So, new desktop was delivered today and I've spent most of this evening tinkering with it.

This included as planned, ripping out a hard disk and reformatting the one remaining drive and throwing on Vista Ultimate x64

So overall the experience has been relatively painless except for a few minor gripes (as most people find when they make the leap to 64 bit computing).

When I initially received it, I booted up it was just to make sure it was actually working and as expected everything was. Walked through the "Welcome to Vista" screens and a few minutes later, Vista Home Premium was up and running...with as expected 3,326Mb of addressable RAM.

Hah! I thought, I can do better than that! So out came my Ultimate x64 DVD, a quick reset and away we went.

A few reboots later, Vista appeared looking pretty ugly (standard VGA controller as it didn't recognise my ATI HD 2600 XT card). Well that's easy to fix, so off I went to AMD's site, or so as I thought...no network connection.

It appears Vista didn't come with the 64-bit drivers for the G33 chipset (and thus onboard LAN) that resides within the Vostro. Thankfully I have more than one machine so this, with the aid of a USB Key was easily resolved.

Next up on my hit list was a device called the SM Bus Driver. Again this is all down to the G33 chipset, so with a bit of googleing I tracked down the correct drivers on the Intel website (Dell lists no 64 bit downloads for the Vostro so this was absolutely no help here), downloaded them and clicked 'run'.

And suddenly there was sound!

So with audio, new chipset drivers and a newly installed video driver, I wondered off to the Welcome Centre to check my WEI and to my utter surprise (and shock) noticed my totally addressable RAM was....3,326Mb!

After much hunting this looks like a known issue with the BIOS on the Vostro's (the same issue appears to have just been resolved on the Inspiron's with a BIOS update). The OS supports it, the motherboard supports it and the chipset supports it, but the BIOS, alas, doesn't at present.

So overall, not too many issues so far. The RAM issue kinda irks me but I will assume, at least for the time being, Dell will release a new BIOS shortly to resolve this.

SP1 is currently downloading so I'm expecting to have at least by the end of this evening a pretty much clean machine all SP1'd up and ready for the endless application loading.

Performance wise, I have to admit, it's incredibly quick and far more punchy than I had expected. Comparing this to my work laptop, a seriously over-spec'd Latitude D620 (Intel Core Duo T7600, 4Gb RAM, 7200rpm HDD, nVidia Quaddro NVS 110) doesn't compare. The Vostro wins hands down and I have to say, it's finally good to experience Vista as I'm sure Microsoft intended.

The Windows Experience Index is a relatively impressive 4.8 and this is only down to my memory (as the 4Gb RAM is 667Mhz). Everything else is in the 5's.

Will I switch back to 32-bit given my inability to run the full 4Gb's RAM at the moment?

Probably not, at this time, I don't envisage too many issues to be honest, given the apps I'm going to be loading. However, with the app loading over the next few days, we'll see if anything else major crops up.

Now all I have to wait for is the WHS Power Pack 1 so I can backup x64 clients...

Well, 36 hours after I ordered my new Vostro, whilst away on vacation, I get a ring from the courier to say "I have a delivery of a new computer for you".

Have had to push it back until tomorrow when I'm at home and have lost the remainder of today (Sunday) to get the new beast up and running (next week is fairly busy so will have to squeeze the rebuild and reorganising of the desktops over the whole week's evenings now I think).

What was a busy week, will now be hectic as the list of things to do has just gotten larger: -

• Upgrade the Home Server
• Copy the contents over from my current desktop to the server
• Totally throw away the current build in the new Vostro and rebuild from scratch with Vista Ultimate x64
• Rebuild my current desktop with Vista Home Premium for the kids
• Reinstall everything onto the new desktops (sigh)

Even though I proudly work for Dell, and for the last two years, was the main software architect for Supply Chain throughout EMEA, it still impresses the hell out of me sometimes just how quickly we can fulfil orders (the Manufacturing facility at Limerick when at full speed is a sight to behold believe me).

Roll on tomorrow and the start of the rebuilding.

Well I've just ordered (finally) a new desktop for myself. Have been using my rock solid (but old) Dell Dimension 4500 (now coming up to 6 years old) since it was bought brand new when I moved to Ireland...and I've been slowly coming to the conclusion it simply cannot cope with my expectations anymore. It's time for it to be retired to the children's playroom once I've rebuilt it.

I did promise myself one last year but never seemed to get round to it. We're doing until the 26th (Dell that is) a sterling deal on the Vostro range (Vostro 400, Dual Core, 4Gb RAM + 1Tb storage (2x500Gb SATA)) for a staggering cheap €319+vat. Have also upgraded the video to a 256Mb which means I get free shipping.

