Alienware PC

[JohnP]

Vista-64 bit can utilize up to 8 GB of RAM. The problem is Vista-64 has a bad reputation; it can't run certain programs like the previous Vista -32 could. Vista-32 had secular \\\"compatibility issues\\\" when it was first released.

Actually Vista-64 and XP-64 supports much more than 8GB. I have 16GB in my workstation. Dell ships workstations with 64GB of memory that run Vista/XP-64.

When people complain about Vista, they're not being specific enough. Are they complaining about Vista-32 when it first emerged? Or are they upset about the low compatibility with Vista-64? None of it matters now, anyway. All the updates changed everything.

My big complaint with Vista is that it runs 10% slower than XP. I discovered this while running a suite of Photoshop benchmarks on my QuadCore Xeon 16GB system with a 15,000rpm system drive and a $1,500 nVidia Quadro FX 4500 grphics card.

Photoshop is a 32 bit application (well CS4 just came out which is finally a 64 bit application). It manages memory utilization using scratch files rather than using relying on virtual memory management in Windows XP. I had heard Vista 64 had much better memory caching of the disk drives and was hoping it would speed up Photoshop. I was sadly mistaken however after running the benchmarks. I finally got a huge performance boost by buying a 3rd party RAM disk driver and creating a 12GB RAM disk on which I put the Photoshop scratch files. This made Photoshop on my workstation lightning fast. Too bad Vista 64 couldn't do this for me.

I like a few things about Vista and don't like other things. But mainly there is nothing Vista gives me to make up for the 10% performance penalty for using it.

-John

 

[Hellgate]

Sounds like a great PC Ant, is it for work or do you just like killer PCs for the Forum???

 

[ant_mb]

Sounds like a great PC Ant, is it for work or do you just like killer PCs for the Forum???

I won't be using it for work, but will play a few games on it. My current desktop is 5 years old, and is starting to show its age. My 30gig hard drive finally ran out of space. I'm hoping to get at least 5 years out of this one.

 

[Chris]

Most likely that is because your laptop's video card has a gig of video memory.

Video memory gets lumped in with system memory, so if you have four gigs of system memory and one gig of video memory, you wind up with 3 gigs usable system memory.

Technically it's still using four gigs.

Ok, thanks for clarifying that

 

[FZ1inNH]

30 GB? I have just that much for games and need to swap games out all the time. I have Raid0 74 GB Raptors for the OS and games. I have two individual 500 GB drives for music and movies. I have a FreeNAS server with 2 TB in it that serves the house for all multimedia.

I bought Far Cry 2 and it choked my poor 8800 GS video card. So, I have ordered (shipped today!) from Newegg a new BFG GTX260 with 896 MB RAM. Reports say a couple things about this card: It plays Far Cry 2 in Ultra, 4x anti alias at 1920x1200. And, cooling is minimal at best. I have more case fans than most people though. Worst case is I have to rip out their setup and put in a good VGA cooler.

Anyway.... this sounds like a GREAT gaming rig Anthony! What games will you be playing on it?

I just wrapped up the CoD:WaW Beta. This is a promising game! I'll be playing the full version this weekend! (It is released tomorrow)

 

[Sawblade]

I just finished off Fallout 3. I was pissed because when you beat the game, it won't let you keep playing.

 

[Oblisk]

just know every 2 years computer tech triples is capability


this statistic may be a little off but it is true

 

[lonesoldier84]

how much did the system cost you without the monitor?

 

[Sawblade]

just know every 2 years computer tech triples is capability


this statistic may be a little off but it is true

That's Moore's Law for future reference.

 

[ant_mb]

Vista is definately differant.

So far so good, but the "click here if you started this program", ot some crap like that is really annoying.

 

[christod1]

[COLOR=\"DarkGreen\"]You can get 10,000 RPM's now? Wow. How fast we evolved...

The problem with SOLID STATE drives is it's WAY HARDER to reach the same capacity of a Terabyte hard-drive (7200 RPM).

7200 RPM's hard drives can be found in LAPTOPS, but I found those ones tend to get very HOT. Heck...I know one that shutdown from overheating with just 5400 RPM.

Let me guess...your 10,000 RPM hard drive is LIQUID COOLED???[/COLOR]

SSD disks are available at 250GB right now from OCZ and a few other companies. But they are a lot more expensive. I read in a PC mag that it is estimated that 50 % of the laptops that are going to be sold in 2009 will contain SSD disks. And you dont need liquid cooling for the 10,000 RPM disks which have been available for at least 3 years. Just good airflow in the tower...

 

[ant_mb]

Ok maybe one of you computer literate guys can help me out here. Everything is hooked up and running at lightning speed. When I sign in I noticed what appears to be 3 hard drives, and they only add up to about 600 GB. I paid for a TB of storage, and don't want to be screwed. Am I missing something?

 

[FZ1inNH]

Ok maybe one of you computer literate guys can help me out here. Everything is hooked up and running at lightning speed. When I sign in I noticed what appears to be 3 hard drives, and they only add up to about 600 GB. I paid for a TB of storage, and don't want to be screwed. Am I missing something?

If I had to guess, they've set aside a hidden partition for the "System Recovery" Take a look at the Disk Management and see if there is unassigned space or hidden drives.

For the annoying "Allow or Deny", you can do this... Open Control Panel, switch to classic mode: open User Accounts and select Turn User Account Control on or off, most likely it’s the last option then un-tick "Use User Account Control" (UAC) to help protect your computer. Press OK and restart if needed.

When it boots again, you will stop receiving that pop up.

 

[FZ1inNH]

The good news with Vista is, if there IS unassigned space, you can resize the last partition on the drive on the fly using Disk Manager.

Take a peek at TweakVista.com for a lot of great hints and tips.

 

[rickvan67]

Sounds like a wicked fast machine, I'm a little jealous. I built my last PC myself which was an adventure but worth the time. I highly recommend Call of Duty 4 to test out that graphics card!! Look for me online gunning for ya, my moniker, "FZ6_Rider" of course!:Sport:

 

[FZ1inNH]

CoD:WaW (5) is released TODAY! :steve: CoD4? I've fragged you a few times.... I was ForrestGump.

 

[Rocky529]

I'm pretty sure that while Vista can recognize 4 GB of RAM, it only utilizes 3.5 GB of it.

I have 4 GB in my custom built computer but 3.5 GB is only used. 32-bit Vista only recognized 3.5 GB of it until I installed Service Pack 1, also.

 

[FZ1inNH]

From Softpedia:

The 32-bit editions of Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise and Ultimate, all support a maximum of 4 GB of RAM. The real variations come when we start looking at the 64-bit versions. On a system running x64 Vista Home Basic, you can add as much as 8 GB of RAM. x64 Vista Home Premium supports as far as 16 GB of RAM.

But it will take no less than 128 GB of RAM in order to satiate x64 Vista Business, Enterprise and Ultimate. 128 GB of RAM is the maximum supported physical limit in the case of these three operating systems.

Officailly from MSDN: Memory Limits for Windows Releases (Windows)