New blood

[weak_sauce]

ello!
so this is my first alienware (17 model) after wanting one for years so im totally stoked about it . im still learning what its all about, but its definitely met all my needs so far. is there anything i should now/ change / update / anything since i havent really done much but make my own themes and change some settings around to make it 'mine' lol anything i should avoid doing?
also, i dont wanna touch on some sacred grounds on this question, but any links to the plugin for winamp?
My model just for reference :
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M
750 GB
Windows 8
Intel Core i7
16 GB RAM

thanks guys!

 

[MattyB]

Welcome!
I would update you Nvidia driver first. They can sometimes be way out of date when you get your machine. I would also get a good SSD installed to get your beast really humming.

 

[Alienwulf]

I agree with MattyB SSD for sure, best upgrade you can do. Just enjoy you new Beast.

 

[weak_sauce]

thanks guys, did you update through dell? and with a SSD upgrade, you'll need to reinstall windows correct?
And i love this thing, just wish i had more computer games to try out on it instead of COD ghost

 

[shankc]

Welcome to the club

 

[MattyB]

Update your graphics driver straight from NVidia. Dell are usually light years behind.
Yes you will need to reinstall your OS and all the drivers with the new SSD. It can be time consuming but not too difficult. You can clone the information across from the old drive but I would do a clean install. The best thing to do is leave your old HDD alone (do not reformat it) so you can always put it back in later as if it was never removed. Just buy yourself another large HDD for data storage. They are pretty cheap.

 

[weak_sauce]

Thanks everyone for the replies.
I got the update from dell but i can't remember the version right now so ill go back and check on the which ones were available.
As far as the SSD, i heard some horror stories about the lifespan of them that's why I was hesitant at first. Anyone have a good experience or know of any reliable brands?
Also i absolutely despise windows 8 so im about to either shrink it and put windows 7 on it as a second OS or just trash 8 all together. That's why i was open to the solid states. just kind of in between ideas at the moment.

 

[MattyB]

They have pretty good reliability. Not as good as mechanical HDDs but still plenty for the average user. It's always good to have a backup on an external drive anyway for the things you don't want to lose. At the end of the day if your SSD fails then you just have to reinstall the OS and programs again. No big deal.
I don't see the need for having both 7 and 8 on there. I enjoy 7 so I'm sticking to it.

 

[weak_sauce]

thats basically my opinion on it right now. If i decide to go for the SSD I'm definitely gonna be diligent with the backups pretty much out of fear lol i just like the thought of being able to use it on airplanes and trips without worrying that my HD is gonna fail from all the movement. Gaming on the long 5 hour plane trip home would be a plus!
And the for the dual OS', i was just going to have em just to play around with. Right now i have 8 and linux on a separate partitions as well as xp/mint on a virtual machine just to be sure i don't mess up this beautiful machine. Or i might be crazy