PC operating system question

FluffyChicken":2jkuq4aj said:

You could try just puttin ghte old harddrive in and booting. May work, may not

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It won't work very well. I transplanted a hd from an old PC to a new one. It caused no end of hassle as the drivers for the mb and vga card were completely different. It made no difference trying to uninstall them and installing the new drivers. The system was far less stable than when doing a clean install.

Just wipe the disc (after you've saved everything you want to keep) and do a clean install. You'll have less headaches in the future, that way.

The best thing to do is just go Linux which is free and far more reliable than Windows anyway.

Hence the may or may not.

I've done it a quite a few times and worked flawlessly (usually staying in the same manufacturers chipsets and graphics cards chipsets as they are universal drivers) or not at all

If it works 'sort of' a Repair from the setup disc often sort it out but you may as well just do a clean install then

Win7 should be available from Microsoft site (it's in pre release testing, but free)

WinXP you could probably get of ebay or a code on the bottom of a laptop somewhere for cheap.

Best still is to grab your OEM key (if not stuck to your computer or somewhere)
This post will inform you of possible ways.
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/51 ... 42778.html

Also note it it's Home or Pro edition. Go find a cd to download.

stew-b":3p8iccrs said:

ok so a few good options there next question.. is this decent value??

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 3DWatching

bear in mind i have absolutely no intention of playing games on it,got my PS3+360 for that

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That's too cheap.
Honestly, with a little company like this one, good luck if it goes wrong.
Explicitly what do you want to do with it? If it's just word processing and going on the internet, I would go with one of these.http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/233848/80gb-viglen-mpc-l-79-inc-vat-delive/

i also use it for some photoshop work,basic video editing and dvdburning and wife uses it for her OU course,i already have a fairly decent desktop,p4 thing..but fancy an upgrade..

stew-b":v5oa39ll said:

ok so a few good options there next question.. is this decent value??

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 3DWatching

bear in mind i have absolutely no intention of playing games on it,got my PS3+360 for that

Click to expand...

Maybe try the Dell Vostro 220 instead..

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dell...t1&l=en&oc=D042210&dgc=AF&cid=5213&lid=122757

E5200 processor, 2Gb RAM, Vista Home Premium, 250GB HDD incl 1 year onsite-warranty for £235 delivered.

Paul..

stew-b":2fu75jkb said:

ok so a few good options there next question.. is this decent value??

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 3DWatching

bear in mind i have absolutely no intention of playing games on it,got my PS3+360 for that

Click to expand...

That's fairly good value but, if I'm not mistaken, currant 7 series Nvidia GPUs are integrated graphics. That means that it uses your system RAM.

stew-b":2fu75jkb said:

i also use it for some photoshop work,basic video editing and dvdburning and wife uses it for her OU course,i already have a fairly decent desktop,p4 thing..but fancy an upgrade..

Click to expand...

If you're going to be doing photoshop work or video editing then you definitely don't want integrated graphics. Get a system with a decent PCIe graphics card in it. Not only are they faster than integrated graphics they don't use your system RAM, which you need for graphics or video work. Also make sure that you get a PC with at least 2Gb RAM (more if you get a Vista based PC). With photoshop work a PC benefits from the extra RAM.

Does anyone really think Microsoft are going to come knocking at your door? If not then who cares if it's legal or not.

If you can get it working do it.

I still use Photoshop on an old Athlon64 3500+ with 1GB ram.

You just drink more coffee waiting. Even the video editing is fine, just take a while longer to compress (wouldn't do HD Video on it though) and is not a smooth to scroll.

As for using System ram, it doesn't use to much and for the price being looked at 2GB is fine and the 5200 is a fine dual core chip and will be wonders compared to the P4.
The 7x00 integrated chipset is not that powerful even as integrated goes.


Of course you can always get better but then you start wondering into the E7x00 processor series (£100+ now ) and the £80+ graphics cards, next you are into £450+ for the system and

Would you consider building your own ?

yes i would definately consider building my own..

Build your own

e.g.
Intel E5200 2.5GHz Retaill (148715) £58.52
Gigabyte GA-EP31-DS3L iP31 Motherboard (148802) £53.77
Force3D HD 4550 512MB Graphics Card (151453) £36.68
Crucial 4GB (2x2GB) RAM (142403) £34.94
Samsung SpinPoint F1 640GB Hard Drive (15868 £49.98
LiteOn 20X DVD±RW/DL (149316) £15.39
Casecom LG-7760 Black/Silver Case - With 400W PSU (105811) £25.99


£275, no Operating system and you have to build it yourself. The Graphics card and mother baord can be changed for an integrated with GeFroce7100 or similar Intel G31 for around the price of the current motherboard. Ram can drop to 2GB an be aroun £18.
Smaller less decent harddrive can be had of course, another £10 to £20 saving.
Number in brackets is ebuyer.com quickfind code
Plenty of alternative of each component around the same price.