So it's cost me pretty much next to nothing for a pretty powerful machine.

The plan is to install Vista Ultimate 64-bit on it so that I can address all 4Gb RAM as well as also steal one of the 500Gb SATA drives and stick it in my Home Server.

So this kills two birds with one stone; I get a desktop that's actually usable running vista, and my home server gets another 0.5Tb storage.

Lovely

So I've been using WHS now for a number of months now and overall am very impressed with the overall package.

One aspect I hadn't really used (or setup) was the Remote Access features and links to xxxx.homerserver.com.

No real reason tbh, just hadn't the inclination or time to fully investigate it. Well with potentially more travel in the coming months, having the ability to have access to my files and all music while on go is getting a little more attractive.

Unfortunately, my ISP (the disadvantage of living rurally is you have very little choice to your ISP especially when ADSL is not available in your village!), won't allow me access to my router's configuration to enable UPnP (which WHS needs to so it can configure port forwarding).

However after a little investigation they will configure it for you. So yesterday I pushed an email off them asking them to open ports 80, 443, 444 (streaming) and 4125 (Remote Desktop) and forward it onto my WHS on my internal network).

30 minutes later, all is changed, I check my xxxx.homeserver.com domain and viola! All is working. I now have access to my entire internal network via a pretty efficient web based UI if required. I can even run the WHS Console remotely so if need be I can kick off backup's, check storage etc.

I've also added the WebGuide WHS Add-in that will stream your content (video or music) to an external client.

All in all, my setup it pretty set now, except for the ever growing need of more storage. My DVD collection I've put onto the server is starting to highlight the real need for more drives...

A lot of people I'm sure are wondering (and have done for many years!) is why the hell is everything about me online all related to Red Dog? My emails, my domains, even my gamertag (MrRedDog) etc.

Well there's a little story here for anyone who wants to know.

Many years ago, Paul Hammond (a good friend of mine) started to go contracting in the UK and as what was the trend at the time, the aim was to use a limited company but get away from all of the boring IT type names that were being used (ABC Computer Services Ltd etc).

So Paul, started this whole trend with creating a company called Crazy Turtle (yeah I know, a funky name and he even had a logo created for it which rocked).

Not to be outdone too much I shortly also jumped onto the contracting bandwagon myself and had the same dilemma of what to call the company.

We had recently bought an Irish Setter puppy (he's 11 now and still going strong) and it all started from there...

Various companies later (all named Red Dog in one form or other) the name and domain's stuck. Unfortunately reddog.ie was taken well before I moved to Ireland so I've kept with the .co.uk domain.

Now you know.

As a family of fairly heavy users of computers at home (2 desktops, 3 laptops), I was always very aware of the risk present with lots of data on all of the machines.

So, when WHS was announced I started to keep a closer eye on the technology and how it was developing.

As a promise to myself this year, I assured 'me', I'd sort out the backup strategy and media streaming capabilities of the house (to both the 360 in the 2nd living room and the main TV/Stereo in the main one).

So in January I jumped onboard and installed WHS onto a Xeon based Dell PowerEdge server I had 'lying' around doing nothing.

Have been using WHS for about a month now so thought I'd share my views on it.

Well, it just 'works'. There's nothing more to say. The integration onto the desktop is excellent, the backup engine again is just so well put together there's never an issue. I've created a backup window every evening and the systems just backup one at a time during this time with no issues. WHS will even push a Wake Up over LAN message to them if they're hibernated or asleep.

Overall, the product has changed my setup here for the better (and yes, granted I could have performed most of the functionality by simply reusing the current version of Win2K3 that was on the server and tweaking my own processes). But items that need to be called out as serious enhancements are: -

• The Drive Extender technology (never worry about a drive running out of space again)
• Backup Engine is flawless and quick (which is a marked difference to the Vista backup engine!)
• The Remote Connection capabilities via xxxx.homeserver.com)
• The Console (even though based on a Remote Desktop Connection) is a great tool centralising all aspects of the WHS and the add-in functionality is great.

But there's a but. There's currently a known issue with the Drive Extender technology that means any 'write' to a WHS share from specific applications from any computer that's not the Server may result in data corruption.

This is being worked on as a top priority by MS and a fix is slated for release in June(!). So until then WHS does lose a little of its flair but, enough for me to remove WHS (like lot of people are saying they will) and revert back to my old ways??

No way.

Ok, after a bit of fiddling with a dodgy cookie or two, I seem to be up and running. Although will need to sort out the layout and themes to my liking, Red Dog's musings are back in action, after a seriously long break.

Welcome!