New PC - worth waiting for Windows 7?

Count Duckula

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Hello my happy little bunnies. I'm getting a new PC to game with for about £1.000, and I just wanted to ask the question in the title. Windows 7 has a slated release date of October 22 (I believe), which isn't too long to wait really. I've no experience of Vista, but is it as bad as everyone says? Is it worth me waiting those extra three months for Windows 7, particularly as Vista - even if it isn't awful - will be out of date very soon after I take delivery?

On a side note, with a budget of about £1.000 I can probably make a good gaming rig (though it won't be spectacular), but do you know any decent companies I can buy from? I looked into building it myself a while back, but that ain't gonna happen because I don't have the skills. My current machine is a Dell and has served me well, but I thought there might be some independent companies out there who'll make a better PC for the same price.
 
Overclockers.co.uk

You choose what parts you wnat and they'll put it together. I was looking into it ealier this year but didn't have the funds at the time. You can always get one now with Vista and then put windows 7 on at another stage. Vista is piss anyways so im not holding out much hope for windows 7 tbh
 
Overclockers.co.uk

You choose what parts you wnat and they'll put it together. I was looking into it ealier this year but didn't have the funds at the time. You can always get one now with Vista and then put windows 7 on at another stage. Vista is piss anyways so im not holding out much hope for windows 7 tbh

A colleague of mine back at university was using the Windows 7 beta (at least he said it was a beta, and not just stolen :nervous:) alonside XP on his machine, and said that 7 was the true heir to XP, and was genuinly just XP but better, unlike the imposter Vista, which was the bastard child of the Microsoft family.

Then again, he had a mega crush on Cat Deeley and thought the moon landings were fake, so I don't know how mentally sound he was.
 
You're right to build yourself a rig.

£1000 will get you a decent rig, perhaps a decent overclocked dual core with a 9800 gtx card or something, should play most games on high settings.

Overclockers are decent, they provide overclocked bundles which will give you more bang for your buck, and they've been tested to ensure that they dont melt your pc.

Here's a few good uns depending on how much your willing to spend on the processor/mobo/ram combo:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=43&catid=339&sortby=nameAsc&subid=1333

As for the operating system, well you can easily get the beta version of windows 7 now and upgrade when its fully released, so that really isnt an issue. I would always recommend XP over Vista, but the ram memory is only limited to 2gb on XP. If you go Vista make sure to go with a 64-bit OS to ensure that you use up all your ram (32-bit only limits to 3gb)
 
You're right to build yourself a rig.

£1000 will get you a decent rig, perhaps a decent overclocked dual core with a 9800 gtx card or something, should play most games on high settings.

Overclockers are decent, they provide overclocked bundles which will give you more bang for your buck, and they've been tested to ensure that they dont melt your pc.

Here's a few good uns depending on how much your willing to spend on the processor/mobo/ram combo:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=43&catid=339&sortby=nameAsc&subid=1333

As for the operating system, well you can easily get the beta version of windows 7 now and upgrade when its fully released, so that really isnt an issue.


Man knows his shit. I should really considering i work with computers for a living but sometimes i couldn't be arsed keeping upto date.
 
overclockers.co.uk says:

"Windows 7 Upgrade Voucher included with Windows Vista Home Premium, Business & Ultimate install options."

So that sounds like that's sorted :D

How easy is it to replace an operating system?
 
overclockers.co.uk says:

"Windows 7 Upgrade Voucher included with Windows Vista Home Premium, Business & Ultimate install options."

So that sounds like that's sorted :D

How easy is it to replace an operating system?

Providing you dont have much crap saved on the harddrive, its a piece of cake.
 
overclockers.co.uk says:

"Windows 7 Upgrade Voucher included with Windows Vista Home Premium, Business & Ultimate install options."

So that sounds like that's sorted :D

How easy is it to replace an operating system?

Fairly easy, just back up everything you want to keep to an external hard drive then do a clean install from the disc. I've done it with xp a couple of times and with different versions of linux. Its not too hard. You can find plenty of step by step guides floating about the internet aswell
 
That was before my dad lost his job and so my savings went into the house for a few months!

