CHEAP Windows 8 upgrade !!

[gpwurzel]

Were it me Valu, I'd go with Win7

Wurz

[guncrasher]

so what is the alternative based on the need to update my windows XP systems?

All I use these 2 systems i'm needing to update, is primarily Aces High.


                                                                    68valu

windows 7 64 bit.  get it while you can.  or the 32 bit if your system cant handle 64 bit

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986

semp

[Krusty]

If you can get "pro" (if you can save the money because of Windows' ABSURD pricing) it comes with 32 and 64 bit versions. That way you can install what you need. It also supports way more RAM for the x64 version so it will last longer. Remember we had XP for almost 10 years it seems. It was... what? 7 years? That's a long time. In that time I went from thinking 1GB of ram was awe-inspiring to thinking "Meh... maybe I should have got 32GB instead of 24GB for this computer...."

[guncrasher]

krusty what do you run on your computer that needs 24gb of ram?  I have 16 and i hardly use more than 30% of it.  as for having 32 it's a waste of money for gaming.  I hink 16 is


semp

[Dragon Tamer]

I hope HTC does a favor for us, don't include Windows 8 support with AH.  I know this is going to happen anyway but it doesn't hurt to try.

[Skuzzy]

so what is the alternative based on the need to update my windows XP systems?

All I use these 2 systems i'm needing to update, is primarily Aces High.


                                                                    68valu

Windows 7 is a better solution than Windows 8.  Maybe if Windows 8 bombs bad enough Microsoft will rethink the path they are taking.  Not that I would hold my breath, but we have to try.  If we do not try, then they absolutely have no impetus to alter the direction they are taking.

[Krusty]

krusty what do you run on your computer that needs 24gb of ram?  I have 16 and i hardly use more than 30% of it.  as for having 32 it's a waste of money for gaming.  I hink 16 is


semp

I really don't NEED it, but RAM is dirt cheap and buffering against future technological progress is good. As for what I can use it for, large graphics files with many layers, multiple programs running on different cores at the same time, video editing projects, and if I'd got the 32 GB I'd be more comfortable assigning a chunk of it to a RAMdisk and then using that for in-game footage recording with no read/write bottleneck.

[guncrasher]

I really don't NEED it, but RAM is dirt cheap and buffering against future technological progress is good. As for what I can use it for, large graphics files with many layers, multiple programs running on different cores at the same time, video editing projects, and if I'd got the 32 GB I'd be more comfortable assigning a chunk of it to a RAMdisk and then using that for in-game footage recording with no read/write bottleneck.

it's not dirt cheap it's 50 bucks per 8 gb.  but for the average gamer 8 is more than enough. and staying with 8 gb of ram and windows home premium will save about 160 bucks which is another monitor you can buy or maybe trakir.

as for buffering just about everything is obsolete in less than 1 year.  having extra ram that you will never use wont help you with that.


semp

[Krusty]

I disagree. First, 8GB for $50? You don't consider that cheap???

Not all that long ago, it was $125 per GB! RAM prices have been in virtual free-fall for years now, and the quality of the product and its speed have been constantly improving.

And, yes, you can buffer for future tech improvements. My PC was built over a year ago and is still ahead of the curve. I built it myself so I could pick and choose which components went into it while keeping price down. RAM is one area that will help. For example as OSs and programs gain more and more code bloat they will require more RAM over time. By having RAM now, I don't need to get more later. Also, with x64 architecture, you get much more RAM addressing, but because of this every program you run requires more ram to run by default. Think of it as the allocatable blocks are larger, so even if a program uses a minimum of RAM, it still reqires X amount. That amount has increased as compared to the x32 architecture. Overall this is worth it, but it is something to keep in mind.

[CHECKERS]

The best part of The Window 8 Upgrade.............
 Was uninstalling it, and getting a refund ! 
 It is a complete POS !

[Debrody]

Krusty,
the DDR3 will be soon enough replaced with the DDR4, maybe 2 years?
Nowadays CPUs and programs dont really use more than 8GB, 16 is overkill for every possible situation, do you think in 2 years it will increase to 32GB to be worthy to buy that?
So in 2 years, you might change your platform to a DDR4 one, get a new mobo, a new CPU, and throw out the aging DDR3 in the way, you have never ever used more than the half of it.
In that case if you dont change, your CPU is going to be too weak to handle that amazing amount of data, just like its practically useless to give a Pentium4 more than 2GB.
But its your choice anyway, if you have a load of money to be thrown out through the window...

[Bizman]

I'm thinking similarly to Debrody. Maybe it's a European or even Finno-Ugric way to think about the future... 

[68valu]

The best part of The Window 8 Upgrade.............
 Was uninstalling it, and getting a refund ! 
 It is a complete POS !

After running it for about 5 days, I'm not happy either. you cant shut down without installing updates if updates are available, for some reason the uninstall process for programs does not work properly and it is very hard to navigate around in.


                                                                                                                                           68valu

[2bighorn]

Nowadays CPUs and programs dont really use more than 8GB, 16 is overkill for every possible situation, do you think in 2 years it will increase to 32GB to be worthy to buy that?

Wouldn't that depend on usage? For example, I use my PC primarily as a workstation, gaming is, more or less, an afterthought. Running couple of Adobe CS applications, few Autodesk applications, etc, and 16GB becomes inadequate rather quickly. 32GB feels about right, and one or two VMs on top won't bog down the machine too much either.

[Krusty]

Krusty,
the DDR3 will be soon enough replaced with the DDR4, maybe 2 years?

For a new build, if you are going to build new every single time, yes, it will be replaced. With my motherboard, my socket type, my available PCIe slots, my RAM slots, I can stick with DDR3 for longer than that and still remain competitive. My last build was upgraded many times over the years without a full overhaul. That means while software kept updating my hardware could cope with it.

Here's a practical example: Sometime back, probably the release of AH2, the RAM use of the game increased. My system started chugging along. I had 512MB of ram at the time, and increasing that to 1GB made a difference, while leaving the rest of my hardware the same. So as the ram requirements increase I can do more with my equipped RAM. I do agree 24GB is more than I'll really need, but if I devote 16GB to a RAM disk that would still leave me 8GB for general use. The problem is 16GB goes fast when recording full screen FRAPs footage.

I've thought it out and considered it carefully. I'm not saying everyone should get 2 TB of RAM. I am saying it's an option you want. I've had too many older motherboards and computer systems that capped RAM at 1GB or 2GB well after the OSs and software had progressed well past that level of memory usage. Those systems soldiered on. By buying an OS version that has 8GB vs one that has vastly higher caps, it doesn't mean you HAVE to have that RAM. It means you can if you need to.