zombe on 24/10/2012 at 13:26

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Buying has been postponed for a bit. So, please educate me on the OS front.

What is the deference between "Home Premium" and "Professional" versions.

(http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/shop/windows-7/home-premium?T1=compare)

From the listed, ignoring lines that do not differ, i see only one thing of note: "Run many Windows XP business programs in Windows XP Mode (separate download)." ... now what the fuck is this supposed to mean?

What exactly needs that?

zombe on 24/10/2012 at 15:20

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Yep, that indeed looks pointless.

PS. did some back and forth with the shop today (trying to push it over the finish line in this week or i will have to postpone it for a bit too much). Their current offer:

* i5-3350P
* Intel Core i5-3350P 3,1G/6M
* DDR3 2x4GB 1600C9 Kingston Blu
* Gigabyte GA-H61M-D2H s.1155
* 500GB 3.5" Toshiba Sa3 7200/32
* DVDRW Samsung 224BB SATA MUST
* MD Chief BM-02B-OP
* PSU 650W Chieftec CTB-650S
Sum: 470€ (taxes included)

Only change is the motherboard - went with the advice. Gigabyte boards do not explode easily and my previous non-gigabyte option sounded eerily craptastic in that regard. Better safe than sorry, especially as i take a new OEM Win7 HP for it (forgot that i need a new OS as the old PC keeps the XP).

Asked them to add Win7 HP and perhaps change the motherboard ... again. The one they offered:
(http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4004#sp)
... does not list DDR3 1600 as supported, so will see what they think of ...
(http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4151#sp)

Sounds reasonable?

-------------------------
[ tangent / rant / ignore ]

So, what is the total benefit Win7 offers over XP to me:
* directx, for purely monopolistic reasons, is not limited to <10 anymore. (not a problem so far, but sooner or later it will be)
* VC++2012 does not work with XP (it still supports XP target, they just exclude using it on XP).
There is absolutely nothing else i know of (essentially, thous are all the MS products i use - no-one else has such a strong monopoly grip to dictate unnecessary restrictions). A bit aggravating to say the least.

Oh, whatever.

zombe on 24/10/2012 at 18:48

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64 bit was what made me, and happily if i may add, go from Win2000 -> XP64 :).

Jason Moyer on 26/10/2012 at 06:17

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I wouldn't waste money on an H61 mobo at this point. Get an H77 if you're not overclocking.

What GPU are you getting? That CPU doesn't have onboard video, although for $5 more the i5-3450 has onboard video and a higher boost frequency.

This is the system I just ordered a few days ago, and with shipping it came out to $400 even. Only thing I would have liked to have had a little more cash for is a better case, but I already have a nice old one and may use the new one for my old components:

(http://imageshack.us/a/img89/546/fuckittyb.jpg)

Jason Moyer on 26/10/2012 at 19:37

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Unless you're running a triple monitor setup or something a GTX660 seems like overkill. I'd get a 7850 or something instead and put that $100 into something else. Edit: Actually, unless I'm missing something, the 7850 and GTX 660 are basically identical in terms of performance.

I'm not too worried about the motherboard. I'm not getting a Z77/i5-K combo so I won't be overclocking it, and I've honestly never had a motherboard die ever. I figure if it's going to be bad it will be within weeks/months of setting it up.