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Bought a Dell

turpentyineturpentyine Registered User regular
edited June 2008 in Help / Advice Forum
I got a Dell xps m1530 laptop. I got it in December. Posting kinda late I know.
It has 2.2ghs intel duo
160gig hd @ 7200 rpm
nvidia geforce 8600m
screen is 1280X800
2gigs of ram
vista home premium
built in bluetooth
paid about 1575 for it plus 200 gift card.
What you guys think?
Also wondering what are some good tools and apps to keep my system running good and fast?
thnx

turpentyine on

Posts

  • RyadicRyadic Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Just make sure you do regular defrags and you don't keep unneeded stuff on the PC and you should be good. Vista is pretty good, for me at least, at keeping away bugs and such that slow your PC down, so that shouldn't be a problem.

    Ryadic on
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  • NostregarNostregar Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    It's a decent computer but Dell overcharges.

    If you want specifics, here they are (this is all my opinion):

    The CPU is ok. I tend to dislike Intel ones because they're overpriced, but a 2.2 dual is not bad.

    160GB is pretty small for a harddrive these days. Yes, it's a laptop, but I still never get anything below 250 for any computer I build.

    I don't know much about that video card, so I'll ignore it. Do you play PC games alot?

    Screen is a good size.

    Good amount of RAM.

    I despise and loathe Vista, but I know it's hard to buy computers with XP now. Personally, I'd have bought XP myself and just wiped out Vista, but that's me.

    Bluetooth is always good to have, especially if you want to do anything with a cell phone.

    Already addressed the price; I think it's overpriced.

    Nostregar on
  • Oz K. FodrotskiOz K. Fodrotski Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    PC Decrapifier: cleans all the included bloatware from your new Dell.

    Spybot S&D: Immunizes against / scans for spyware.

    Your choice of antiviral / firewall software, but each is a must.

    Those are the really important ones. You'd probably do well to run Dupkiller and CCleaner from time to time, as well as a defrag (I prefer Power Defragmenter / Defraggler).

    Disclaimer: I don't know how well any of these work with Vista; I assume most are supported, Power Defragmenter is suspect.

    Edit: Decent machine for the price, considering it's a laptop.

    Oz K. Fodrotski on
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  • kevbotkevbot Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    My advice would be to dump whatever antivirus came pre-installed (since it's a dell it's either Macafee or Norton) and switch to NOD32 ( http://www.eset.com ). You'll notice an incredible difference in speed, and it's one of the most effective pieces of Antivirus software out there. I've switched our entire office (40+ PCs) over to it and I've heard nothing but praise.

    kevbot on
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  • turpentyineturpentyine Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    kevbot wrote: »
    My advice would be to dump whatever antivirus came pre-installed (since it's a dell it's either Macafee or Norton) and switch to NOD32 ( http://www.eset.com ). You'll notice an incredible difference in speed, and it's one of the most effective pieces of Antivirus software out there. I've switched our entire office (40+ PCs) over to it and I've heard nothing but praise.

    What about avast? You think NOD32 is better?

    turpentyine on
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