to show off your precious Alienware now? I'm just jerking your leg about mentioning that you wanted an Alienware because owning one was special in the Philippines.

Don't think you can do that with a Gateway, but you can certainly show off its performance.

 

The Gateway comes with an OEM Home Premium CD, it is an OS CD. The CD also isn't pre-acitivated, just a regular OEM OS CD which requires a code.

 

yeah... I'm loving it.


btw, if I do dual-boot, can I have this configuration?

C: Vista Installation Directory (around 15GB)
D: space for programs (around 280GB)
E: XP Installation Directory (around 15GB)


can I install programs on the D: or should I install the programs specifically for Vista on C: and XP on E:?


are there going to be conflicts with programs for Vista and XP sharing the same D: partition? thanks.



and about my 8800M GTS score, why is it rated at 1.0? it says only 18MB of RAM. what nVidia software should I get? thanks.



-albert two

 

you need a new display driver

here is a guide
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=225829

after installing this driver you will probably 5.9 or 5.8


and personally i would suggest to run a single OS unless you are good at tweaking computers. i know mac computers are pretty good at dual booting though

 

just a suggestion...but i would make the vista and xp partitions big enough to hold each operating system/all drivers/all software going to be installed under each partition (meaning installers & not just being installed in to the computer)
and store a back up of each partition. i use my second hard drive for this. (software and an initial back up of system) you would use partition d. or dvd backs up's of each system. then start loading it up and having fun!

 

can I just put it this way? (please note if it will yield to slow or unstable perfromance)

C: Vista installation only
D: programs for both Vista and XP
E: XP installation only



will there be some conflicts?

 

where did you get 3 HDs?

 

just 3 partitions mate... maybe I'll just have two, one for Vista OS and apps, another for XP OS and apps.

 

yes. that is fine. no conflicts

 

what else should I do? I mean, are there other essential steps to follow?



i got some ugly-looking gadgets... lol

 

and yeah, what 64-bit anti-virus is available now? how come the nod32 3.0 does not work with my 64-bit OS? but in their website, it says it does support 64-bit.

 

here is how you should set it up, as Vista will grow on you, and you will use XP less and less and less....

1) Vista (period)
2) XP (period)
3) programs, My Documents folders, everything.

4) install all programs under XP. this makes vista boot uber fast, and much more responsive than the xp counterpart.

 

AVG is 64bit compatible, free, low system usage, and is rated very high by many computer mags, and sites, I use it on all my machines. look for ver 8.0 free version

 

ok... I'll try that. as of now, I am experimenting with different partitions (my 3rd clean install in less than 10hrs, lol)



any antivirus suggestions (my utorrent is waiting ).

 

Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0 or NOD32. I wouldn't go any other way.

 

alberttwomi remember I told you to go for gateway since day 1?
Kaspersky is the best. most powerful but also lightest.

 

I hope I could give you a rep for a good guess since day 1.


right now, I went to a dual-boot, but XP has no sound. I wonder why. I can't find any sound drivers as I don't know the hardware in it. any help?

 

have you go through the XP guide in this section?
this might help: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=241257

 

just upgrade the processor

 

hey... I have a lot of questions regarding the P-6860.

first, I did a dual-boot. I installed my games on XP (drive D .

when I restarted and used Vista, I tried to open the game directory (drive D , inserted the game disc, and viola, it played the game.

I heard that there were some compatibility issues with Vista running dx9 games. does this have to do with the game being installed on XP, then running it at Vista? or can I just directly install it on Vista instead of having XP installed?

**the reason I did a dual-boot with XP is that because I wanted to play some dx9 games (which run smoothly when on XP).





another question: on my older desktop with integrated graphics (GMA900), the max resolution for Need for Speed Underground 2 was way higher than 1024x768, but when I played it on XP and Vista this morning, I only had 3 resolution choices with 1024x768 being the highest resolution.

I also tried FSX on Vista yesterday, and it only has a maximum resolution of 1024x768, and does not even support higher widescreen resolution.

I wonder if this has something to dowith the driver? the games don't look pretty at 1024x768, especially if they're running on a powerful card. I hope I can get the higher res, as I was expecting good eye-candy.





third question: I did a clean install, but forgot to back-up some useful Gateway software. are there chances I could get the other factory-preinstalled software somewhere in the net?

or you guys can just send me the installer.





thanks people

 

look for windows.old in your c-drive, it is the copy of your old setup.

and i got red alert 2 and warcraft 3 to work on the 6860. most games should be compatible if you have the correct version of directx.

 

there is no windows.old in there... should it still be there after a clen install? I did 3 clean installs already, 4th later.


thanks for your reply.

 

how bout the reso issue I am having with games? I can't look for solutions over the net.

 

How did you configure vista to be in the boot directory without the cd? Or did you use the recovery disk? Thanks