Your 64-bit OS isn't causing many problems, if any. The two biggest upgrades you can get are a solid state drive, and additional memory. Also, with the SSD, you can swap it to a new computer if this one dies or you upgrade, so it's not just sinking money into an old machine. Your memory usage sounds pretty normal - upgrading it would reduce the amount of times information gets paged to your disk, which slows everything down. Also, free memory is wasted memory, so don't worry about high usage. The problem comes when it's actually full or almost full because it's going to make room by removing things from memory. W7 is more responsive than Vista, so that upgrade would help, but I'd wait until Windows 8 comes around. From what I've seen/used, it's pretty light on the system. Frankly, it's a good time to upgrade. The new Ivy Bridge laptops actually have decent built-in graphics, and many laptops are coming stock with SSDs now.
Thanks for the reply. With the SSD, what is the cheapest price range to where they're still a distinct improvement? Couple hundred dollars? I've had this suggested too, but I have also been told that Windows 8 is largely targeted at Tablets and the like, and isn't going to be very compatible with a mouse. Is that accurate?
No, not really accurate. You actually still have a full blown desktop in the OS. If you wanted to, you could exclusively use the desktop and the only place you have to use the "Metro" interface is that, instead of the start menu, you have the "tile" laden Metro interface to launch applications from. I use it on a desktop at home. I work in the desktop environment all the time. To launch an app, I hit the Windows key, it throws me into the tiled Metro "start menu" (which is touch friendly, but is not mouse-unfriendly; in fact, it's highly keyboard friendly since you can just start typing and it'll automatically search) and when I launch my app, I'm back on the desktop. All of the desktop apps are normal, mouse-friendly For a SSD, I'd suggest a Crucial M4 or a Samsung 830, in whatever size you need. Those are both reliable, screaming fast drives without hitting the premium price points of things like the high end Intel drives. They can both be had for around a buck a gig - or less, if they're on sale.
A friend of mine has a Windows XP system that is running really, really slow. I checked for viruses, malware, spyware, etc and it checked clean. However, I noticed that she has thousands and thousands of temporary files. I was wondering if any of these utilities that claim to clean up and speed up your system actually work? If so, can you recommend one for Win XP? I don't mind paying a reasonable fee (<$50) if it works really well and is safe. Thank you in advance.
Use CCleaner. It's free and effective. Also you could use their Defraggler utility. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.piriform.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.piriform.com</a> Just back up the registry changes before you commit the modifications - the app will ask you if you want to do it.
Nice price on a good 256gb SSD: <a class="postlink" href="http://slickdeals.net/f/5028932-256GB-Samsung-830-Series-MZ-7PC256N-AM-2-5-SATA-III-SSD-Laptop-Kit-w-USB-to-SATA-Cable-199-99-FS?p=52337038" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://slickdeals.net/f/5028932-256GB-S ... p=52337038</a>
Does anyone know anything about BlueTooth-enabled external hard drives? I'm a media hoarder, and so are a lot of the gentlemen I live/work with. What I want is a high-capacity (like 2TB+) external HD that could live under my bed and be turned on all the time. People could upload stuff onto it via USB, and access it from anywhere nearby wirelessly. Like an island pirate fortress that individual ships could sail in and out of. I feel like I'm overthinking the whole thing and there has to be an elegant way of getting what I want.
Bluetooth isn't a good idea, it's not fast enough. What you want is called a NAS (network attached storage) - it's a boxy thing that you put harddisks in and then plug it into the network - either wirelessly if you get a boxy thing that supports wifi, or with an ethernet cable to your wireless router or somewhere else on your network. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822154490" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822154490</a> - stupidly easy option and probably the way to go if you're not a hardware geek with interest and time in putting in a bit more research and set up time. Search any big store like newegg for NAS and you'll see a bunch of options and price all over the board. Some come with disks preinstalled, some come diskless and you need to buy and set up the disks yourself. Depending on how much data, and how stable it needs to be - price goes up more or less indefinitely. You can alternately build something like a freenas box - <a class="postlink" href="http://www.freenas.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.freenas.org/</a> build a computer with as many harddisks as you can fit into it, put a network card into it and install freenas - if you put a wireless network card into it, it will work over wifi as well.
What scootah described is definitely the sleekest option for what you want. If you want something easier, though, you could just set up a network share on your computer that people could upload and download from. You could revoke their delete rights so they can only add or copy things. That only works if your computer is powered on all the time - but if you do leave your computer powered on all the time, it's a free option.
Hello there, tech inclined people. I'm looking for a new laptop as my current one is nearing 5 years old and is pretty much about to kick the bucket. Looking to spend about £450-500 ($700-$800). Being as my previous laptop buying technique basically boiled down to "Pick a budget, and then look for the most RAM" I'd appreciate a little guidance... Usage-wise I don't do any heavy gaming but I often have a million things open at once, and will be using quite beefy CAD software (Catia or Autodesk Inventor). I also would like to play Minecraft with minimal lag, which my current laptop cannot do ;_;. The CAD software means I'd prefer something PC based rather than a Mac. I would also ideally like it to last a good few years and would be willing to up my budget a little to ensure that. I've found a few models that look roughly what I'm after, Acer 5750, HP G6-1369, Toshiba L750-199, although my googling says the HP model has massive overheating problems. If anyone knows of any models I should absolutely go for or avoid I'm all ears
Hi all. My GF has been looking for a laptop. Her requirements were: small, many USB ports, and beefy enough to run things like ArcGIS. After considering her requests - I am pushing her to go in another direction. Namely a desktop system for her heavy science application processes or analysis, and a separate mid-range laptop for word processing/web surfing/etc. My thoughts were that she could RDC into the main box via whatever software kids are using for that these days and still access any of the science apps. I'm wondering if there are any holes in this idea I need to consider before she drops the 2k on a real science machine. As for the hardware, she doesn't want to build her own. It's grant money so she wants a pre-built system with a solid warranty. I'm leaning towards a Dell XPS 8500 decked out. 3.3 gHz quad core processor, 12+ gigs of ram, a 2 TB HD with an additional 256 SSD for the OS and other crucial programs. Basically a beast. Any suggestions on software that would allow her to access the main PC from a laptop, or technical hurdlers we need to consider are appreciated. Thanks!
