Countdown for a new system

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Herr-Berbunch

The price of hard drives now is such that I wouldn't bother partitioning, you may as well get two, one for Win7 and one for XP - if you really need it. I run some older games just fine on Win7 and by disabling UAC I have no issues with running programs.

What is UAC?

Good luck to you both. (Not that you'll need it!)

I am confident, I maintain the notebook of my mother with Vista since 2 years, and hate it, and since two months I maintain another notebook of a friend of hers, with Windows 7, and I like it. So the new OS is not all that new anymore. But still there are details I probably don't know, since I had no need to investigate them since he does not need them, but I will need them due to different needs of mine.

P.S. BTW, a pure Windows 7 partition, will 32 GB enoiugh in nsize, considering future Windows upgrades, SPs and system restore points?

P.P.S. I noted with enthusiasm that W7 since the first time ever features a volume cloning function, like Acronis for example. That way I can form an image of the full HD installatrions onto another, separate HD. Does that function in W7 work reliable, or are you still better off with using separate software for that?

[the_tyrant]

Originally Posted by Skybird

What is UAC?

User account control
the popup asking you if you actually want to do something or not

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by the_tyrant

User account control
the popup asking you if you actually want to do something or not

Ah yes, very annoying in Vista, and although less so, still annoying in W7. I need to learn how to switch that one off.

It would be nice to have all software also running in administrator mode automatically.

Microsoft is exaggerating some things there - for no productive use.

[Castout]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Ah yes, very annoying in Vista, and although less so, still annoying in W7. I need to learn how to switch that one off.

It would be nice to have all software also running in administrator mode automatically.

Microsoft is exaggerating some things there - for no productive use.

You wouldn't want to disable UAC. It's a security measure. Without it you're opening your PC to hackers WIDE open.

It's preferable to have strong passwords for UAC about 20 or more random characters and change them periodically.

Amateur hacker could download app that will try to break your UAC password with sheer CPU power especially if you have the habit of leaving the internet online for long period of time. So changing them periodically is important than ever.

[Skybird]

Well, I have Medieval 2 and do not intend to move beyond that. My jewel case lists it as a single processor game. And Arma2 I said, but actually I messed it up - I have ArmA (1) only, and again do not intend to upgrade to ArmA2 or anything else. And ArmA again is listed in the manual as a single CPU game. I do not even play it anymore.

I listed some of those games just in case that I get interested again. Not even half of them is installed currently.

I do not own a single title, I think, which is designed for dual or quad cores. And, as I said, since I do not have much interest anymore in buyin g games and prefer to stay with some old classics of strategy and flight simming - I do not need 3rd and 4th core CPUs. I need good GHz on the first and reasonable GHz on the second core - one CPU for the single CPU game, and the other for the background tasks and Windows. Only by this splitting of working tasks can single processor games gain a slight benefit from mutiuple processors. For the real deal you need games that are optimised for multiple processors.

The only title I am currently waiting for, is World in Flames, a hexfield strategy title - hardly a hardware-killing game. FS9, Falcon and SBP, COTA and TOAW3 also all are single processor titles.

And UAC, if that is the "Do you really want to open this folder", "do you really want to start Words", "do you really want to this or that", then I never have seen any code-entry there. But maybe I misunderstand what UAC is.

[Skybird]

Could anyone help me out with my confusion about dual boot setups? I am really struggling to understand how it works and how the two OS interact with installed software. What I read on the web so far does not help me, it leaves my basic misunderstanding unadressed.

[the_tyrant]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Could anyone help me out with my confusion about dual boot setups? I am really struggling to understand how it works and how the two OS interact with installed software. What I read on the web so far does not help me, it leaves my basic misunderstanding unadressed.

Duel boot=2 operating systems on the same computer
they can usually access each other's files, but maintains 2 different registries

so if a piece of software does not need registry entries, you can find the exe and run it from either os. But if it does, it can only run on the os you installed it in.

anyways, for old games you might as well use vitualization

[Castout]

Originally Posted by Skybird

And UAC, if that is the "Do you really want to open this folder", "do you really want to start Words", "do you really want to this or that", then I never have seen any code-entry there. But maybe I misunderstand what UAC is.

UAC is there so that unauthorized users including hackers would still need to break your UAC password to mess with your critical files.

I'm using i5 661 myself it has a CPU-GPU processor in one package. Make sure the mobo can support the GPU processor. It's okay otherwise just that you'll be missing one of the feature you're buying. Not much if you already have a GPU though. And yeah it's fast for every day's task like MP4 conversion. When the program's only using a single core it will turbo itself to 3.6Ghz which is nice. 2 cores with 4 threads.

[Skybird]

Well, there we are - those 830 Euros above are not the final word.

http://www.amazon.de/dp/B004FQL10S/r...SIN=B004FQL10S

Und sie bewegt sich doch!

What do you guys think about this combo?

[the_tyrant]

CPUs make or break the system
Many believe that Video cards are the most important part of the system. It is NOT TRUE Video cards are important in gaming and 3d design, but everything else, CPUs are more important.
Also, back just a bit more than 3 years ago, there was a time when every Intel cpu used socket 775, and every AMD chip used am2
However, now there are different sockets for different CPUs. Bigger socket number= better cpu, and generally better board with more features.

as for core numbers, more is better, but for the same amount of money, i would rather get better instruction sets, lower heat etc.