New Laptop Advice

[Mac]

The reason for the question was.

my psu in the desktop is starting to fail now, and they no longer make the psu for mine.
All i can get now is a brick shape as opposed to the long flat 1kw one mine is. (XPS system GEN 4)
and im not too sure they have the correct shapped PSU leads for the motherboard and graphics card.

well its been on 24/7 for 7 years now, and its only just starting to fail, so im pretty happy with it.

As i have her horror stories about win 64 bit not being able to run 32bit software, ect, ect. so i have steared clear of the 64bit system

I though i'd just post the question, as i wouldnt want to get a 64bit Windows system and not have any of my software run.

Its taken me a long time to purchase all of my software and i wouldnt like to go through that again.

Just for the informed i was looking at this.
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=d00x8331&c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1&model_id=xps-8300

upgrading from windows home to ultimate.

Mac.

[Ian]

yes, 64 bit runs 32 bit software, no worries. Drivers are different though, although whether you can use 32 bit ones and put up with some sort of functional problems, I'm not sure.

the only difference I've found between 32 and 64 bit W7 is that 64 can see much more memory, but only if it's installed. 32 is limited to about 3.1Gb RAM.

[Fay]

what about USB3, do camera etc, run ok with these, when they have been used to USB2? 

[Mike]

They should do. USB 3 is backwards compatible with 2 the same as 2 is with 1.

[Fay]

oh ok mike thanks

[Ian]

but you might just as well completely ignore them unless you've got a usb 3 hard drive. At the moment, they're just about the only class of devices that can make use of them...

[Fay]

so would you have to make sure that there were USB 2 on there as well?

[Ian]

no, usb3 is great if you can use it, as Mike says it'll support usb2 devices. However, usb2 ports are much more useful right now and you're much more likely to find them on laptops and computers.

I guess the time will come for a usb3 astrocam, but that's waaaaay off. It'll be drives that will need it mostly...

[RobertM]

Hmmm, way off you say...

http://www.ptgrey.com/products/flea3_usb3/flea3_usb3_camera.asp

[Ian]

well that just goes to show...

[Rocket Pooch]

My new ish dell has 3xusb2 and 1xusb3.

[Fay]

Bought a Sony laptop:

17.3 screen

500gb hard drive
Windows7/64bit
i5
6gb ram

I have just finished setting it up. It has taken a week, and today i finally re tried the camera connections. All are ok, Atik, SX, QSI SP 900, except the Canon, it seems a suitable  driver was never made for this model. will probably have to buy a new one.
The Philips modifed webcam has to go off to Andy so he can flash it to enable it to work on the system.

DSLR Focus will not work now, so have to get to grips with APT & possibly EOS Capture.

all other programs seem ok.

I was concerned about the screen size, but it is really nice & will still fit in my box i have the laptop in when out in the field.   

it looks a bit too posh to be using it in the the garden.................................

[Rocket Pooch]

Fay,

You have Nebu thingy for DSLR focus so why not use it?  Also if your camera is a 450 you can get up to date drivers for it.

Chris


P.S. I'm sure someone will tell you to downgrade to XP soon

[Fay]

what nebu thingy? is that Nebulosity?. yes thats true. it has just been confirmed, no drivers for 350D for Win 7.

[Rocket Pooch]

Fay,

The drivers are here http://software.canon-europe.com/products/0010192.asp

Just select Windows 7 and English.

Chris