Occasionally I like to update my “What I use” article so you can see what hardware and software Windows7News editors prefer in their own lives, especially as we’re reviewing it all the time.  Since I last wrote about the hardware and software I use back in February this year much has changed, at least on the hardware front.  In that time I’d say that my software usage hasn’t changed much at all.  I’ve upgraded to Internet Explorer 9, jumped ship from Windows Live Mail to Outlook 2010 because of add-ins like the LinkedIn social connector and returned to Microsoft Security Essentials after a brief, and frustrating, flirtation with Norton Internet Security.

But what computing hardware have I chosen to take me up to the launch of Windows 8?

Desktop PC (Self-Build)

My main PC is one I built myself and if you have a copy of my book, Troubleshooting Windows 7 Inside Out and check out pages 296 to 300 you can see it yourself in various states of assembly. It’s a Core i7 860 (pre-SandyBridge) running at 2.8GHz but overclocked to 3.07GHz.  This is backed up by 6Gb of DDR3 RAM overclocked from 1,600MHz to 1,768MHz.  Windows is installed on an Intel X25-M 80Gb SSD and it’s coupled with two Samsung SpinPoint S3 1Tb hard disks.  Finally there’s a Sapphire Radeon HD6850 graphics card with 2Gb of GDDR5 memory running Call of Duty Black Ops on a Dell 23.1 inch screen with a resolution of 2048 x 1152.  This machine runs a single installation of Windows 7 Ultimate.

Acer Aspire L5100 (Main TV / Media Centre)

I’ve used a Media Centre PC as my main way of receiving television in my living room now since 2003.  This Acer L5100, which is probably going to expire soon has an AMD Athlon64x2 processor, 3Gb of DDR2 ram and a 500Gb hard disk.  This PC came with Vista but has since been updated with Windows 7 Home Premium.  What’s more it includes a DVB-T television tuner and is only the size of a hardback book.  This is annoying as these types of PCs are becoming very difficult to find new, so I’m open to suggestions if you know of a good replacement for it.

Office Desktop (Self Build)

This machine is soon to be retired.  It’s served me well though with a 2.66GHz Core2Duo processor, 4Gb of 800MHz DDR2 RAM, an nVidia GeForce 9400GT graphics card (not for gaming this one) and a couple of hard disks of 750Gb and 400Gb capacities.  This machine runs two installations of Windows 7, one main copy of Ultimate and one minimalist copy of Professional that I use for making webcasts.  This is connected to a, now ageing, 24 inch montior running at 1920 x 1200.  This machine is now being replaced by…

Dell Precision M6600 Laptop

My main work PC is now a laptop, something I’ve previously resisted having but now have to for presentations.  It’s got a SandyBridge Core i7 processor running at 2.5GHz with 8Gb of 1,333MHz DDR3 RAM and nVidia Quadro 4000M graphics with 2Gb of GDDR5 memory.  It’s got a 750GB hard disk and space for a second hard disk.  The machine has a 17.3 inch multi-touch screen with a full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080.  The laptop has a TPM chip and fingerprint reader and will be set up for three copies of Windows 8 next month (fingers crossed).  One for daily work, one clean one for video production and webcasts, and another clean copy for presentations.  This laptop was procured because I’ll be doing a great many Windows 8 and other events in the coming year, and it was chosen for it’s power and features.

ExoPC Slate 64Gb

I have two tablet computers, one needing to be a Windows device for work.  This machine (also known as the ZooStorm, jsTAB, SL8, WeeTab, Ciara Vibe and bModo Slate it’s been rebranded so much) has an Intel dual-core Atom N450 running at 1.66GHz backed up with 2Gb of DDR2 RAM.  It sports Intel’s on-board graphics and a two point multi-touch screen running at a resolution of 1366 x 768.  It contains a 64Gb SSD and I have an additional 32Gb of storage on an SDHC card.  Most importantly for me this tablet includes a 3G SIM card slot, making it very useful on trips away.  This tablet is here ready for Windows 8 so I can test it and write about it fully.

HP TouchPad 32Gb

I’ve been a fan of the WebOS tablet operating system for ages now, describing it as the only tablet OS “capable of giving Apple a bloody nose”.  Well that now looks unlikely to happen with my own TouchPad being bought in the recent fire sale.  This is my day to day, lightweight tablet for using at home when I’m relaxing.

HTC Mozart Windows Phone

I like the connectedness that the Microsoft ecosystem offers, and I especially like my contacts, emails and calendar automatically synchronising across all my devices so it’s not something I have to think about.  Add to this the fact that the new Mango release, which my phone is currently upgraded to, allows me to access documents stored in my Office Live account, and getting a Windows Phone was a no-brainer.  Of the handsets available in the UK at launch I felt the Mozart was the best for size, build quality and screen-quality.

xTreamer eTRAYz

My main home storage is an xTreamer eTRAYz NAS drive with two 2Tb Samsung Spinpoint S3 drives.  I find this is an extremely small, quick and light NAS solution.

Lexmark X543DN Colour Laser

I’ve changed my laser recently from a Samsung which was constantly jamming.  The Lexmark X543DN is a great networked colour laser.  It has a scanner on the top with a sheet-feeder, though on this model alas its only single-sided scans and copies, and it also has built-in duplexing, but all this comes in at under £190 ($240) which is a bargain for all this and full high-yield toner cartridges when its new.

What else caught my eye

I’ve also been fortunate to review and use a great many hardware devices this year and there are a couple of devices that definitely caught my attention.  First of these was the Samsung Series 9 Ultraportable laptop.  I was hugely tempted by this as it’s powerful and incredibly thin and light.  In the end I plumped for the M6600 because of the additional storage it offers and also because the lack of a VGA socket and only a mini HDMI on the Series 9 might have caused difficulties with presentations.

The other piece of hardware that caught my eye was the ASUS EP121 tablet, a Core i5 Windows 7 tablet with 4Gb of DDR3 RAM.  You need deep pockets to be able to afford either of these, but for what they offer they’re both by far the best on the market currently.

Also I’m currently testing the HTC HD 7 Pro Windows Phone with a slide out (sideways) full qwerty keyboard.  It’s frustrating that too many aspects of the Windows Phone OS don’t rotate but for working on, this handset; which still isn’t available in the UK for some odd reason despite being launched late last year, is a worthy contender for my favourite smartphone.

So that’s my equipment here aside from a few minor extras such as a Netgear Powerline AV networking kit to attach my printer and computer in my home study to the network, the wi-fi not being able to properly penetrate the walls.  I’ll update this again around February or March next year.