*HP HDX DRAGON Owners Lounge, Part 1*

I use dual (I guess now will be triple with Windows 7) booting so I don't need VM..can't use it for what I'm trying to do anyways..no 64bit drivers for my DVR recording software for one thing. But yea I I guess I do a lot of heavy stuff with my HDX. I'll also use IE for stuff that wont show properly on Firefox at the same time with using Firefox with a bazillion tabs and addons on both as well. Could you explain a little on how one could eliminate the page file and why one would want to do that please? Yea I noticed the difference in moving ISO as well.

Where'd you get the x9000 from if I may ask? I'm ticked that someone bought the one 2.8 I was looking at off Ebay..:/ I hope they post some more on there with top specs. Was it a retail processor or engineering sample?

Thats exactly what I wanted to do with trying to buy the top specs on the HDX in the first place to make sure I get as much life out of it as possible without feeling pressure to have to upgrade anything or as few things as possible...till of course they took the x9000 off the site after 1-2 months of it being up there for cto.. Right now I'm trying to debate whether I want to get a 2x Blu Ray or 4x for around the same price..the 4x one has no chance of working inside the HDX BUT its faster...so I dunno. Anyone have any input either way? They both have enclosures you can get so just in case the 2x wont work inside I can use it in an enclosure..the only thing thats cool is with the 2X I have the potential to be able to have it INSIDE the HDX, and I believe you can also use HD DVDs in it as well as Blu Ray besides the Blu Ray burning benefit. If I can get this then I can start buying all Blu Ray DVDs, switch my Blockbuster rentals to Blu Ray, and back up the ones I own..besides backup a bazillion things on one disk instead of many DVDs.

 

I wonder why people can use the HDX18 bios updates for their HDX that actually fixes things but we get the stupid one that blows most people HDXs up..:/

 

F.40 E installed successfully here since Oct/Nov 2008, with no problems at all. Problems usually occur when people do not follow the update instructions, including running the update when they have resumed from hibernation or sleep and not waiting for the updater to complete, which can sometimes be very slow as if the system hanged.

 

He meant 3D graphics (e.g., in games); that's what 3DMark tests, not video/DVD playback.

 

Hi. Could someone comment about my previous post where, on an ATI HD 2600 XT and Windows 7, when using other resolution than the native of the LCD, the screen wouldn't get stretched and 2 black bars would appear at the sides to compensate (stays in 4:3)? Do someone with the same setting suffer the same?

I tried downloading latest ATI W7 drivers to see if there was an option or something to stretch the image, and what I found was that option in the "Basic Menu" to stretch the display to fit the screen (Catalyst\Notebook Panel Properties\Resize the desktop to fit the display panel\) and there, all of the three options presented were the same; no matter which I chose, the screen would remain with the bars at the sides. Also, no matter which option I selected, the setting would be at "Resize but keep the original aspect ratio" when I came back to that screen (as if the option I picked wasn't "staying" there).

I then noticed, after reading the releases notes that a known listed issue is " Catalyst Control Center: Image Scaling settings might not be applied". Is that talking about the option I wrote above? And if so, do you think that ATI will (soon) fix this in a new release for Windows 7?


Thanks.

 

1. your issue is not seen with the NVIDIA 8800M GTS
2. have you tried an older/ Vista driver for your ATI (Vista drivers support Aero under Win7)? Newer drivers are not necessarily better in every respect. The choice is yours depending on how you are using/prefering your system to behave.
3. have you tried the latest Win7 Build 7077 x64 (with ATI's Win7-WDDM1.1 and ATI Vista-WDDM1.0 drivers)?

 

You updated your HDX 9000 with the BIOS update? If so have you noticed any differences? I don't know what it was supposed to fix. Though I have seen people in the HDX18 forum report noticable fixes to their notebook when they did their BIOS update.

 

First of all all I have to say is WOW. This thread is probably the most usefull source of HDX Dragon information in the entire internet!!! I have looked for information everywhere and nothing scratches the surface the way this thread does thanks to all of the hdx enthusiasts on here!

Well considering that there is hundreds of pages on this thread it can be a bit overwhelming for a noob on this forum such as myself. But I decided to stick it out and read through several pages and it was probably the best thing I have done since I registered on here and would recommend that anyone that is new to the forum with questions do so also. I still have a good 400 pages to read through but I am sure glad this is available here!