I've since got the money back, but I spent most of it getting pissed at Uni, so £1.000 is all I have left.

what all do you need ?

cpu
motherboard
hard drive
ram
sound card
graphics card
tv tuner card
speakers
monitor
power supply

if your prepared to install them all...then you'll get a great system
 
what all do you need ?

cpu
motherboard
hard drive
ram
sound card
graphics card
tv tuner card
speakers
monitor
power supply

if your prepared to install them all...then you'll get a great system

That's the thing. I've been told that, for £1.000 (perhaps pushing to £1.100-200), I can build a machine myself that would cost £1.500+ if I had it pre-built for me. Sounds like a great deal, until you factor in that I know nothing. If you read through that other thread I'd got most of the components down (though I've since forgotten everything I learned), but then hit a brick wall when I started having to figure in the case and the cooling and stuff. I know nothing about that - it's why this PC has done so well, it was already set up!
 
I was gonna start a thread like this because im looking to buy a new PC. I have right now a HP Pavilion m9065 its 3gb ram, Intel core 2 Quad with about 500gb space. It is getting abit slwo now having it over 2 and a half years. Im not a big gamer but to play a little I have about £800 just want something the same as what I have already. I don't need a monitor and not really bothered if its XP, Vista or Windows 7. It would have to be a brand make I can't put them together I'm not so greta with PC's.
 
I was gonna start a thread like this because im looking to buy a new PC. I have right now a HP Pavilion m9065 its 3gb ram, Intel core 2 Quad with about 500gb space. It is getting abit slwo now having it over 2 and a half years. Im not a big gamer but to play a little I have about £800 just want something the same as what I have already. I don't need a monitor and not really bothered if its XP, Vista or Windows 7. It would have to be a brand make I can't put them together I'm not so greta with PC's.

I'd kill to have a machine like that. I've got a 3Ghz Pentium 4, AGP motherboard, 1.75GB (non-matching) RAM, and an 80 (yes, EIGHTY) GB hard-drive.

If I were you I'd not spend £800 on a new one. If it's struggling with games, try a new graphics card. Even people that know very little about PCs (like myself) can cope with a graphics card update.
 
I was gonna start a thread like this because im looking to buy a new PC. I have right now a HP Pavilion m9065 its 3gb ram, Intel core 2 Quad with about 500gb space. It is getting abit slwo now having it over 2 and a half years. Im not a big gamer but to play a little I have about £800 just want something the same as what I have already. I don't need a monitor and not really bothered if its XP, Vista or Windows 7. It would have to be a brand make I can't put them together I'm not so greta with PC's.

You could get a lethal base unit for #800quid if your not bothering about a monitor. Check online, places like ebuyer, pcworld(sometimes have good deals), overclockers. You could probably get the same spec, probably better for around 500-600quid.

Actually sack that, heres the first one i just saw-

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167291
Core 2 Quad Q8300, 6GB DDR2, 640GB SATA HDD, DVDRW, 512MB DDR3 HD4850 Graphics Card, Vista Home
 
Duckula, something that hasn't been pointed out to you yet is that Windows 7 is completely free right now, and will work until officially released.

Therefore I suggest downloading it, using it and buying it* upon release, rather than forking out cash on Vista, which really is a diabolical OS that will just slow your PC down. I myself still just use XP because it's still the best, but I'll probably switch to Windows 7 once Microsoft have it perfectly stable.

* or finding other ways to get it :)
 
overclockers.co.uk says:

"Windows 7 Upgrade Voucher included with Windows Vista Home Premium, Business & Ultimate install options."

So that sounds like that's sorted :D

How easy is it to replace an operating system?
I got that when upgrading from XP to Vista on my current computer. You hyst put the upgrade CD in when you get it and rest does it by itself.
 
Duckula, something that hasn't been pointed out to you yet is that Windows 7 is completely free right now, and will work until officially released.

Therefore I suggest downloading it, using it and buying it* upon release, rather than forking out cash on Vista, which really is a diabolical OS that will just slow your PC down. I myself still just use XP because it's still the best, but I'll probably switch to Windows 7 once Microsoft have it perfectly stable.

* or finding other ways to get it :)

I'd have to buy the PC with an operating system though, wouldn't I? I mean, if I had a disc then I'm sure I could install the OS from that onto a blank computer, but if I've got to download it then how would I do that with no OS installed?

