The Computer Megathread

[Tømpson]

I was wondering if the 400$ computer could do casual fps gaming on low - regular graphics at 30+ fps?

[Ad Bot]

[Trymos]

I know a person who plays Skyrim on high with a $500 laptop. He gets around 30-60 fps. I forget exactly which but it was at least 30 and seemed seamless.

It was a graphic design laptop or something. It has an AMD fusion that designates two cores to graphics.

you can reduce the resolution to get better framerate, that's probably what he did.

[Ethan]

I am planning on reformatting my new acer laptop, but I don't want to reformat it with the bloatware, would the OEM windows 7 key work on a downloaded CD/DVD?

OEM = one use, sorry.

Guys I just got my new sweet awesome series gaming graphics card in.  It's so sweet that you can't even handle it's awesome.

Also it was so popular when I was buying it, it sold out!

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=536072&CatId=876

No seriously if you're stupid and don't get that I am joking then lol.  I have no loving clue why this card was in my house to begin with.  I was lurking about on my second floor after laying in the sun outside and I see in my old computer room in the closet an anti-static bag that I recieved when I bought my Radeon HD 4550 1gb.  So I was like Da fuq, I grabbed it off the top shelve as it was hiding next to the ceiling for god how many years.  I looked at an old computer receipt my mom found from 1998 and it wasn't with that.  So really the forget is this thing doing and why is that no computer that we have owned, or gotten from others it ever came with.

AGP slot. Figure out what model it is :P

This is the one thing that frustrates me most with society that involves computers.  People do not loving understand that PC stands for personal computer.  And mainly you, Boink, are the factor in this scenario that is the factor resulting in this thread that will cause a flame war because you lack the understanding that Mac's are equally PC's just to Window's computers are PC's as well.  So when people say "Macvspc" it's just a mac vs itself nothing else.  Mac's are built the exact same way any windows computer is.  The education of america, europe or anywhere for that matter fails at describing the basis between context of PC being an overall computer and Window's being Microsoft's counteractive to Apple's Macintosh system.  Nothing makes them special but their looks and user basis opinions of the two.  So next time, don't say PC means window's or it means Mac, because it means loving any computer system.

So go to hell 'Boink!'.  My argument is final.

Just saying, even Apple themselves in their marketing try to separate their computers from the PC name. Just look at the "Hi, I'm a Mac. And I'm a PC" advertising campaign they had not long ago.

I'm pretty sure it's removable, but I would honestly have far less pain installing drivers over removing bloatware and getting fragmentation.
It would be far less painful just installing a clean copy and installing the drivers separately since i have separate computers.
Oh, and the Acer recovery DVD's still keep the bloatware, unfortunately.

And one last thing, my webcam drivers don't mix well at ALL with the bloatware. Main reason why I wanted to reformat with a clean slate.

Most computers don't even need drivers installed anyway. Windows 7 has a pretty decent stock hardware driver library already in the OS.

http://forum.blockland.us/index.php?topic=193392.0

So I took out the hard drive and tried to boot it on another computer, same issue. I used checkdisk on it, and it said nothing was wrong with the hard drive; so what is the issue then?

Sounds to me like there is a corruption in your OS files.
Do you get the error during startup?
If so, press F8 just after the BIOS flash screen, and select Last Known Good Configuration.
If that doesn't work, try selecting safe mode and see if it will boot in that.

If it does boot in safe mode, it appears it is a driver/software problem with recently installed hardware/applications. What was the last thing you remember installing? Try remove any drivers/software you think could be causing the issue.

Report back here after this. But if you are feeling a bit ruthless:

If I were you, I'd do 3 things:

Download HDDRegen, put it on a USB stick/CD and run it on the problem hard drive to check for bad sectors.
Then, put the hard drive into another computer and get all your valuable information off.
Then, if the HDDRegen finishes and the hard drive itself looks healthy:
 - Format the drive.
 - Install a fresh copy of Windows.
 - Transfer your valuable information back over.
Job done. But if the hard drive contains a lot of bad sectors, fails to scan properly or is really slow with scanning, then I would:
 - Buy a new hard drive.
 - Install Windows.
 - Transfer your valuable information on to the new hard drive.

[Ethan]

(for the people who are paranoid of pre builts, they can offer pretty great deals at $300-400, some of them even better deals then building a computer.)

lies

Hey I have a question.

I don't believe either CPU or GPU are the problem here, but a combination of both. The specs are balanced and it's a really good laptop. You won't get too much better than that for $1000.
And just as a note, it's not really the CPU speed that matters anymore, it's more the architecture and the amount of cores. Sure, speed does help, but an i7 Quad core @ 2.2GHz would be better than an i5 Dual core @ 2.4GHz anyday.