2.0 I am really amazed on how knowledgeable you are and would like to take the time to ask you for your advice.

I found by accident an HDX9000T CTO on ebay for 650.00 dollars new, sealed and in the box. I was originally looking for a 17" hp laptop untill I ran into this laptop. Based on everyone responces on this forum I decided to goahead and purchase it. The seller has been a member on ebay since 2004, has 100% feedback and has sold numerous hdx dragons with excellent feedback from the winners of the auctions, bought it via paypal and the fact that he gives me 7 days to refund it and has a 1 year warranty via hp sealed the deal.

Anyhow here are the specs of the laptop:

This notebook is a CTO (configured to Order) notebook PC.

Features:
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T7700 @ 2.40GHz
Storage: 240GB (2)120 GB 5400 RPMHard Drives
Memory: 3072MB DDR2 @mhz (1X2048) (1x1024)
Display - 20.1" WSXGA Brightview Display w/Authentec Fingerprint Security
Optical Drive - Super Multi 8X DVD+/-R/RW DL
Video Card: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 XT w/ Integrated WebCam and Microphone
Operating System - Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64


I was looking to spend about 1000 to 1200 dollars on a laptop so I have give or take 600+ dollars left to upgrade this thing.

I was thinking about buying:

* 2 Segate 320GB hard drives from tigerdirect as you indicated previously.
* This thing apparently has a penryn so was thinking of a X9100 (you mentioned before that this is capable right?)
* 8 Gigs of Corsair Ram
* and a online retailer claims that the HDX9000T CTO can handle an ATI or Nvidia graphics card (is that true) so I was thinking about the 454311-001.

An odd thing about the 454311-001 is that HP had two of the same models listed for 2 prices... check it out!

http://h20141.www2.hp.com/hpparts/C...QTE155839F0B&NotBulk=&NotFound=&NotOrderable=

and

http://h20141.www2.hp.com/hpparts/S...55839F0B&SearchInc=PartNumber&PageName=Header

same model or items but one is 76 and the other one is 387?!?! whats up with that?!! lol

Do you guys think that configuration work? Also I am not planning on touching this thing. I would much rather spend 100 bucks and take it to geeksquad.

Anyway I would appreciate your advice as I would like to future proof this machine as best as possible since I have some cash left over and will be using this machine for sound design, video editing and graphic design.

Thanks for reading and I also welcome anyone elses comments and experiences on upgrading this laptop!

 

Somewhat noticeably faster initial boot screen--the one with HP, NVIDIA and Intel logos (especially if you have a disk in your Blu-Ray drive and many plugged USB devices), otherwise I didn't notice any change or regression. Official page only states 'Improves the security of pre-boot authentication (BIOS based) passwords by clearing data from volatile memory.'

 

Thats all? Yea don't think I'm going to be trying that any time soon. My boot time is anywhere around 20-60 seconds depending on what you count as fully booting up as I use a password and fingerprint to log into Windows.

 

First, Thanks and congrats. Nice find and deal.

Definitely get the Seagate 7200RPM 320 GB's. It's the fastest HDD right now. I just bought another one this week. I was looking at Seagate's 500GB but I'd like to see some competition first to get the price more in line. Only Seagate makes a 7200 RPM 500GB HDD right now. Western Digital, Toshiba and Hitachi will be coming out with one.

8GB RAM will be hard to find. The G.Skill is the best - both price-wise and performance but are hard to come by. If you can't find a reasonable price for the RAM, consider dropping in a 2GB stick now to bring it to 4GB (Dual channel sync works better than async 3GB). Then later if you really think you need 8GB, you'll only find it cheaper.

As for CPU, X9000 is the max. X9100 might work but because of the multiplier will run much slower than rated speed. If you can't find a good X9000 at a decent price, consider a T9300(2.5Ghz) or T9600(2.6ghz). Both of them are significantly faster than the Santa Rosa Merom T7700 you have in there now. And the X9000 is only about 10% and 5% faster than those respectively. Also note, you can't overclock the X9000 in the HDX because the means to do so do not exist. That was Intel's main selling point for the X9000. You're paying for an unlocked multiplier which you can't use in the HDX. Being able to overclock to 3.2Ghz+ would yield respectable gains over a T9300 and T9600.

As for the GPU, that's a tough call. Only one motherboard (464591-001) can use both cards. That motherboard started on HDX9200s. If your BIOS says that it's and HDX9200, then you would be able to upgrade to a 8800M GTS.

As for the discrepancy in GPU pricing, don't know what to make of it. Not enough info to tell. Might have to roll the dice and get the $75 dollar one. Make sure they have a return policy just in case it not what they listed.