Edit: Nevermind, apparently it's actually designed to burned from an ISO and installed on a blank PC.

I might do that then, rather than getting that PC with Vista pre-installed I'll just use Windows 7 until it's officially released.
 
i bet the windows disc that you'll get will cost you around 100 quid
 
I'd have to buy the PC with an operating system though, wouldn't I? I mean, if I had a disc then I'm sure I could install the OS from that onto a blank computer, but if I've got to download it then how would I do that with no OS installed?

Edit: Nevermind, apparently it's actually designed to burned from an ISO and installed on a blank PC.

I might do that then, rather than getting that PC with Vista pre-installed I'll just use Windows 7 until it's officially released.
Don't forget you need drivers too for the different components...don't know if Windows 7 can use Vista drivers....and there might not be drivers available for stuff like printers. Recommend you do a google search for 'Windows 7 driver problems' or look for 'windows 7 drivers for "your hardware" ' I'm about to set up a system with Windows 7 but I also have other systems as backup in case I have driver problems. I currently run systems with XP and Vista as I have some programs that won't work with Vista and I refuse to update them having already paid for them. As an XP addict I'm gradually coming round to liking Vista and if 7 is better I'll go for that too as my main system.
 
I've been running the rc of windows 7 for about a month now and it really is great. I was vista before and it was becoming sluggish and unreliable as my pc is about 3 years old, since going to windows 7 it is running quickly with full graphics on.

Haven't had any trouble with any software or hardware yet either except itunes and daemon tools, itunes installed perfectly after a restart and I found an alternative to daemon tools so job's a good 'un.
 
Ach, this operating system lark is giving me a headache. If I still had my XP disc lying around then I'd reinstall that, but I lost it and now Bahama has me worried about the drivers on W7. I think I might be best off just buying the computer with Vista installed and the Windows 7 upgrade voucher.
 
Don't forget you need drivers too for the different components...don't know if Windows 7 can use Vista drivers....and there might not be drivers available for stuff like printers. Recommend you do a google search for 'Windows 7 driver problems' or look for 'windows 7 drivers for "your hardware" ' I'm about to set up a system with Windows 7 but I also have other systems as backup in case I have driver problems. I currently run systems with XP and Vista as I have some programs that won't work with Vista and I refuse to update them having already paid for them. As an XP addict I'm gradually coming round to liking Vista and if 7 is better I'll go for that too as my main system.

Of course it can, how else would people be able to run it right now in beta mode? Windows 7 also picks up Ethernet, WIreless etc automatically, a bit like Ubuntu. The only external drivers you'd really need would be for graphics, printers etc.
 
I have just got a new laptop with Vista and I can say that it is a piece of shit and that I'm hoping that I get a free upgrade.
 
Vista 32-bit is rather rubbish but I've had Vista 64-bit running on my new hardware that I bought last summer (Intel quad etc.) and it's been rock solid from day one.
 
I'm ordering the PC blank and then just installing Windows 7 RC on it when I get it. Apparently it uses the Vista driver update system and will do all of that automatically, which is awesome.

And Tesco and PC World are both selling it pre-order for £45 at the moment, which is very, very good value.
 
Quick question before I make the purchase:

I was going to get the PC with 2 x Radeon 4870s, but someone has told me I'd be better off with a single Radeon 4890. Does anyone know if this is true?
 
Haven't checked out the 4890 but according to Tom's Hardware it's basically a tweaked 4870 with better room for overclocking.

And from that you wouldn't get a better perfomance out of 1 x 4890 as you would get out of 2 x 4870.
 
Quick question before I make the purchase:

I was going to get the PC with 2 x Radeon 4870s, but someone has told me I'd be better off with a single Radeon 4890. Does anyone know if this is true?

i suggest you punch the said person in the face.
 
i suggest you punch the said person in the face.

I shall then. I'll get it with 2 x 4870s. 'Course, now I'm worried that this time next year my graphics card will be out of date because of DirectX 11 anyway, but I suppose the rest of the machine is good enough that I can just get a new graphics card (no more AGP for me :D)!
 
are the two 4870's 512mb and the single 4890 1gb ??

what about the monitor ?
 
Would you consider a Core i7 processor instead of a Core 2 Quad, or are you restricted by price when considering the processor amongst other things?