I don't really see any problem with what you are proposing, but make sure she is comfortable remoting into another system. Keep in mind too that remoting into a system introduces other issues such as lag if you are using a product like VNC. Otherwise, how small is small? If 15" would work, I'd go with this and not worry about the desktop at all: http://www.dell.com/us/soho/p/precision-m4700/fs. If you want to add memory or a SSD, it's sometimes cheaper to do that aftermarket. That Precision will handle 32GB of ram, which is going to be the biggest bottleneck on ArcGIS anyway. If not, I would look at the XPS 13. I got to play with one the other day and I liked it a lot. http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-13-l321x/pd?~ck=mn&cid=ltcp_usdhsxps13
The short answer is that you are making compromises with a CAD system at that price. Personally, I would try to save up a little more for a better system if that is an option. If in your situation waiting is not an option, I would recommend getting a system that has a discrete video card at the very least. The 3 choices you have listed all have shared video memory which will reduce your overall available system memory. That will be a performance hit when using the CAD software. From there, get the fastest processor you can afford. I don't know the requirements of Minecraft, but I'd bet the discrete video card in a new laptop would be able to handle it. In fact, your best bet would be to go to the CAD software publisher's site and see how compatible whatever system/video card you are looking at is with their software. Anything else, like hard drives and memory you can upgrade later as you have more funds. A solid state hard drive (SSD) and memory upgrade will most likely give you a pretty significant if not huge performance boost. I didn't search for very long, but these seem to be good deals for the price: http://www.tesco.com/direct/hp-dv6-...-black/215-3137.prd?skuId=215-3137&pageLevel= http://www.tesco.com/direct/dell-in...-black/215-8972.prd?skuId=215-8972&pageLevel=
Thanks a lot - I had a look on some different sites for those criteria and upped my budget a little and think I will be going for Acer V3-571G while it is on sale.
So, I have a PDC of a book I purchased online. When I asked, they told me it would viewable on my iPad, it is not. Does anyone know if there is anyway to convert a PDC (lock lizard's protected PDF) into a stanard PDF?
Ok, got an interesting problem. Computer: XP 32bit SP3 AMD 64 X2 5000+ ATI HD6800 series Some sort of Viewsonic 22" widescreen. VX2235 if memory server me right. Last night my computer worked fine, the today I turned it on and have a weird video issue. My monitor seems to only display 640x480 resolution. Colour seems to be fine at 32bit. Depending on what resolution i set it at, depends on how much i can scroll left/right up/down. So if i set it at 1680x1050 i can scroll lots, if i set it at 800x600 i don't scroll much. The monitor has a max resolution of 1680x1050, but now since i have this problem i can set it to 2048x1536 and I can really scroll side to side and up and down. I have gone into control panel and uninstalled my drivers and gone into devise manger and uninstalled the video card, to try and start from scratch. Still have this problem. Any idea's? Thanks in advance. edit: And i just did a system restore and that didn't work.
And today nothing comes up on the monitor. So i swapped monitors my monitor works on the other comp, the other monitor doesn't work on my comp. Did the same thing with video cards same thing, nothing works on my comp everything works on the other comp. So i am thinking dead mother board.
Hmmm, so i decided before go out and buy a new mobo/processor combo, lets plug everything back into the computer, and try different slots(have 2xpci-e slots) and different cables. So i started(cable and slot) that started all this trouble. Guess what? Everything works fine now. My only problem is that i installed a game, all the files are there, but all the .exe are gone.
I'd like to add another layer of security to my torrenting. I've been reading a bit about VPN's at Lifehacker/Gizmodo and I'm interested. Can anybody guide me towards a service? I don't mind paying, but I'd like to keep it around $10/month. I would prefer that the service not log my activity. Also, it's my understanding that using a VPN I can access otherwise blocked sites from work. Is this true? And if so, are there red flags for doing this? Thanks in advance.
Off-the-wall question here. Recently I've been promoted at work, and the new jobs is very heavy with email requests --- over 100 a day. Anyway does anyone know any decent free-Outlook add-ins? I don't feel like trying to install a dozen and figuring out what works. I'll even spend $20-$30 on an Outlook add-in if it's amazing. I'd prefer to be able to add quick notes to emails that only I can see, or assign dates to them so I know when they have to be done. Outlook's "add reminder" feature kinda sucks because if you accidentally click the flag, the reminder is gone. I was looking at Bells and Whistles which has some notes feature, but some reviewer said it randomly stopped working and sucks. Any thoughts would be much appreciated.