The Computer Megathread

[naturemon]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007M50PTM/

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230173
Despite being refurbished mine came in perfect condition.

Love it, also has a keyboard attachment that extends battery life and clips on, essentially turning it into a laptop.

[Ad Bot]

[duckman1229]

Could someone tell me if this is a decent setup? It says I would get 81 fps on Extra setting on CoD MW2, but I wouldn't play that. It comes with a monitor and I have a windows OS disk.

[pecon98]

The GPU is pretty good, though I don't really like that series of AMD processors. However, it should run just fine anyways.

[duckman1229]

Ok, cool. Plus with that card I get Hitman: Absolution and Far Cry 3 for free.

[Tokthree]

So guys, what is Win8 like? After realising that I will never find a retail copy of Win7 at the price I want I'm considering just going for it.
I know you can disable the metro screen and get a regular old taskbar and desktop back, but can I use the custom themes I use in Win7 on it? And what's the driver/game/program compatibility like so far? Any major problems with things I'm likely to use?

[pecon98]

I've had no compatibility issues so far. You can't skip the start menu, but I like it anyways. And it's just a click away from the desktop. Windows 7 themes should still work just fine. All in all I think it's a great upgrade, mainly because it runs programs a whole lot faster than on 7 (notable FPS increase on games).

It will only take you a day or so to get used to the new interfaces.

[Tokthree]

The other issue is that I will need to upgrade my OEM copy of Win7, once I've done that can I do the actual format and install of Windows 8 on a separate harddrive? Or will it just format and install to the same drive as Win7 without letting you do anything about it? I would like to install it on my Caviar Black instead of this Dell stock pile of junk.

And also, how does re-installing it work? If it's an upgrade edition then surely you can only install it on a system that has Win7 or XP installed?
I don't get this, why couldn't they just sell regular old retail copies like they have for the past however many versions of Windows

[pecon98]

Well, the cheapest way to get Windows 8 is through anytime upgrade. Which will unfortunately only install into the same drive (I think, because I don't remember seeing options). You might want to just search around for options.

[Tokthree]

Does anyone know anything about whether or not full retail DVD's are going to be sold at some point? Or are we stuck with the upgrade editions for all eternity now?

[pecon98]

You can buy retail DVD's at stores and online, they just cost a lot more.

[Legodude77]

Good pair of intel cpu + mother board for not a lot of money. Also something better than my AMD Phenom II X4 970 (quad core, 3.5Hz)

[Tokthree]

You can buy retail DVD's at stores and online, they just cost a lot more.

Only OEM and upgrade DVD's everywhere I've looked, from Amazon to specialized computer retailers, none of them stock full retail copies

[rooster767]

Just got nearly all of my parts today for Christmas. c:

I only need the case, and the two monitors now.


so excited asdkflasdlfm

[Axolotl2]

I didn't get a good answer for the GTX680 or 690 question so I will ask it again.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rTNh
I will have ~$2.5k ready for budget. I will be gaming with only one monitor. I will be using the 2nd hard drive for Windows Backup.

Possible games that I will use:
Minecraft with maxed out graphics (and maxed GLSL shaders), expecting 60+ FPS.
Blockland with furthest render distance and max shaders, expecting 60+ FPS.
Star Ruler with max settings.

I don't care about noise, as long as it doesn't go over 80dB.

[ultimamax]

Axo, get a 680. When you're spending $1000~ on a graphics card you know it's not going to make any noticable difference unless you're playing several games at once or something..