Is This A Good Deal??

I have been talking to the company where I purchased my CF-30 from the last couple of days in regards to doing some upgrades. I also believe I am ready, and wanting to move onto Vista. I had to purchase a new computer for our home and have really been enjoying the Vista OS on it. We ended up getting an HP Touch Smart IQ506. My wife and son really enjoy the amazing screen and touchscreen.

Anyway, I asked him for some prices on the upgrades. He will swap out my HDD to a CF-K30HD2502 model, being 250GB from my current 80GB. My memory will go from 2GB to 4Gb with a Kingston 2000050 model. The specs on it are SO DIMM 200-PIN - DDR2 - 800 Mhz - CL5 - UNBUFFERED - NONECC.

They will also install the Vista to the clean HD as well. I have no knowledge really of what a good price to do this is. I am sure I could do the physical part of replacing the items, but after that my head starts spinning. They want $400.00 to do what I explained. That will leave me with my current parts to sale or whatever afterwards. Is there a market for my old HDD? It is 6 months old, and believe me I do not have alot of stuff on here right now. I had to get a new program for my business and it takes 120 Gbs to run it, thats one of the reasons for getting a larger HDD.

I hate paying somebody to do this, but it is worth my peace of mind that it will be done correct. I realize there is a good chance I could buy the parts a whole lot cheaper, but this company has given me great after the sale support, plus they are local, and I realize they need to make a profit to stay in business this day and time. He told me about 2 hours for the total swap out and install of Vista.

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

 

Sounds to me like $400 to do the work for you, AND provide you some peace of mind, AND not having to go through the process yourself is a great deal to YOU. Who cares what we think? Really. Some of us actually enjoy the "pulling your hair out to figure it out" routine... some do not. If you can sleep at night paying $400 bucks, then do it. You are the only one that needs to justify it. Personally, given the new hard drive, RAM, shipping, labor, and setup; I don't think you are getting screwed at all.

 

Hard drive cost $90... RAM cost $50... Vista cost (You didn't say which version) $100 - $200... So... Personally... I'd do it myself because I would want to learn how to install everything just in case I needed to reformat. BUT... I agree with Doobi... The price is not bad for having someone do it for you plus the piece of mind of having someone elses hair being pulled out.

 

The basis of my question was too make sure that the price was not way out of line.

The CF-30 comes with a COA Vista Business. So there will be bo cost to me for that. Just his labor to do it.

I found and have been reading a magazine dedicated to just Vista. If I read it front to back 3 more times maybe I will give it a try. I really do want to learn, but I am so afraid of messing this thing up.

Thanks guys, I appreciate your comments.

 

Do you have the panasonic vista restore disk?
If you have the vista restore disk, you really can't go wrong.
The restore disk will load all the correct cf-30 driver files + Panasonic applications to a factory new state.
You only need to get the microsoft updates after you restore
Do you have a mk-1 or mk-2 cf-30?


Alex

 

Alex, I have a CF-30F3SAXAM, so yes it is a MK2. I had them do some options when I ordered it, so they dont show up on the configuator.

I do have the dics I believe. He told me I did last week at least. I need to look in my box. The COA I know is on the bottom. If for some reason I dont have the disc I need, they will give me one. That's just the type of company they are.

I want to learn about partitioning. Put XP on one side, Vista on the other? I heard that when it boots up you select which OS you want to use? I only have 80GB, which I dont have that much at all used up now. It's running Vista is what I have been told I need to enlarge my hardware.

 

I have XP and Vista on my CF-29. I used a partition tool (just google "Partition Tools" and you'll get lots of options for software to create your partition). Some are free, some are not. I used a free program called GParted that I burned to a little CD. I used a 160GB drive (I wouldn't use the 80, IMHO it's too small for a dual boot) and divided the partitions equally.

I installed XP first on one partition, then Vista on the other. In Vista there were some advanced options during install setup. That's where I told it to use one of the partitions I created. XP will also detect the two partitions and ask where it should go.

I'm pretty sure you can't use the restore disks that came with it though to install to different partitions. While I haven't tried, when I've used the restore disks it's automatically defaulted to C. You'd have to use retail versions.

*Tip*- want a cheap place to buy OEM software? Go to your local University or Collage. The Student/Faculty licensing is always cheaper than regular retail (if you qualify as one of those). I bought XP 32 & 64 bit bundled for around $60 and I bought Vista Business for around $65.

 

Just a quick note Panasonic has been shipping both a XP and Vista recovery disk with the CF-30 MK2, so you should have the disk in the box. Starting end of January 2009 they will only ship the Vista disk. Enjoy your 30!

 

I have all the full OS, and the restore discs that came with it.

MrBungle, you just validated why I want to pay someone to do this. Have him upgrade the Ram, 250HDD, and load me all up.

Sounds like he is being fair in the price. He already sent me ToughMate Sling for the heck of it.

 

Anyone have a Vista Restore disk for the CF-30 MK1??? I wouldn't mind setting mine up as a dual boot system....

PM me if so...