I know I wanted something powerful and fit for purpose but holy cow this new Vista 64Bit machine is massive. Not just a bit bigger – its bigger that a number of servers I’ve installed recently. The Precision 7400 appears to be built – fit to survive a nuclear direct strike. I needed a hand to get it safely out of the box.
First peek inside showed a few free drive bays that no doubt will get filled over time. The rest of the boards inside are well laid out and there are quite a few free slots for further hardware additions over time.
The case size really takes the biscuit – it makes my previous Dimension 8100 look like a small form factor machine. The machine is remarkably quiet though and it will interest to compare the improvement in efficiency that I get not having to reset the machine once a day or more on a bad day.
I’ve hooked it up to a pair of Dell 19″ screens and have begun the arduous task of installing the software that I need to work. I know I could try and migrate various things but I believe that you should start from scratch if you want to get the best out of a new installation.
It gives you an opportunity to correct any mistakes or to restructure how you store data and applications that may have become unwieldy over time. When I say that have a lot of applications – it hard to put it in perspective but I’ll try.
Most people have a page or two of apps on their application list. I need to scroll just to get to the ones that are infrequently used – there are hundreds !!
So how do I choose what goes on straight away and what can wait. Well its the law of averages – what do I use day and daily and could not function without – they go first.
I’ll list some of these favourite apps in another article… back to installation now