Lastly, as for letting Geeksquad install various parts, make sure you download and print out pages 31-82 of the HDX users manual and give it to them with the notebook. There's a link to it on page 100 of Blacknight's post. Opening up the HDX is not intuitive.

 

awesome and thanks for all of your advice! Im going to take your recommendations and roll with them!

 

is this the ram you recommended? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231202

and i found a dealer on ebay that has several x9000

http://cgi.ebay.com/Intel-Core-2-Extreme-Mobile-X9000-ES-2-8GHz-6MB-45nm_W0QQitemZ110328647235QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item110328647235&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A16|39%3A1|240%3A1318

is that the correct chip that will work with this laptop?

Thanks again for all your help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

That's the one. But they've been out of stock for sometime. The Corsair RAM runs slower with 6-6-6-18 clocks but that's at 800mhz.

That's one, but it's an Engineering Sample (ES). Intel never released these to the public as they were only used for rigorous testing. Some have flaws and don't report proper temps. They're not for resale to public or OEM. (Technically they are illegal to sell to the public.) Some have good luck with ES chips, others don't. I'm not going to recommend either way. The other thing about ES chips is that they don't have the same core stepping as a retail chip does and tend to run a little slower. Retail/RTM (release to manufacturing) versions (which do not have ES in the unit code) or even "pulls" of retail/RTM go for 50% to 100% more in price but run according to spec with all the flaws of the ES ironed out.

Best bet for long term peace of mind and top spec perfromance is to get RTM/Retail CPUs. They start with unit codes "SL". Engineering samples start with "Q."

In that regard, you might be better off with a T9500 (SLAPW) as a top chip. 200mhz slower than the X9000 which means practically nothing. There is no future proofing past T9300/T9500 since the performance gains between them and X9000 are negligible. Seriously diminishing returns. But whatever you decide to get from T9300 on up will be like night and day performance-wise compared to what you have in there now.

It's just too bad that Intel changed the bus speed in Montevina. We could have been rockin' those chips for some serious perf gains down the road. Even quad core which would have been bloody righteous. They're all socket P, just different multipliers.

 

I haven't tried the today x64 7077 but I'm downloading it right now. Although I don't have my hopes up for it to fix this...

I've tried older Vista drivers also and they crashed the OS, so there are a no-go.

 

Have you tried this - officially supports Win7:
Released: 09 April 2009

AMD released version 9.4 of their ATI video card driver package.

These drivers include the following:

* ATI Catalyst 9.4 includes a new ATI Overdrive™ auto-tune application to accurately determine the best over-clocked engine and memory values for ATI Overdrive supported ATI Radeon™ Graphics accelerators


View: Release notes http://www2.ati.com/relnotes/Catalyst_94_release_notes.pdf
Download: ATI Catalyst 9.4 driver http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx

 

Yes... that are the one I've tried and its release notes are the ones that say " Catalyst Control Center: Image Scaling settings might not be applied". There's a difference though in installing them vs using native W7 drivers. If I go with W7 drivers, the 1024*768 is a little square in the middle of the screen (no stretching at all), but if I install the ATI drivers, the image stretches but keeping the aspect ratio (still doesn't cover the whole screen, but it's better than W7 native). What I would need is the full stretch, without keeping the aspect ratio, as that would fill the whole screen.

 

Do a search in ebay for 4GB GSkill Laptop Memory and you'll either find 2 of mine starting at $199 or someone elses. I wasn't sure if the Geeksquad did this..doesn't sound like a bad plan actually..

 

In seeing all these peeps put together their own upgrades, and because you are cost conscious I was just thinking...though I didn't want to do this, if I can get the GeekSquad to do it, I wa wondering which HDX would be best to buy as the way to upgrade it to an X9000 and the best NVIDIA I can put in there? I know I was thinking of possibly getting an SXGA but I'm thinking I want a UXGA because I may give this one to my girlfriend if I do this..though I don't know that that would have to factor in my question..what you thinks?

 

If you are referring to HDX 9000 series, you're stuck at Nvidia 8800M GTS for a number of technical reasons. If you don't plan on gaming much, WUXGA pairs nicely with the 8800M GTS. If you plan on gaming, it's a mis-match. 8800M GTS is a very capable gaming GPU when paired with the proper resolution. I'm playing Crysis @ native with a few high settings - rest on medium. Same with Warhead. Getting ~24 FPS. That wouldn't bode well at all for a WUXGA. FPS would be in the teens. I pick those games as an illustration of future gaming life of the HDX. 8800M GTS paired with WSXGA+ should have about another year and a half, two years of gaming at native res with medium settings. CPU won't factor in since most games are not CPU dependent once the CPU/GPU bottleneck is past which starts with the T8300.

