New guy with a few questions

[1fox2go]

Not new to PCs, or Windows. Recently had a PC with XP but after a nasty virus I went to linux. A friend at work asked about playing some PC games so I bought a somewhat decent laptop to play some average games.

My questions are.
1, My laptop is lacking in the harddrive performance, being 5400 RPM is what causes it to score a 5.9 on the the windows experience. If I replace the hard drive how will I get my copy of Windows to the new one if my Key as been activated already?

2, On msconfig, what do I need to run at start up? Right now I have avast and my synaptic pointing device. Do I need more or can I just have the Avast

3, If I get a new drive, what would you guys recommend? SSD would be nice but I cant justify the price per gig just yet

More questions will follow I'm sure thanks in advance

 

[tea]

Use the same key, Windows keeps a record of your hardware and allows you to change things like RAM and Hard drives with no problems.
If you can't get an SSD, a 7200RPM drive will be a lot faster than a 5400RPM drive.

 

[mickey megabyte]

hi 1fox2go, and welcome to sevenforums.

1 - you should not have any problems re-activating a new install. just install onto your harddrive, and activate as before. it's the same machine after all.

2 - lots of software likes to put entries into msconfig. most of it completely unnecessary and can (and should) be disabled. you are right in keeping your a/v and touchpad stuff. only keep the important stuff (unless you find that your software doesn't work properly). can you upload a screenshot of your msconfig startup list?

3 - ssd's are very nice and will make a big impact of boot and program load times. but as you say, they are still horribly expensive compared to their hard cousins. you can compromise by buying a 7200 rpm drive.

we are here to answer any more questions you may have. fire away!

 

[Bill2]

1) A lot of us have 5400 rpm hdds and 5.9 is about the max an hdd will score on WEI. Heck, I have a 7200 rpm drive, it still scores 5.9. If you really want to switch get a good 7200 rpm drive. I believe 10000 rpm are also available, look around fot those though they'll tend to run hotter.

2) If you intend to game, add as much more RAM as the mobo supports.

3) Make an image of the system using a program like Acronis or look around for free hdd cloning programs, there are several posted in this forum as well. After you change hard drives, you can just restore the image, no reactivation will be required. FYI, you can also clean install win7 on the new disk (provided you can get hold of an install dvd), then activate by calling MS.

4) Avast and Synaptics are about fine on startup. I also have checked entries for the password manager, bluetooth and dell dock though thats a matter of preference.

 

[DocBrown]

You said this is a laptop, could be the laptop graphics GPU slowing it down.

 

[1fox2go]

The laptop graphics is ATI Radeon 5650 with 1 gig of video RAM it has 4 gigs of system RAM. I made Backup and recovery discs as the very first thing prior to doing anything with this machine. I used the Acer backup software and the Windows software. Is that enough? Should I find another program?

Some say this laptop supports 8gig some say 6, first I will see how it handles what I plan to throw at it and work from there. I have read the reviews and many say the slow HDD is what made some of their games perform at a lower level.

My questions about the cd key were because I used the XP recovery disc that came with my old laptop and entered the key that was on the laptop and it would not accept it. After calling Microsoft support and getting nowhere, in a fit of frustration I installed Ubuntu on it and have been using it for the past 2-3 years.

I only plan to use this laptop for the games, WoW, Fallout 3, Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, and for work if need be. For work I will be on a private network and most likely not be on the internet. Being a network tech i really only need SSH, and console connections

Thanks for the help, anything else I should do before I start using this PC?

 

[linnemeyerhere]

1fox2go,
Have you considered running your current hard drive in a usb enclosure then run a SSD for your OS and Apps. only. All your data will reside on the external drive and a 60 to 80 gig SSD should serve you nicely, use less power, less heat, much less time.

 

[1fox2go]

I have not thought of that. I really dont plan to store anything on this hard drive other than the OS and the games. I have a portable 500gig usb drive as well as an external 2 TB drive

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Could be a consideration as these SSD's tend to be life changing additions. Yes they are expensive to consider a 1/4-1/2TB but all most of us really need is a 60-80gig and all of our apps. & os are handled nicely. Drop your stock 2.5 hdd into something like this:Ineo I-NA206U All-In-One Portable Storage - Leather Pouch, 2.5 SATA to USB, Black at TigerDirect

 

[1fox2go]

ahh yes, for 20 bucks thats not bad. Thanks

So does everyone feel the Windows back up and acer recovery software is enough or should I find a new piece of software to make my Image discs?

 

[linnemeyerhere]

I like the W7 program but I also have used Acronis. It's available as a free download from WD if you'd like to try it.
WD Support

 

[pparks1]

As others have said, the WEI will not increase with a 7,200RPM or even a 10,000RPM Raptor drive. 5.9 is really about the max that you will ever get from a spinning mechanical hard drive.

Now, with that said, a 7,200RPM drive will give you a noticeable performance boost...even though it won't be reflected in the WEI. No doubt about that.

 

[1fox2go]

Yea not too concerned with the windows score, more so wanting the performance boost for the games. All the reviews from the laptop buyers on Newegg said once they swapped the drive to a 7200 or a SSD they got a noticeable increase in boot times and gaming performance.

Im thinking a small SSD should suffice, and use my harddrive that came in the laptop as an external per the recommendation

Like I said this is mainly for the games and the occasional work machine

I will give the Acronis a run later this week and make a recovery image.

 

[mickey megabyte]

Yea not too concerned with the windows score, more so wanting the performance boost for the games. All the reviews from the laptop buyers on Newegg said once they swapped the drive to a 7200 or a SSD they got a noticeable increase in boot times and gaming performance....

a fast ssd won't make your games run faster - it'll make them load up faster, sure, but won't increase fps.

 

[1fox2go]

correct, but sitting for 5 minutes waiting for it to load would make me lose interest real quick in playing the game

 

[linnemeyerhere]

A SSD is one of the most transformational changes in computing once you get one you'll wonder how you ever lived without it. Dropping 5 bills for 1/2 TB not so much but $130 or less for a good SataIII 60-80gb .....let the good times roll baby !

 

[RebelViking912]

I have the same laptop. There is an extra empty hard drive bay in this laptop but its missing the bracket to attach it to. You can get the hard drive caddy for about $25, then put a SSD as your main OS and apps drive, and move the 500gb 5400rpm drive to the extra bay for storage.

 

[1fox2go]

Really? That is awesome to know!

Have you done this yourself?

 

[RebelViking912]

I will be soon, just waiting for the hard drive caddy to come and will have to save up a bit for the SSD drive. If you read the forums and customer reviews at tigerdirect, amazon, and newegg you'll see ppl have had good success doing this. The hard drive bracket is a little hard to find but if you google acer aspire (then the model #) parts you'll find it, or call acer and be on hold for hours for parts ordering. Take the cover off the hard drive bay and you'll see the empty HD bay. Also you can put up to 12 gb of ddr3 1333 ram (3 rimms of 4gb). Check you that you get the right 1333 ddr3 ram, as their are two different types if you want to upgrade that too later.

 

[1fox2go]

Yea I skimmed the reviews on Newegg. I saw people replacing the main drive for ssd but didnt see much on the second bay. Also on Newegg it says it only supports 8 gig max? That correct or does your sources say different?

Where did you order your caddy from? Maybe help me save some time searching?