Upgrade time for the old PC

[mumblefratz]

Gee it was only a couple of years ago that I bought my "new" PC. I'm still running XP and see no reason to change at this point.

However my main monitor died after 9 years of use. It was a 17.4" 1280x1024 Viewsonic that I bought in 2001 and at the time it was top of the line. It's hard to believe that at the time it was a $1,600 monitor.

When I got the new PC they had a deal on a 19" 1280x1024 monitor for only $50 which was pretty much a no brainer and so I've been running dual 1280x1024's for the last couple of years.

But my old Viewsonic died and although the HP still works fine the power button broke off and I have to use a paper clip to turn the power on and off on it. Not that big a deal but a bit annoying.

So yesterday I searched the web for some monitors and I decided on a pair of Hyundai 24", 1920x1200 monitors with a 0.27mm pixel pitch, 5ms response time and a 10,000:1 contrast ratio. I had been thinking of getting one 1920x1200 monitor and then using the HP 1280x1024 in portrait mode as the second monitor but for $319 each it was why bother, why not just get two, so I did.

The other little upgrade that I did was because my Security Suite needs a new license and they no longer support the current version of software so I'm forced to upgrade.

Those that know me know how picky I am about installing new software. I had gone with the Kaspersky basically because they provide US based weekday 8am to 8pm east cost time phone support even for home licenses. That plus the minimal two processes they spawn as well as a pretty clean UI.

I was worried about the upgrade so per my usual procedure I took a disk image so that I could restore back to my precise state if there was something about the upgrade that I didn't like. However I have to say that I've never had a smoother or cleaner upgrade.

Not only did they completely delete all the old code, directory structure and even the old virus definition files from the previous version, I also checked the registry for any left over keys from the previous version and couldn't find a one.

They also imported all the custom rules that had been defined over the years based on my responses to various warnings. Plus they kept UI pretty clean and still only load two processes.

I did however at the recommendation of the support person I talked to last night only upgrade to the 2009 version instead of the 2010 version because they said most folks coming from the ISS7.0 suite seemed to prefer that version.

All in all I'm almost as happy with it as I would have been had I not had to make any change at all.

So two new 24" monitors and a new security suite and *still* on XP.

What's coming *after* Win 7?

[DethAdder]

My second monitor is also a 17inch Viewsonic E70 I bought about a decade ago. I've thought about replacing it, but it has been going this long so I figured I'd just keep it till it dies one day. the on/off switch messed up a couple fo years ago and i have to unplug it to turn it off, but that is all the problems it's ever had. When I got it 1024x768 was the norm and it has I think 105Hz refresh at that resolution. It hasn't seen that res in quite a while, but it's all good at 60Hz 1280x1024.

Going from what you have to two 24s, that's going to be huge jump in screen space. You might have to sit back a bit

[BMF]

I am hesitant to mention it.....but.....Win7 really is very good. I know you dont just change your set up on the basis of how it looks, but it really does run that much smoother than XP did.

Oh btw...two 24"'s!!!! Nice...that would look awesome with GC2 spread across both of them....