Ordered my ifl90

Hey Guys,

I ordered my ifl90 on Friday and should be with my in 10 days.

This is what I went for:
15.4 INCH WIDESCREEN DISPLAY (1440 X 900) + ANTI-GLARE
INTEL® Core 2 Duo T7800 (2 X 2.60GHz) 800MHz FSB/4MB L2 Cache
4GB CORSAIR DDR2 667MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x2GB)
INTEGRATED BLUETOOTH ADAPTER
250GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5400rpm)
512MB GEFORCE 8600GT + D-SUB + TV-OUT
Onboard Gigabit LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N NETWORK CARD
Biometric Fingertip Reader & 1 x Express Card Slot

I need to start preparing myself and was wondering what people recommend going with XP or Vista?

I have also read about people increasing their gfx performance a little and was wondering what software is the best for that.

Also I will probably want to make sure Ive got all the latest drivers, bios etc.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Cheers

 

With regards the OS, Vista is the new MS OS with many nicer features than XP, especially security and internet/network settings. The real question is; Vista 32 or 64? Then to my knoweldge, there not many applications for 64 platform, so I personally have Vista 32.

Why did you chose such display, I think the general opinion is that you are better with an WSXGA+ matte (no glare).

Your reseller should put the most recent drivers, request that they do it.

 

Thanks wirelessman,

Yeh Im gonna go for Vista. RE the screen the company Im getting it from dont offer the choice of changing the screen. I actually like the glossy screen on my sons new imac but Im sure with a laptop on the move it may get annoying but I guess I will learn to live with it.

 

Glossy has sharper colors (perception) but it reflects too much light, so that's why I don't like it but your kids will like it, 1440x900 is very close to 1680x1050 anyway. Now be aware that your Vista 32 won't see the full 4GB of RAM, only Vista 64 can. You are better therefore with 3GB, however having the 4GB now you will be ready when you will decide to upgrade to 64.

 

Someone on another forum suggested I should get some faster memory
http://www.overclock.co.uk/product/A-DATA-2GB-DDR2-800MHz-SO-DIMM-Module_5998.html
Is this memory compatible and will the laptop make use of the extra speed?

Cheers

 

There is no point of getting 800mhz ram at this point.

Although the processor has a 800mhz FSB I do not believe the data transfer rate will be able to go over 667mhz, do to the northbrige or whatever it is called.

I heard this when Santa Rosa was released. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

But my opinion is that 667mhz will do what you need.

 

Go with XP. You're not missing much by going to Vista, only loosing performance and the bland look of XP. As for software to improve performance, try Memset Beta (change your RAM timings), Notebook Hardware Control (make your processor run full speed 100% of the time) and RivaTuner (overclock your video card).

 

1. DDR2 can theorically go up to 800MHz if the closk applied to it is 400MHz so 2x400MHz = 800MHz.

2. DDR3 memory would work much faster (2x) but I beleive it won't work in a DDR2 mobo.

 

1) WinXP is not less secured the Vista.
2) Looks are not the answer, but if you need them the Vista Transformation Pack is always out there.
3) Windows XP doesn't virtualize every single thing in your computer so that nobody except OS itself could use it directly. You can't even measure video memory usage because of that, Creative can't write normal audio drivers with hardware acceleration and so on. I don't even know what was MS thinking when they come up with such a dumb thin. It's like JAVA virtual machine, and everyone knows how slow JAVA is.

 

Running XP pro just fine. Obviously can't play DX10 games, but since I don't own any yet this isn't a big deal. I guess I'll wait until Vista is stable.

I still haven't been able to get Ubuntu to work. I'm hoping that April's release will solve a number of problems I am having.

 

Yes, you are right, although the FSB is 800MHs the RAM processor cannot match that speed. The new Intel processor will get done with the Northbridge processor and will have the RAM processor built-in the same die permiting this way to reach the 800MHz.