Picked up a new computer today–another HP system as the last couple have really worked out for us and it’s just a whole lot easier than building my own (i.e., figuring out what to buy).

Given how I’ve ended up referring to my past posts about new machines countless times, I figured I’d continue that tradition to write a post about the new machine along with the relevant links I used to get drivers, etc. It’s also kind of interesting to see how much things have changed over the years. Anyway, here goes:

  • HP Pavilion Elite PC m9360f (drivers)
  • Intel Core2 Quad Processor Q9300 2.50GHz, 6MB L2 cache, 1333MHz FSB
  • 8GB RAM
  • 1TB Hard Drive
  • Bluray Player & SuperMulti DVD Burner (w/Lightscribe)
  • NVidia GeForce 9800GT (driver)
  • Hauppage TV Tuner
  • Realtek LAN Adapter (driver)
  • Ralink/Lite-On Wireless Network Adapter (driver)
    • The one labeled “PCI/mPCI/CB(RT2760/RT2790/RT2860/RT2890)” worked for me.
  • 15-in-1 Memory Card Reader
  • Firewire/USB 2.0

The first thing I always do is format the box and reinstall a clean version of the OS–in this case I installed Vista Ultimate 64-bit. This turned out to be a much better experience than I had last time when trying to find all the necessary drivers that don’t already come with the OS. Unfortunately, the LAN adapter is one that doesn’t work automatically following a vanilla install of Vista. I downloaded (link is above) on a separate computer, put it on a USB key, and installed it. Once that was working, downloading the other few drivers was pretty quick.

I’ll update this post as I find anything else that may be relevant and/or helpful for folks (including myself) trying to install Vista on this box from scratch.