If you're think of getting an HDX 9000 with an ATI in it, that's a risky proposition unless you can verify two things ahead of time:

1. The motherboard part number. (Generally, HDX 9200 and up have the right mobo. Select few 9100's may have it since they existed at the tip of the 8800M GTS's debut.)
2. Supply of the 8800M GTS.

You're probably better off getting an HDX with an 8800M GTS but with low mem, small/slow HDDs(you want 2 so the 2nd's bracket is there) and a Merom CPU (they start with T7xxx). This way, it's only a matter of upgrading HDDs, RAM, Optical drive and CPU.

Don't sell yourself short, you could probably replace the CPU yourself. It may take you a bit longer than 4 hours to do it - but if you're careful and use both the service manual and the HP video's you'd do fine. And just think of the sense of accomplishment you'd gain.

 

Nice add BTW. You can post this in the NBR market place for more exposure.

And since peeps have asked for it, you can post the link to it in this thread. It's not spamming when it's requested.

 

The G.SKILL 4GB sticks are back in stock at Newegg after all these months!

If anyone is wanting 8GB of RAM for a great price, you can't go wrong with these!

 

Hey, I've been debating for the past week whether to get a refurbished HDX Dragon on E-Bay or a new HDX18t. I work 72 hour shifts and like to take my computer to work so I pretty much just need a mobile desk top replacement so its feels like I'm one of the few people the Dragon was made for.

Anyway, I was just curious if you all were still stoked enough on your Dragons to recommend that I join the club or whether I should just get an 18.4"

I'd like to say I need this machine for something useful but I'm really just mostly looking to play games and watch HDTV and blu-ray movies (sometimes on monitor, sometimes HDMI to big screen TV) so I'm looking at about 250$ less for an 18.4" with very similar specs but brand new... but slightly? worse graphics card. If I do go with the 18" I can get a 7200 hard drive which I can't seem to find with the 20. Does that really matter since I'd love to add a SSD someday?

Anyway, I realize I'm like one of those guys who wants to drive a huge four wheel drive truck he's never really going to take off road, but who are you to judge me! Any advice would be appreciated.

 

and even better (I mean oops) they are in stock @ newegg.ca ...
I appear to have bought 2.

 

If you are referring to HDX 9000 series, you're stuck at Nvidia 8800M GTS for a number of technical reasons. If you don't plan on gaming much, WUXGA pairs nicely with the 8800M GTS. If you plan on gaming, it's a mis-match. 8800M GTS is a very capable gaming GPU when paired with the proper resolution. I'm playing Crysis @ native with a few high settings - rest on medium. Same with Warhead. Getting ~24 FPS. That wouldn't bode well at all for a WUXGA. FPS would be in the teens. I pick those games as an illustration of future gaming life of the HDX. 8800M GTS paired with WSXGA+ should have about another year and a half, two years of gaming at native res with medium settings. CPU won't factor in since most games are not CPU dependent once the CPU/GPU bottleneck is past which starts with the T8300.

If you're think of getting an HDX 9000 with an ATI in it, that's a risky proposition unless you can verify two things ahead of time:

1. The motherboard part number. (Generally, HDX 9200 and up have the right mobo. Select few 9100's may have it since they existed at the tip of the 8800M GTS's debut.)
2. Supply of the 8800M GTS.

You're probably better off getting an HDX with an 8800M GTS but with low mem, small/slow HDDs(you want 2 so the 2nd's bracket is there) and a Merom CPU (they start with T7xxx). This way, it's only a matter of upgrading HDDs, RAM, Optical drive and CPU.


Ok wait..uncrosses eyes..lol. Jk..kinda. I'm looking for a way to make a cheap lower spec HDX able to upgrade to the best possible specs.. An ATI wouldn't fit in that scenario right? If theres something better than an X9000 than that will be good, but whichever will definitely work is better..I don't want the hassel of having to sell something that doesn't work out. Ideally I'd like to get a 2.8GHZ, either with all the best specs or with low specs in memory, dual hard drives and any other thing I can easy replace that I can't think of without having to do surgery on it...

