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flyinghaggis

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Everything posted by flyinghaggis

  1. flyinghaggis
    If the PC is proving unstable and you've got a dead DIMM slot it strikes me to be more likely a faulty motherboard rather the power supply causing problems? As far as I know the only cure for a dead DIMM slot is a new motherboard! I guess in order to track down the stability issues I'd leave the PC running a memory diagnostic test (like the one from Microsoft) outside windows to eliminate your OS install as the cause of the problems? If it still crashes/reboots you know it's hardware related and from your description I'd be very suspicious of the motherboard if at least one component on it is already faulty?
  2. flyinghaggis
    AFAIK all of the clover trail atom based Windows 8 tablet only support up to 2Gb of RAM (which I doubt would be upgradeable anyway) and it's unlikely there's a drive bay to accommodate a larger SSD either. I suspect it'll just be NAND memory chips soldered onto the motherboard. In fact despite singing it's praises for the last month I'm starting to go off Intel's clover trail atom. The 2Gb memory limit is a serious problem and it only seems to officially support the 32-bit version of Windows8 which is a worry for future hardware and software support.
  3. flyinghaggis
    I really like the look of the Asus Vivotab 'transformer' style Windows 8 tablets. Seems like a much better design then the surface and the additional battery life when using the dock would be really handy. Having said that there's nothing on the horizon that's really tempting me to part with my cash so I've decided to buy a 128Gb SSD drive for my existing laptop (Dell M101z) which it looks like I'm going to be hanging onto for a bit longer!
  4. flyinghaggis
    Lol
  5. flyinghaggis
    Apart from gaming I reckon if you connected the Surface pro to a large monitor it would be perfectly usable as your only computer. To be fair the Surface Pro was never really aimed a Joe Public in general as most folks aren't willing to spend more than £400-500 on a computer unless it has an fruit themed logon on the front ! If you want to see expensive look at what Dell are trying to peddle for £1000 and tell me the surface still sounds expensive.... XPS 12 convertible 12" touch Ultrabook
  6. flyinghaggis
    I don't really understand the comments saying it's 'too expensive for a tablet'. I mean it's a full on ultrabook spec windows x86 PC with core i5, 128Gb SSD and a 1080p touch-screen. It has a detachable keyboard/stand that basically turn it into a full on laptop and any ultrabook with similar spec would probably retail for that price or higher? It's just a shame that the battery life seems so poor.
  7. flyinghaggis
    Microsoft says the Surface Pro will have 'approximately half the battery life' of the Surface RT | The Verge Hmmmm, looks like my worst fears are confirmed. 4 hours battery life for a tablet/laptop these days is pretty much useless TBH. Roll on Haswell.....
  8. flyinghaggis
    To be fair those are pretty much the prices we were expecting. MS were never going to undercut other OEMs by any kind of margin and the surface pro was always positioned to be a high end product. I'm surprised they bothered releasing a 64Gb version of it though. Windows 8 Pro, a full office install plus a couple of apps will just about fill that on its own! It'll be interesting to see how the i5 fares in the battery/performance tests compared to the atom CPU's. I think the biggest problem for the Surface Pro is that Haswell CPU's are about to launch in a couple of months time and it's hard to contemplate spending a grand on it knowing that it'll be out of date in a month or two. Tegra 4 is also out in Q1 2013 so I'm betting on a MS Surface RT/Pro hardware refresh within the next 6 months!
  9. flyinghaggis
    Just be careful. Cycling is addictive and before you know it you'll be talking like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMCkuqL9IcM
  10. flyinghaggis
    Yeah, there's a very noticeable change in mindset towards punting the OS as a consumer one first and business/enterprise second. I think they're going to the apple approach of trying to appeal to home users in order to get their products adopted at work. The adoption of the apple yearly update model is just more evidence of that. I wonder if MS is expecting companies to start rolling out virtualised desktops, terminals or simply embrace BYOD as every year it feels like it's getting harder to manage and maintain an ever increasing number of full Windows clients! Still, in some ways it's good as the 3-4 year update cycle was far too long for a home operating system. Hopefully it will encourage Microsoft to innovate and bring out genuine new features every year rather than simply releasing service packs that are basically nothing more than roll-ups of hotfixes
  11. flyinghaggis
    The bike you've suggested looks pretty nice and good for the money too. It looks like it should but would be worth double-checking to see if it can take a rack and full length mudguards. I bought one of these for commuting about 6 months ago and have used it nearly every day without issue so can recommend it. Revolution Courier Race '12 If I had one other recommendation it would be to buy full length mudguards! They make not look cool but honestly the clip on ones are as total waste of time. I'm currently using the ones below :- SKS P45 Mudguards Wide Road
  12. flyinghaggis
    We're hoping to do pretty much the same actually. Tablets/laptop for staff and then pupils on a 1:1 basis the following year. iPads have been suggested but I can't help but feel they're slightly too limited in what they offer. Windows RT sounds appealing (especially as a pupil device with Office being built-in, lower cost, etc) but I'm not sure if it's a viable alternative to Windows8 at the moment.
