I Just don't have the Power Jim!!!

Dudes,

ive got an XPS M1710, 2.16ghz, 2gb RAM, 100mb 5400rpm, GeForce 7950GTX and.....dun dun durrr... VISTA.

In short, Vista sucks. i can hardly play any of my games to the standard akin to a set up as powerful as mine. Dell have agreed to send out a copy of XP to me in the post as ive been *****in to them for so long about selling a high end games machine with an OS that saps most of your RAM, effectively rendering the so called high end games machine useless.

I also want to upgrade my memory, as this 5400rpm is a slow ass thing. I wanna combine downgrading to XP with having a bigger hard drive.

so,

1) Any recommendations for a new hard drive for my Dell?

2) Will there be any issues with Dell aftercare if I upgrade?

3) Am I stupid to downgrade to an OS that will let me play games and use the system as intended? (Im an amateur photographer too so need PS to work nice n smooth)

Thanks for any help in advance.

Another pissed off Vista owner aka Chris.

 

1. Any 7200 RPM drive. They only improve load times, not frame rates.
2. Not unless you screw up the install.
3. No, that is not the reason why you're stupid.

 

expand on this please.

 

? You clearly set yourself up for that, and me being me couldn't resist?

 

Lol, gotta love lithus.

1) 7200s like Lith said. Though they are cough overrated cough.
2) Shouldn't be.
3) I love bold exuberant statements like "rendering so called high end gaming machines useless." Not to make this into a vista support thread but did you do a clean install? That can get you alot of performance and ram depending on how much crap is pre-installed. Also vista takes some time to acclimate to how you use your laptop. Lastly you said upgrade memory when you meant upgrade HD.

 

My friend alex has a similar xps 1710, only his has the 2.33ghz processor. He has vista and he plays games all of the time. He is a wow addict, and he had his dad buy the xps for him so that he can game and study. Clearly games took over and he does not study.
Anyways, his framerates are high in vista, could be better with xp, but its not my system. ALex has a hitachi 7k200 200gb harddrive in his laptop, and it makes it pretty fast.

I also own 2 200gb 7200rpm hitachi 7k200's, and they are very good drives. They are on the expensive side, but a 7k200 will definitely boost system performance. the 7k200 is the fastest notebook harddrive on the market today.

K-TRON

 

@ Lithus - fair play, but a smilie wouldnt have gone amiss!

@ forerunner - Ive done everything but a clean install, I fear i am too incompetent to do a full "clean install" as you say. I have removed all the shareware crap/free crap ran numerous reg cleaners/CCleaner daily/minimal programs.

This isnt the first time ive heard the words "have you done a clean install".. Im starting to think i may have to do it. Any guidelines on here you could point me in the direction of?

cheers guys.

 

Both of these should work.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=144783
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=188992

They are for Lenovos/IBMs but the gist should be there.

 

1 If I had a choice of a new HD, I would take the same one I have now unless theres a 320GB "7200rpm" HD.

Google "vista tweaks" and you'll find a lot of help, you'll easly find a few days worth of reading depending on how fancy you get.

I dual boot vista64 and xp pro and I find in actual use I don't have much performance difference(and it goes both ways); and if I benchmark the, difference in most cases are not really to noticable.

I hate some aspects of vista becasue of folder layouts, mp3 cueing(hate media player, highjacks options) Blah Blah and somethings I like. The general amount of babysitting I have to do to get vista running acceptable is unacceptable overall for a product with a big price tag.

To hate something you have to have full access to something to prove if it really sucks, thats why I keep it, just in case I forget. "think for your self or forum posters wil do it for you" <- just made that up