Is it possible to purchase a good PC today without funding the removal of my rights? - by lost_soul
lost_soul on 29/1/2009 at 19:45
Hello, I've got an old PC with an Athlon 3200+, a gig of ram and a 160 GB hard drive. It's getting pretty old and I've got about $1000 currently, so I'm interested in buying a new one. I mostly play older games like the Thief/Deus Ex games, or games from Id Software.
However, I do NOT want to fund initiatives like High-Def content protection, digital "rights" management and the broadcast flag. I have no plans to ever purchase HD video content.
This means I will not buy Windows Vista. I would be happy with XP, but I don't think you can buy it any more. I don't even think you can get a decent graphics card without supporting the conspirators/content cartel.
I have a slight bit of hope that Windows 7 will be different and put users first, but it's still a long way off. When 7 comes out, I will be moving again and thus probably strapped for cash.
Do you have any suggestions on how I can get a high-performance PC without funding the elimination of my own digital rights?
steo on 29/1/2009 at 23:27
Build your own components out of sticks and paper clips?
you can still get hold of windows XP but if you really want to stick it to the man then you could look up XP Lite, or another illegal cracked version of windows XP which you absolutely mustn't use because that would be wrong.
The other option would be to go for linux and use Wine for gaming but you won't be able to play a lot of games, particularly new non-id releases (id have games have always supported linux pretty much from day one, it's a DirectX vs OpenGL thing).
As far as processors are concerned, AMD own ATI, so if you think ATI are evil go for Intel. I'd go for intel anyway tbh.
For graphics you'll just have to go whichever company, ATI or Nvidia, you think are the least evil because there are no other options, the same is true for intel/AMD.
As far as everything else goes there is a good amount of competition which means you can probably avoid evil as far as other components are concerned but as far as CPUs and Graphics cards are concerned, you're stuck with twigs and paper clips.
bikerdude on 29/1/2009 at 23:32
Quote Posted by lost_soul
I have a slight bit of hope that Windows 7 will be different and put users first, but it's still a long way off. When 7 comes out, I will be moving again and thus probably strapped for cash.
Windows 7 is just as DRM infected as Vista, just better optimized not to be as slow as vista was at implementing it - Essentially Windows 7 is vista with a makover...
RavynousHunter on 30/1/2009 at 01:44
Windows 7 will be to Vista what XP was to ME. It's Microsoft's marketing strategy, and it works.
Personally, you need to get over your hatred of things like DRM and whatnot, at least when it comes to hardware and OS selection. Just get WinXP and your hardware and be happy.
As for specific hardware, I'd suggest getting a good dual core AMD processor (preferably 64-bit), a good (700+MB) Nvidia video card, at least 2GB of memory a good, big (200+GB) HDD, and a DVD burner.
My bro's computer ran him somewhere around ... like $700+ US. If you want decent hardware and good prices, take a look at (
http://www.newegg.com) newegg.com.
lost_soul on 30/1/2009 at 02:36
I do use Linux most of the time and most of my games run under Wine, but Thief 2 chugs at anything above 640x480 in wine. :) I've also been looking at small laptops... the Asus N10 has an NVidia GPU and it is a netbook, which is very cool.
lost_soul on 2/2/2009 at 23:48
I went ahead and ordered a laptop from Dell. It was around $1200 and it is a core 2 duo t6400 with 4 gigs of 667 MHz RAM. I got the 7200 RPM hard drive (250 GB). It has an NVidia geforce 8600GT. Is this a reasonable deal? It does have Vista, but I'll be putting Ubuntu on it. The base system was an XPS m1530, which is a bit old. It will still destroy this desktop I'm currently using.
I won't buy a machine with ATI graphics, because they threw their older users to the dogs by not supporting the pre-9xxx cards with fglrx (the Linux driver). There is the open-source ATI driver, but it has trouble running even quake 3 on my old laptop. :) I've always had good luck with NVidia in Linux.
TBE on 3/2/2009 at 01:08
Be careful about installing another OS on your Dell. I think if you don't have the original Vista installed on there, they won't provide any support. So partition your drive so you dual boot Linux and Vista. I've got a Compaq laptop I bought around November, and it specifically says that they won't provide warranty or support if the original OS is not installed, which in this case is Vista Home Premium for mine. So I partitioned the hard drive and installed XP Pro. Vista is still on there, but I never use it. It suxors.
Ostriig on 3/2/2009 at 02:11
Quote Posted by Taffer_Boy_Elvis
Be careful about installing another OS on your Dell. I think if you don't have the original Vista installed on there, they won't provide any support. So partition your drive so you dual boot Linux and Vista. I've got a Compaq laptop I bought around November, and it specifically says that they won't provide warranty or support if the original OS is not installed, which in this case is Vista Home Premium for mine. So I partitioned the hard drive and installed XP Pro. Vista is still on there, but I never use it. It suxors.
What the hell? Seriously, can these jackasses get away with just about anything these days? They sell you a piece of hardware and then the condition you on what software you must have on it to ensure their contractual warranty of said
hardware? We're not talking about potentially harmful soft here, like overclocking programs or whatnot.
I take it not all firms have this policy, though. At least, I don't remember reading anything like that when I had to cart off my Acer for servicing, and I did read through the instructions carefully, though I suppose it's also possible that the guys who got it for repairs couldn't be bothered to give me a hard time over it. It came with Vista, and I sent it off with XP. It came back with Vista, surely enough. I do know there's a 20gig service partition in there which allows for a complete rollback of the system to factory installation.
Quote Posted by lost_soul
I won't buy a machine with ATI graphics, because they threw their older users to the dogs by not supporting the pre-9xxx cards with fglrx (the Linux driver). There is the open-source ATI driver, but it has trouble running even quake 3 on my old laptop. I've always had good luck with NVidia in Linux.
Good choice. I don't know about their desktop units, but ATI's laptop driver support is utter crap even on Windows. My mate has an old X1400 or 1600 in his, and he has to rely on non-official drivers to have a shot at newer games. Me, I've got a 2400XT in mine, and even though I'm not too fussed about the driver date since I don't really run games on the laptop it rather irks me that it still very much seems like I'm stuck with HyperMemory enabled on it. Catalyst's got nothing, and Tray Tools has no effect.
Regarding the 8600, I don't know how the mobile version is, but I had a GT with 512MB on my desktop up until October, and was quite happy with it.
As for the rest of it... It should probably serve you very nicely, including current-gen games, but I have to say that ~800 quid for the configuration strikes me as a bit on the expensive side, even when taking into account the form factor.
lost_soul on 3/2/2009 at 02:25
Part of the reason it was expensive was because I purchased the accidental damage service. It may not be necessary, because I tend to take care of things (my old 533 MHz laptop looks almost new).
by the way Ostriig, why did you replace the 8600? Was it not powerful enough to run some newer games? I had a radeon x1300 die about a year and a half ago.