  13. flyinghaggis
    What did you see as the main advantages of going down the the windows8 tablet / ipad route for staff? I'm kind of curious as we're being asked to look into ipads/tablets for staff at our school.
  14. flyinghaggis
    I suppose Intel would probably argue that Nvidia's Tegra and the other usual ARM suspects all do it so they're just following the crowd..... That and it helps Intel sell more chips....
  15. flyinghaggis
    Rumour is that NVidia's Tegra 4 chipset will be released in Q1 2013. I wonder if MS will refresh the surface with this once it's available next year? http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/29257-tegra-4-to-come-at-ces-2013
  16. flyinghaggis
    That's a good point actually. It's quite common to get a faulty motherboard (given most now have onboard audio/video/NIC/everything). It would be pretty annoying if you stumped up £200 for a top end CPU and you had to chuck it because the motherboard failed a year or two down the line. Having said that I suppose it does make sense as desktops are increasingly being edged out in favour of tablets and laptops.
  17. flyinghaggis
    +1 Xmas is great apart from having to buy all the pointless cards and presents IMO. The kids should get their presents from Santa (assuming they've been nice!) but I just don't see the sense in adults buying crap they don't need for each other
  18. flyinghaggis
    Seems a shame but to be honest it's virtually never worth bothering to upgrade CPU's anyway. Typically the largest performance jump you can get is around 20-30% which is rarely enough difference to justify the effort/cost of changing the CPU. In my experience if you're going to buy a new CPU you typically always need a new motherboard/RAM to go with it anyway. For example take my current situation. I have an original first gen core i7-920 (socket 1336) and there's no CPU that would make a substantial difference without changing the socket type which instantly means a new motherboard. Even if I could source an i7-980x it's likely it would be cheaper and faster to just buy a new ivy bridge mobo and CPU.
  19. flyinghaggis
    Arrrgh, just fired up steam and noticed about 3-4 games I want to buy as well! Walking Dead £10.99 Witcher2 £9.99 Batman Arkham City £9.99 Portal £3.70 I really need to stop buying sale games on steam as already have about 3-4 games I've bought over the last 2 months I've barely played Soooo many bargains though..... must ... resist....!
  20. flyinghaggis
    There's an interesting article on Paul Thurrot's website comparing theTegra3 MS surface vs intels x86 clover trail atom SOC. http://winsupersite.com/windows-8/windows-8-architecture-wars-part-1-clover-trail-vs-arm The atom is at least on a par in every benchmark (including battery life) and substantially faster in quite a few.
  21. flyinghaggis
    This approach didn't make sense to me either but I think Microsoft releasing the Surface pro with such a high price/spec was more of a warning shot across the bows of the other OEMs. Basically Balmer's way of saying "Here's us starting to encroach on the top-end devices. If you guys don't sort yourselves out and bring out decent low/mid range hardware we'll do it ourselves....!" I expect MS will release an atom/i3 ULV based surface in time but I think they wanted to 'incentivise' the other OEMs to get theirs out the door first
  22. flyinghaggis
    Good artcle that. You know things are bad when Paul Thurrot's complaining about Microsoft Tech! My take on Windows 8's sales woes is mainly down to the lack of decent tablet hardware being available and MS 'muddying the waters' with the branch out into WindowsRT. Even if I wanted to buy a Windows8 tablet there's literally nothing out there just now I'd be interested in. Most of the current kit is just Windows7 tech with poor quality low-res touch screens bolted on and extortionate price tags. As the article says I think most people are playing the waiting game to see what happens when Intel release Clovertrail/Haswell in the hope we finally get some decent looking hardware. If someone came to me just now and asked which Windows8 device to buy I'd tell them to wait which is likely Microsoft's biggest probelm!
  23. flyinghaggis
    I'm not sure about the surface pro either actually mainly because I think the core i5 in it will make it too expensive for a tablet and will be seriously detrimental to the battery life. There may be heat/fan noise problems as well. I'm keener to see how some of the more power efficient Intel atom SOC CPU's cope as they should be priced close to ARM chips. The main problem I have with RT is the fact it can't run any legacy software/hardware and Metro apps are seriously thin on the ground just now. The thought of a tablet that can be used for entertainment/web surfing but has the flexibility of being able to run potentially any windows app if I add a keyboard/mouse is what really appeals. Why buy a tablet and and laptop when you could potentially buy one device that has all the advantages and functionality of both?
  24. flyinghaggis
    For under £200 the nexus7 is the only devce worth consideration IMO though I'm biased as I own one! If youre feeling slightly more flush/generous the ipad mini (£280) or Nexus 10 (£330) also look pretty good.
  25. flyinghaggis
    I really like the idea behind the surface as well. The concept of a tablet with a detachable keyboard seems like a win to me but I'm holding out for an x86 based model. RT just seems too limited in what it offers at the moment.
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