I wonder if you could stretch your budget a bit:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152349

i didn't bother with the building a PC part because HP refurbished already gave some really great specs for $325.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883203747 if you're not afraid of refurbished.

if you're willing to go a little bit over budget you can install this motherforgeter for a pretty beast PC:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161395

wait i think that thing is going to have problems with the GPU, not entirely sure since i don't know the watts of the PSU.
actually, get the card later on when you have more cash and replace it with a 500 watt PSU and that GPU.
ooh ooh can i guess?
i'm going to guess you have a DELL!

That GPU only requires 75w as it only gets power through the PCI-E lane, and not through any extra connectors. It would be a simple plug and play job.
FYI for future reference, PCI-E lane delivers 75w, a 6-pin PCI connector delivers an additional 75w, and an 8-pin PCI connector delivers an additional 150w.

[Ethan]

I was wondering if the 400$ computer could do casual fps gaming on low - regular graphics at 30+ fps?

The one in OP? It's dated now, I need to update that list but am really busy with study at the moment. I will when I am not busy.

[pecon98]

Sounds to me like there is a corruption in your OS files.
Do you get the error during startup?
If so, press F8 just after the BIOS flash screen, and select Last Known Good Configuration.
If that doesn't work, try selecting safe mode and see if it will boot in that.

If it does boot in safe mode, it appears it is a driver/software problem with recently installed hardware/applications. What was the last thing you remember installing? Try remove any drivers/software you think could be causing the issue.

Report back here after this. But if you are feeling a bit ruthless:

If I were you, I'd do 3 things:

Download HDDRegen, put it on a USB stick/CD and run it on the problem hard drive to check for bad sectors.
Then, put the hard drive into another computer and get all your valuable information off.
Then, if the HDDRegen finishes and the hard drive itself looks healthy:
 - Format the drive.
 - Install a fresh copy of Windows.
 - Transfer your valuable information back over.
Job done. But if the hard drive contains a lot of bad sectors, fails to scan properly or is really slow with scanning, then I would:
 - Buy a new hard drive.
 - Install Windows.
 - Transfer your valuable information on to the new hard drive.

I ended up reinstalling the OS. I plugged the HDD into a new computer and ran CheckDisk on it, and it appeared fine; but still wouldn't boot. And no, it wouldn't boot from last known good configuration or safe mode.

[Tømpson]

The one in OP? It's dated now, I need to update that list but am really busy with study at the moment. I will when I am not busy.

Okay, thanks for the help man.

[Snaffle J. Bean]

lol guys whats this "cable management" everyone on computer forums are talking about

[Ethan]

I ended up reinstalling the OS. I plugged the HDD into a new computer and ran CheckDisk on it, and it appeared fine; but still wouldn't boot. And no, it wouldn't boot from last known good configuration or safe mode.

I hope you didn't lose any information you needed.

lol guys whats this "cable management" everyone on computer forums are talking about
-snip-

That's quite bad but doesn't look too bad because of the huge case you have. Definitely tidy it up haha :P

[Slicks555]

That's quite bad but doesn't look too bad because of the huge case you have. Definitely tidy it up haha :P

Mine's significantly worse. I don't see how it's even possible to 'tidy' it up, the wires aren't log enough to take some detoured rout around the side of the case.

[Ethan]

Mine's significantly worse. I don't see how it's even possible to 'tidy' it up, the wires aren't log enough to take some detoured rout around the side of the case.

Don't buy a cheap PSU then haha

[Warground]

I am planning on reformatting my new acer laptop, but I don't want to reformat it with the bloatware, would the OEM windows 7 key work on a downloaded CD/DVD?

What Ethan said is just wrong, its not "one use only"

Sure you can use a OEM key together with a normal install DVD.
Just keep sure you get the right version.
I did that many times with my laptop.

OEM keys are just special licenses for OEMs, but they are still a valid license.
OEM just stands for "Original-Equipment-Manufacturer"

[Slicks555]

Don't buy a cheap PSU then haha

Wasn't cheap, lol.

[Ethan]

What Ethan said is just wrong, its not "one use only"

Sure you can use a OEM key together with a normal install DVD.
Just keep sure you get the right version.
I did that many times with my laptop.

OEM keys are just special licenses for OEMs, but they are still a valid license.
OEM just stands for "Original-Equipment-Manufacturer"

A retail disk/key of Windows can be used on up to 3 installations.
An OEM disk/key of Windows is only good for 1 installation.

[Trymos]

What Ethan said is just wrong, its not "one use only"

Sure you can use a OEM key together with a normal install DVD.
Just keep sure you get the right version.
I did that many times with my laptop.

OEM keys are just special licenses for OEMs, but they are still a valid license.
OEM just stands for "Original-Equipment-Manufacturer"

windows 7 home premium.

also, i did upgrade from 4 GB of ram to 8GB if that makes a difference with the key.

A retail disk/key of Windows can be used on up to 3 installations.
An OEM disk/key of Windows is only good for 1 installation.

3 DIFFERENT COMPUTERS.
1 COMPUTER.
otherwise, explain how my vista desktop worked on a downloaded vista dvd with an OEM key?
just now i realized that.

otherwise, why would they have an oem key on the computer if its worthless?