[Boris]

Struggling out of Jusco Tai Po loaded with shopping, I was stopped in my tracks by prominent signage re an HP / Compaq " box "

celeron d 3.3 something
512k mem
60gb HD ( I think )
blah blah blah the rest ( I am not mentally retentive of the techi stuff )
HKD 2,999.

Just the box so I was told. MMM says I. Very nice price. Especially as its HP ( branded ) / Compaq ( case design ).

Then I saw the OS.
Vista Home Basic

Is this fools gold? I am sure I have read, even here, that to have anything less than a " pimped " system is reckless if not foolish . Quote " akin to running your favourite sex toy on cheap Chinese batteries ".

Yes, of course its in line with the MS recommended build specs but then again they said you can run XP on a pentium 3 I think. Maybe you can, but would you want to?

Anyway - Fools Gold or Gold ?

[hk.com]

I am still running P3 boxes here and they are sub 1Ghz and win2k. My views are conservative.

I think that 3.3Ghz box will do fairly well.

Reality is that if you and average user, you are going to end up the machine full of spyware, install an anti-virus and a pile of resident that will choke the box. What CPU you are running is actually irrelevant. The only difference is psychological. What matters is RAM. 512MB is a bit on the short side.

Caring about the CPU when you are in the Ghz range is for fools, and so is running with low ram configs.

As for the price, it is not "fools gold".

I was selling Compaq EVO's 2.4Ghz with slightly lower spec about HK$2000 with XP license.

[Boris]

thanks for the reply

[KnowItAll]

Boris,

You might have to bump the RAM upto 1GB to get decent performance from Vista.

[Boris]

Hi KIA.
I was looking at cos it seemed at first to be a cheap box but what I know about the true value in this market is marginal at least.

I agree the ram is small but I could ( if I bought it ) use the ram our of my present box to give a decent level. They are the same specs.

It was just that I see that Vista isn't being taken up by the " mainstream " as we are all happy with XP and what is written is all about needing Dual Core, Fast Graphic sets, 2 gb ram , etc etc to get the best out of the new boy on the block.

When XP came out we all had systems that where good enough to get the best out of it. It seem this time we need to step up the hardware to use ( efficiently ) the software.

Thats why I need to have those of you that know these things to give a accurate view. I am probably going to upgrade shortly with a MB, dual core, graphics etc but this just seemed a good deal.

[HKChigger]

Why not wipe off windows and go Linux? Then you have a better OS than Visa or XP.

[Boris]

I am trying Linux on another computer I have and MAY move that way in any case.

However I posted purely because a) it seemed good value b) If A=Yes then b ) would it really be due to the OS making it no better than what I have already.

It was this I needed all your advice about.

[KnowItAll]

HKChigger : Linux is *not* the operating system of choice for a lot of people.

I consider myself far more literate than most folks, when it comes to computers and no way in hell would I sacrifice my XP for Linux on the desktop. No way.

[Boris]

So - to further the thread a little.
We all know what MS will have you believe is the " recommended " spec for running Vista , but practically, what is the best and then as a kicker, is it really worth the upgrade for the average SOHO user?

In response to HK Chigger. I must agree with KIA that a) he is an experianced techie b) he likes a few beers in a relaxing situation c) that Linux is just OK. Not the panacia we all look for to get away from MS. I am looking at it and adding on different modules to try to get what I think I need. Only time may tell as I am by no means a techie speckie, allthough in my youth I was a wiz on a spectrum with visual basic and enjoyed programing APL !

[Max]

Originally Posted by KnowItAll

HKChigger : Linux is *not* the operating system of choice for a lot of people.

I consider myself far more literate than most folks, when it comes to computers and no way in hell would I sacrifice my XP for Linux on the desktop. No way.

KiA,....what are your thoughts on running Vista?

I was shopping for a notebook recently and to my dismay, ALL of the machines had Vista preloaded. The fact that Windows would shove a resource-hungry, overbearing piece of crap down people's throats, just riled me enough to buy a Dell notebook with WinXP preinstalled on it instead of Vista!

As for Linux, Ubuntu shows a LOT of promise. Have been using it for a little while on some machines and it's pretty good.