OT: VISTA

[Kana]

If one is looking to buy a PC, I say go here and build what you want. It's reasonably priced for what you get.

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/

[Atrocities]

That is a cool site Kana. Thanks.

$2229.00
(before all applicable rebates)


CASE: CoolerMaster Praetorian 730 RC-730 Aluminum Tower 420W Case (Black Color)
CPU: (Sckt775)Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6400 CPU @ 2.13GHz 1066FSB 2x1MB L2 Cache EM64T
MOTHERBOARD: Asus P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe nForce4 SLI Chipset LGA775 Supports Core 2 Duo CPU FSB1066 DDR2/800 Mainboard w/GbLAN, USB2.0, IEEE1394&7.1Audio
MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)1GB (2x512MB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Value Select or Major Brand)
VIDEO CARD: NEW!!! NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB 16X PCI Express (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)
VIDEO CARD 2: NONE
LCD Monitor: NONE
HARD DRIVE: Single Hard Drive (250GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8MB Cache 7200RPM HDD)
Data Hard Drive: 250GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8MB Cache 7200RPM Hard Drive -- Recommended
Optical Drive: (Special Price) 18X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (BLACK COLOR)
Optical Drive 2: COMBO DRIVE (16X DVD-ROM & 52x32x52 CD-RW) (BLACK COLOR)
SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO

[Kana]

Yeah if I had to buy a custom made PC, that is where I would go, I've had some friend be very satisfied with what they recieved.

[Atrocities]

Its the selection, I just don't know what would be best. I mean with so many parts choices which parts are the best for my needs.

I would like to have a nice gaming platform for the next three years. So obviously a high end Geforce Card is a must, 2.1 Ghz Duo-Core process would work, and say 1 gig memory with dual 250 gig HD drives. A nice set of DVD/RW/CDRW drives would be needed, and of course very good case cooling and a 600 watt power supply.

Past that.... what is the best MB, do I need better CPU cooling? What about other extras? Should I go with SLI or stick with top of the line Geforce PCIex card?

What about sound, stick with on board or go with something else?

And then there is VISTA... professional or not... I bought Win2k Pro and XP Pro and have been happy with both. So perhaps ****A pro might be the best fit, say for the price.

[Fyron]

With Win2k and XP only a few years old...

XP has actually had the longest life as the top OS from MS (at least, the windows ones). It was never meant to take this long to make Vista...

Plus, Vista only costs $400 if you buy the ultimate edition. You probably don't actually need the ultimate edition, and would be fine with home premium.

Microsoft will introduce a system destabilizing bug that will cause nothing but massive problems for all XP users thus forcing them to go out and buy VISTA.

This sort of paranoia is just as bad as the WPA kill switch malarky. Did they ever do that to any win9x? No. Did they do it to Win2k? No. Will they do it to XP? No. It doesn't make any sense for them to _ever_ do such a thing.

Kana said:
Yeah if I had to buy a custom made PC, that is where I would go, I've had some friend be very satisfied with what they recieved.

Wouldn't it still be cheaper to spend an hour putting the parts together yourself?

[Atrocities]

Oh they say they don't do things like introduce bugs but lets face it, if they want people to buy vista, they could do something as evil as introduce a bug into the next and presumably last security update for XP. But will they, well who knows, if someone in programing has a lot of stock in MS and they want to sell it while its on the high side, what better way than to force people to upgrade. Not that these kind of thing never happen and all. No, they would never do such a thing. Bring this up in two years if were still around here and then we can talk.

Ya building your own system is fine, but there are set backs. Its better that you let someone else build it for you. They also seem to get better prices on parts do to bulk purchases and they warranty their products. If you build your own system and screw things up, your screwed.

[Fyron]

It would ruin them. Think of all the business customers that _can't_ upgrade to Vista until proper product testing cycles are complete, the software they need to do business is updated to work, etc. Tons of business computers still run windows 2000, you know...

[shinigami]

For me upgrading to Vista is out of the question. Built-in DRM crap that won't let me watch a high-def movie that I paid for on my monitor just because it doesn't have the "correct" connectors? No, thank you.

[Arralen]

Windows 95
Latest version ("c") worked quite well - as long as you didn't asked for
- networking/internet
- package writing support
- USB
...& other fancy things
Had a Win95 (without a,b,c) run for 3,5 years without any problems - until I replaced it with W2k to be able to use Internet Connection Sharing.


Windows 98
Second version ("Second Edition") is quite a nice OS - for a standalone-PC, again. Security is non-existant. Can't really cope with apps which use 512MB RAM ...


Windows ME
Crap.
Really.
The first try from M$ with the next generation of artifical isolation between user (interface) and whats really going on under the hood - where the unsecure and unstable Win9x base and M$-DOS were still present.
Consumer product with 5 years of "support", which are over by now.


Windows NT 4
With service pack 6 finally an OS that could do more than connect to a network securely. Lacked, nevertheless.


Windows 2000 (NT 5.0)
I'm happy with W2k on all my comps for quite some time now - usually 'til the HDD dies, and then I simply re-install again on the new one.
Sadly, the "Extended Support" will cease on 07-13-2010.


Windows XP Professional (NT 5.1)
If I had to get a new Windows license, I would take XP Professional at any time. It will be supported until 2014.
Windows XP home / media center edition
Castraded crap. Every user having admin rights is the cause for all the trouble with trojans/virii/spy- and addware.

Support for all versions of XP will last 'til 2014, btw.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/p...WindowsMA.mspx


Windows Vista
You don't have to buy the most expensive verions.
Do you really need
- support for 2 real CPUs ?
- Users/Groups with different rights (NOT everyone admin) ?
- "runas" option ?
- imaging of the system partition for backup purposes ?
- to be able to connect to a domain ?
- remote desktop server (service) ?
- dynamic storage media ?
If you need any of those, you'll have to get the "Business" Edition (369 Euro full, 249 Euro upgrade, 139 Euro system builder version)

If you want to get
- Media Center
- DVD-Replay (MPEG2)
- Moviemaker
as well, please choose "Ultimate" Edition. (499/329/189 Euro)


And what if you DON'T NEED
- DRM
- overboarding hardware requirements
- more colorful desktop
- more hidden system settings
.. what are you going to do ?????????

I simply hope that when support for W2k/XP ceases it will be time to switch to:
http://www.reactos.org/

[frightlever]

Imperator Fyron said:
[b]
Plus, Vista only costs $400 if you buy the ultimate edition. You probably don't actually need the ultimate edition, and would be fine with home premium.

I was looking at this myself and think the Business is a better bet because you gain better networking and remote desktop facilities and get rid of the bloaded media centre extensions. But no interest in getting either until I need a new PC.

Ah, missed the second page. ReactOS? WinXP compatible OS? I personally wouldn't be any hurry to donate money to that project and I wouldn't be holding my breath for anything to ever get released either.