Happy chappy with new Vortex 3

[HonestFlames]

DPD successfully delivered my new laptop without dropping it, which was nice.

Received a Vortex 3, 2.7GHz, 2GB Samsung RAM, 680m, 250GB 5400RPM drive, AUO screen, no optical drive.

Immediately upgraded with 2x4GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz RAM and I'm waiting very patiently for a pair of 256GB Plextor M3 Pro SSD's, which should get things running very nicely.

First impressions are that it's much lighter than my old Dell M1730, has a much better screen (uniformly lit, good viewing angles, non-reflective) but has a worse keyboard layout. I'm sure I will get used to the layout, but having a single Windows key only on the right-hand side of the keyboard is just crazy. Not at all great for someone who makes use of a good many keyboard shortcuts! Also, something that always bugs me: No Windows alternate menu key.

Opted for no OS installed. Immediately installed the Win 8 Release Preview, which went without a hitch. Wireless networking (Intel 6300) detected perfectly. Nvidia driver wasn't perfect, there are only beta drivers available. Not sure if that is going to be any problem though.

Just about to try to find and install sound driver.

 

[cheshirecat765]

DPD successfully delivered my new laptop without dropping it, which was nice.

Received a Vortex 3, 2.7GHz, 2GB Samsung RAM, 680m, 250GB 5400RPM drive, AUO screen, no optical drive.

Immediately upgraded with 2x4GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz RAM and I'm waiting very patiently for a pair of 256GB Plextor M3 Pro SSD's, which should get things running very nicely.

First impressions are that it's much lighter than my old Dell M1730, has a much better screen (uniformly lit, good viewing angles, non-reflective) but has a worse keyboard layout. I'm sure I will get used to the layout, but having a single Windows key only on the right-hand side of the keyboard is just crazy. Not at all great for someone who makes use of a good many keyboard shortcuts! Also, something that always bugs me: No Windows alternate menu key.

Opted for no OS installed. Immediately installed the Win 8 Release Preview, which went without a hitch. Wireless networking (Intel 6300) detected perfectly. Nvidia driver wasn't perfect, there are only beta drivers available. Not sure if that is going to be any problem though.

Just about to try to find and install sound driver.

Nvidia beta driver so far for me is working fine! Also, how is Windows 8? From what i've seen i think im gonna stick with 7, interface looks pretty ugly with all them tiles :/ really don't like the aesthetics of that OS at all from what i have seen!

That's a nice little setup you have there, welcome to the V3 family

 

[HonestFlames]

Thanks, cheshirecat765!

Just had my first crash. Oh dear :-/

Realised sound was working, so ran Spotify. Hung halfway through a song. Could still move mouse, ctrl+alt+del worked but couldn't click anything. Had to power off and on again. Will have to figure out if it's the Windows bog-standard audio driver at fault, or something else. I knew things were going too well.

Windows 8 is absolutely great. I don't use the tiles for anything particularly. I use it like I used the Win 7 start menu: I just type the name of the thing I want to launch and select it from the list. I find the desktop actually a bit more usable than Win 7. I was a big fan of Win 7, especially for features like window docking. Windows 8 doesn't add or change a great deal, other than the menus that pop up when you bump the mouse into the screen edge.