LOL...riiight. I dunno man...LOL... ok I'll stop. MAYBE if there's a way to download the videos I might consider doing it....maybe..

 

I aint not nos that. Will do. Didn't know they had one. Thanks.

 

In my hdx 9280el, x9000 es don't boot e don't work. i installed t9500.

fp r the ram i have a kingston hyperx x 667 cl4 e work with a bios f40 E at cl4

 

Hi,

I have had my HDX for some time now.
Using it with 32bit VIsta.

I went to look at my Win Experience Index and it seems that RAM is the slowest component of all.

CPU: 5.4
Primary HD: 5.7
Gaming Graphics 5.8
Graphics: 5.9
RAM: 5.1

According to CPU-Z I have 2 modules by Samsung: PC2-5300 333MHz.

What would you recommend I do to improve RAM performance?

Basically, I am not going to movew on to 64bit version of the OS and just trying to upgrade my machine. I have had it for a year now and intend to keep it for another 2 years (at least) so I am also thinking about upgrading the CPU later on.

 

Nothing really. But if you want a 1%-3% in RAM speed you an look into getting some Kingston HyperX memory that has 4-4-4-12 timing. That Samsung you have has 5-5-5-15 timings. The Kingston HyperX 4GB kit will run you around $40 US.

But at the end of the day, the WEI score is not all that useful. Find other memory benchmarking software like Sisoft's Sandra.

 

Wow, I was just on the site yesterday. Good looking out!

Edit: that was fast....

 

On Windows 7 (7077), your current Samsung RAM WEI will be 6.2-6.4 (max. is now 7.9), and your hard disk will become your lowest scoring component at 5.7 (not changed in Win7, though the max. is now 7.9). (Your CPU will probably score around 6.)

 

I got mine of EBay. If you keep looking occasionally an OEM x9000 will show up. That is what I got. ES are also an option, but you take a risk with them.

If you do get an ES make sure it is "Q174". That is the final version. All the temp sensors work and all features work. One thing different is that in most CPU utilities (Including windows sys info) there will be an ES on the end. Any earlier version you risk instability and no temp sensors.

 

Thanks for the info man. Hmm..if I had a choice between an OEM and ES Q174 then which would be better to get you think? Or has anyone tried or will they try the X9100?

 

OEM as that is the RTM(release to manufacture) version. But a Q174 would be cheaper and veritably as good.

 

I have a C0 ES and no issues. I'd say the stepping is more important than timestamp.

 

Well I just installed 7077 and it's still the same; the screen doesn't get stretched when in lower resolutions, and the black side bars appear.

Now, why does this happen? Is it a driver issue? Why with Microsoft included ATI drivers (that show as WDMM 1.1) it still doesn't work as it did in Vista? Is there / would be there any way to fix this in the future?

 

How much more is it usually..? And does veritably so/very much as good mean mean identically good but just different source and or branding or does it still lack something the OEM may have that the Q174 doesn't?

 

BTW anyone interested in the 500GB Seagate 7200.4 Hard Drives for $134 they're selling it here: http://www.onsale.com/shop/detail~d...-500GB+7200RPM+16MB+BUFFER++SERIAL+ATA+I.aspx

That's where I bought them from they're a branch of ClubMac, and they work great.

 

This is an issue for ATI to fix, since NVIDIA and even Intel GMA950 don't have this issue under Windows 7.
Personally, when I watch Blu-Ray I prefer the 1080p display with two horizontal 60px black bars (top and bottom) on WUXGA, since Blu-Ray is 16:9 while WUXGA is 16:10. "Stretching" Blu-Ray to fill the screen would distort the picture. However, for games running at lower-than-native resolution, stretching/scaling to full screen is usually nice especially when the lower resolution is also 16:10.

 

No it doesn't - My 32" Aquos has both Stretch and Super Stretch configurations, and I watch BD's regularly, as well as HD programming from both PSN and Comcast sources. Stretching of a 4:3 format is distorted somewhat, like it used to be when Cinemascope was played on 4:3 screens many years ago. But an HD picture stretched to fill an HD display? Since there's not that much to "stretch", you don't see any difference at all.

I guess that's just the difference between experience and conjecture.

 

I'd like an opinion on something: I want to eventually upgrade my Dragon down the road to a T9500 (from a T8100) and get an additional 4GB Ram for a total of 8GB as I plan to keep it for a long time. Will these parts be available in say a year or so or should I purchase them now? Thank you as usual!

 

Happy Easter everyone btw!

