Is it possible to purchase a good PC today without funding the removal of my rights? - by lost_soul
Ostriig on 3/2/2009 at 09:37
I wanted to start running (more) stuff on High. The 8600 was definitely capable of running pretty much anything, still is, and some of them it did admirably (UT3 was all maxed out at 30-40 fps on 1280x1024), but after running with it for a year, I decided I wanted to treat myself to some more compelling visuals in other games as well, so I let nVidia ride me to the bank for a 9800GT.
gunsmoke on 3/2/2009 at 12:55
Quote Posted by Ostriig
I take it not all firms have this policy, though. At least, I don't remember reading anything like that when I had to cart off my Acer for servicing, and I did read through the instructions carefully, though I suppose it's also possible that the guys who got it for repairs couldn't be bothered to give me a hard time over it. It came with Vista, and I sent it off with XP. It came back with Vista, surely enough. I do know there's a 20gig service partition in there which allows for a complete rollback of the system to factory installation.
I have an Acer Aspire that came w/Vista. It will barely even run Vista, though, so I installed XP. They still serviced it w/no problems, but they did reformat w/Vista like you. I got rid of that service partition (it was 20 gigs out of only 80)when it came back, though.
lost_soul on 3/2/2009 at 17:41
They really should have to indicate on the box if they use a 20 gig service partition. It seems wrong to have so much of your disk chewed up before you even get the machine, in order to have what amounts to two copies of the OS installed. HP is notorious for this sort of thing... The first thing everyone wants to do when they get a new machine is spend hours burning disks. :)
lost_soul on 3/2/2009 at 18:23
I think I'm going to cancel that order. I paid too much for outdated hardware! Check this one out for a siilar price: (
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/SkuSearch_v2.asp?SCriteria=BA25517)
It has the 9600m graphics and a bigger drive for starters. This sucks because my order has gone into production and I will have to wait for it to arrive and then send it back to get a refund. *sigh* If it wasn't for the Internet, I wouoldn't even have known I was buying hardware from last generation.
Ostriig on 3/2/2009 at 18:59
Ah, now that's more like it! Especially the new graphics unit, with 512 dedicated memory. Though I gotta say it, 1680x1050 on a 15'' screen? Whoa. You'll be using the larger fonts in Windows, most likely.
As for the service partitions, I don't think you're obligated to keep it. I do, however, since it's the only actual backup I have of the Vista installation that came included in the laptop's price.
Ostriig on 4/2/2009 at 00:57
I'm not an authority on these things, but I'd be tempted to go with the one sporting a 9800 for gaming purposes. But, as I said, I'm not really in the know here.
lost_soul on 4/2/2009 at 01:57
Being able to go pick it up tomorrow (as opposed to waiting at least a week) also makes me lean toward the best buy deal.
lost_soul on 6/2/2009 at 23:46
I got that Asus G50v, and it's great! It runs very quiet and it can play Doom 3 on Ultra. The load times are quick too. I replaced my desktop with it. :) It's easily the best (and cheapest) laptop I've ever purchased. Now I can play The Dark Mod without insane load times!
I also installed Ubuntu and everything worked out of the box. Wireless, the camera, sound... all i did was install the nvidia drivers to play games like doom 3.
