Dell OEM Vista Disk Question

Hey.
I'm upgrading my laptop's hard drive soon to a Western Digital WD5000BEVT and I plan to do a clean install of vista after the hard drive swap. I know the procedure to install media direct first and everything. My question is regarding the dell vista disk. Is it free of bloatware? Once installed will I have a clean system? Or will I have to go back again and uninstall loads of crap.

I have that hard drive in my ps3 and love it. Fast, cool and quiet.

Thanks in advance!

 

It be ok installing Vista disk, you should have some disk with all the other cr-- with your system

 

The Dell Vista disk only includes Windows Vista itself, none of the bloatware that comes pre-installed. This means it does not include drivers, either, so you'll have to download those from support.dell.com.

Also, if you really want better hard drive performance, you should look into a 7,200 RPM hard drive, which will be faster than the 5,400 RPM you linked.

 

Sweet, thanks. That's the answer I was looking for. I have the driver disk so that's not an issue. Will windows update automatically get me the latest dell drivers too?

As for the performance, I though about a 7200 RPM drive but they max out at 320GB except for a seagate. I was reading this review and the seagate 7200 RPM performed either the same as or poorer than a few of the other hard drives. They picked the scorpio blue as the top drive and it got high marks in most of the benchmarks. I heard western digital is coming out with a 500GB scorpio black, so I may wait for that, but performance isn't my main reason for upgrading, mainly space. I figure why not?

 

The Dell Vista disk may contain the OEM information [OEM logo and contact information], but should not have any bloatware.

 

No, Windows Update will not update your Dell drivers. You can use the drivers on the disk you got, but I recommend downloading and installing the newest ones from the support site anyway, since they're pretty much guaranteed to be newer and better than the ones on the disk.

I agree, there's not too much difference from 5,400RPM to 7,200RPM. I have a 320GB 5,400RPM, and it's nicely quiet and fast. My desktop has a 7,200RPM, and I don't really notice a difference.

Exactly. I noticed that when I used my Dell Vista x64 disk to install on my custom built desktop, my system is now identified as a Dell machine.

 

I don't mind it being labeled as a dell (it is a dell after all ).

I ordered the new hard drive since newegg has it on sale for $89.99 with free 3 day shipping. I'll follow the big reinstalling vista thread when it gets here.

One more question, but it's not related to the dell oem vista disk (hope that's ok). I have 4GB of hyundai RAM in my laptop now (dell installed). Should I swap it out for 4GB of name brand RAM or does it not matter? I don't game on this laptop but reliability is very important to me.

Also, not sure if it's helpful now, I was reading in the vista activation thread and remember something about removing a certain folder ($OEM$ or something like that) from the dell disk and burning a new disc will debrand it. Haven't tried it though.

Thanks for the replies.

 

The generic Hyundai Electronics memory is no worse than anything you'd get from Kingston, OCZ, or Corsair. I've never had a problem with it in multiple machines.

 

Cool. I'll leave that alone for now then.

 

Yeah, if you have 4GB to begin with, there's no need to replace it. I only replaced mine because the system came with 3GB (2+1) of the Hyundai memory, of 5-5-5-15 latency. I wanted to get 4GB, so I just went with a 2x2GB kit of Kingston HyperX 4-4-4-12 latency memory.

 

Typically Dell uses high latency memory on anything but their gaming machines; and even then they sometimes use it on those. In truth you'd probably not notice a difference for the vast majority of things you do.

FYI Most memory chips supplied typically are made by either Hynix or Samsung (I assume you meant Hynix and not Hyundai). In fact many of the companies that sell RAM are not manufacturing it at all, they are simply assembling it. Wikipedia seems to suggest the following is a list of memory chip manufacturers, but I remain unconvinced that this list is correct:

Corsair Memory
Crucial Technology
EDGE Tech Corp
GEIL
G.Skill
Hynix
Infineon Technologies
Kingston Technologies
Micron Technology
PNY
OCZ Technology
Rambus
Samsung
SimpleTech

With regards to your HDD; in all honesty there are some 5.4k RPM drives that perform very well, yes indeed. They will not outperform the best 7.2k RPM drive in certain areas, but there is a range of performance in the 7.2K RPM drives which means some 5.4K drives are much better than some of the worst - mid range 7.2k drives.

In reality, the vast majority of people will probably not notice a massive difference. Anyone that tells you they have seen boot times increase by 50% or something daft is just trying to validate their expenditure.

That particular drive you have selected is a very good choice; I hope it serves you well.

Regards

 

It's not high latency, it's normal. 5-5-5-15 for 667MHz is normal. The stuff I use, like 4-4-4-12 for 667MHz, is low latency. High latency for 667MHz would be 6-6-6-18.

Hynix used to be called Hyundai Electronics. It's even on their website:

http://hynix.com/gl/company/history/summary.jsp?menuNo=5&m=6&s=1

The timeline data up to 2001 should tell you what you need to know.

 

Yep. Sure enough. I opened my laptop today to check things out inside (adding the bluetooth card soon) and on the ram is the hynix logo. Also, ironically, the ram I was going to get to upgrade my laptop ( seen here) has the exact same logo on the chips. Probably the same stuff. I'll be keeping the same ram.

The hard drive I'm definitely happy with. My PS3 has lots of free space now. I should have ordered two to begin with. I'm glad newegg put it one sale for $89.99 only a few days after the amazon sale ended.

Well since we're on the subject of upgrades, I am putting an internal bluetooth card in my laptop soon. Should I just get the dell 355? I believe it was what was used on the 1525 before it got discontinued. Here's the dell link. Only $20 and it would free up a usb port if I get a bluetooth mouse. Plus it'll be easier to sync my cell.

Ah. Just thought of something. My wife only has 3GB of memory in her laptop (also has a 1525). I may get some of the low latency kingston or gskill and put mine in her laptop. It may seem anal, but I'm just trying to max out my laptop specs. I made the mistake of not upgrading anything but the hard drive on my old desktop PC that the 1525 replaced. I ran that thing for 6 years with 512 MB of RAM. *shudders*
Now, with my 1525, photoshop CS3 Extended loads in under 4 seconds.

 

A warning, the low latency kingston RAM does cost more; sometimes considerably more. I'd stick with normal 5-5-5-15 if I was you.

 

Yeah I saw that. I probably will for now. The $50 I would spend on the kingston can go a few other places on my laptop.

I ended up buying the dell 355 bluetooth card for the 1525. With shipping and a 15% off coupon it came to $25.

 

Hi, I'm only new to this site, I hope I posted in right thread.

I have a dell inspiron 1501 & it was working fine up untill yesterday, when I turned it on it said to insert the disc, it's the only disc I can't find, would anyone know will I be able to download it, or do I have to contact dell. I'm on a friend of mine's laptop at the minute.

Hope someone can help please.

Thanks.

 

Which disk is it that it asks for? If it's the drivers then sure, they are all available on the dell support site. Not sure if it was anything else though; and I highly suspect this will be your OS disk. You might be lucky to get Dell to send you another; but they may charge for this.

 

It the laptop is under warranty they'll send it for free.

 

Hi, thanks for getting back to me. The disc its asking for is windows installation disc & restart laptop. It's out of warranty. Will I be able to download this from dell, thanks.

 

Probably not for free, but if you know anyone with a vista disk you can use their disk with your product key provided it's the same 32 or 64 bit version.