 

I own the Blu-Ray HDX so can tell firsthand (on the HDX 20" display). My eyes do see the difference and I don't like it. Stretching HD 1920x1080 -> 1920x1200 also results in some loss of the original "crispness" of edges, again according to my eyes. And for ultra-widescreen HD titles, you would still get two dark bands after stretching to full screen.

 

They'll be available for years and somewhat cheaper. You can still find Pentium 4m's and DDR memory on ebay. Some parts will be new and some will be pulls.

You'll also be able to acquire them from part suppliers.

 

Happy Easter!

 

Hey welcome, make sure to take a look at my post on page 100. Since I am not a big fan of upgrading laptops you won't find many info about that, but it is still worth to check out since I tried to summarize everything important that is being said in this huge thread (I occasionally still go back there and update it... )

 

I just bought a HDX dragon, manufacturer refurbished on Ebay, shipping and all for $1350. Good deal?

T9300 (2.5GHz/6MB L2 Cache)
Bluray
1080p
4gigs ram
8800 gts

-Just bookmarked the FAQ... thats awesome! Thanks Black Knight.

 

2.0 makes an excellent point here that I should've made myself when posting about my 8gb upgrade. In all honesty it was my excitement at seeing the performance increases in the areas I expected the most that led to post about how great the upgrade was, while at the same time failing to explain why it was of such benefit to my system personally. I thank 2.0 for being vigilant enough to catch my lapse.

Most of the performance enhancements I'll see is on my Adobe Master CS4 programs. It's been estimated that a 16gb system will yield a 200% increase in performance when using the CS4 programs, which are all 64 bit certified. However, another item of information about the CS4 programs that Adobe hasn't really made well-known is the fact that the CS4 programs all require more memory for the same operations that the CS3 programs used to do. One example I've seen is a CS3 rendering project which used 1.03gb, while the same operation in CS4 used 1.8gb. That's almost an 80% increase in the required RAM for the same operations. However, having said that, and having used all of the primary Adobe programs for many years, I can say that the CS4 improvements are worth the extra costs involved.

That was my primary reason for the upgrade, since I use those programs daily and often have several running at the same time. Digital Video Production sees the biggest performance jump, and that was also a major factor in my decision to upgrade. Processing 2gb video files takes time, even on my system with 4gb. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm sure the extra RAM will speed up the process.

The other key program I use is Webex, which is a Remote Support program which lets me connect to a client's system for system assessment, troubleshooting and repair if necessary. While more RAM won't give me much in the way of network speed, the increased resources management ability it provides helps give me a more stable connection and faster response processing from the remote system.

So far the biggest thing I've noticed is overall resource management and speed increase with the CS4 programs. By referring to Resource Management, you've all seen my various gospels about RAM usage and available RAM amounts decreasing over time, since the system doesn't give the same amount back as it allocates and uses for any given program or process. Typically after several hours of hibernation, I'd have to restart my HDX because RAM resources had been taxed to the point where the CPU was running at top speeds. So far since I've made the upgrade, I've not had to restart once, and I've done nothing different - I typically close my lid and let it hibernate when I try to get some sleep, which for me as some of you know is a real "pain" to get sometimes.

I do believe however that there is no question that the world is going to 64 bit in a big way. 16gb HP systems are already out, and who knows what next year will bring (assuming we still have a country left). But 2.0 makes a good point for the here and now concerning your individual HDX. Unless you've got the need for the extra RAM to run the kinds of programs and processes I and some of the others do here, then it may not be worth the $$. Each person needs to make their own assessment of course, but if you're expecting to plug in another 4gb and see your system turn into a rocket, it ain't gonna happen. My WEI stayed the same, 5.0. Network still runs at the same speeds, 160 - 260mbps, depending on which adapter I'm using. Resource management? Absolutely. But all I had to do before was a restart.

So consider and assess carefully whether or not you really need it. I know some people just "gotta have" whatever the maximum upgrades are, and I can't help those users, because the only ones that CAN help them are either a shrink or LCSW, because they reside in another world, and represent a whole other realm of problem.

 

My Win 7 WEI is still just 5.5.

CPU - 6.0
RAM - 5.5
Graphics - 7.9
Gaming Graphics - 5.8
Primary HD - 5.8

RAM is still pulling me down

Any suggestions?

 

Thanks for the advice 2.0, very useful as always.

I am not gonna pay anything for this kind of improvement you are suggesting it would mean. I will run Sisoft Sandra and report back with results.

Thanks a lot again.