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You can change the product key of a Windows installation.
I think there's generic keys you can use that won't activate Windows but allow installation. Using that, you could download a disc image now and install and start using Windows until you buy a real Windows and switch to a real key.
Using it without activation, it will run for a while without issue. It will eventually disable some features but still never do anything that will make you lose data.
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Sorry, but you guys might have to spell it out for me a bit more. I'm very new to all of this. So I'd want the ISO file for Home Premium 64 bit, but I need a key to use it? And I don't really understand how to use the USB setup tool. :|
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This might explain it better. If you're going to install your OS via USB then you will need three things:
1. USB Flashdrive
2. ISO file of the OS you're installing
3. The product/activation key that corresponds to the ISO file you have
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You do not need a key to install Windows. You can just leave that field blank and enter it later.
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OK, I understand better now. So when I finally purchase a legitimate copy of Windows 7 with an activation key, where would I enter the key at?
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You will enter it in control panel > system.
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On June 04 2014 01:08 Ropid wrote:Show nested quote +On June 04 2014 01:01 Nuttyguy wrote:
I'm looking for a ssd upgrade, have one of the old ocz vertex 2 60gb editions atm.
Looking for a ssd with 250gb+ minimum, want to stop micro managing drives.
Should I go for a samsung 840 evo or wait for a newer drive?
Cant seem to find anything about the next gen ssd line up.
Are pcie ssds still too expensive to even consider using at this capacity size
Perhaps buy a Crucial MX100 256GB? I think Samsung forgot to lower prices over time and so something else like that Crucial drive is a better choice currently.
These drives seem cheap compared to the 840 evo variants.
Does anyone know when the next possible event to announce a ssd would be after computex 2014?
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On June 04 2014 07:12 Nuttyguy wrote:Show nested quote +On June 04 2014 01:08 Ropid wrote:On June 04 2014 01:01 Nuttyguy wrote:
I'm looking for a ssd upgrade, have one of the old ocz vertex 2 60gb editions atm.
Looking for a ssd with 250gb+ minimum, want to stop micro managing drives.
Should I go for a samsung 840 evo or wait for a newer drive?
Cant seem to find anything about the next gen ssd line up.
Are pcie ssds still too expensive to even consider using at this capacity size
Perhaps buy a Crucial MX100 256GB? I think Samsung forgot to lower prices over time and so something else like that Crucial drive is a better choice currently. These drives seem cheap compared to the 840 evo variants. Does anyone know when the next possible event to announce a ssd would be after computex 2014?
There's a review of the MX100 on the main page of anandtech.com. It really seems there's absolutely nothing wrong with the drive.
For your PCI-E question, there's Plextor M6e 256GB for £200. I don't know if there's issues with booting or TRIM not working.
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A lot of the SSD brands don't particularly wait until trade shows or such to announce new products, so a new announcement could be pretty much whenever. (though I wouldn't expect anybody to wait until the week after Computex or something like that, if something's pretty much ready)
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On June 04 2014 06:36 skyR wrote:
You do not need a key to install Windows. You can just leave that field blank and enter it later.
Does it just send it to the trial version?
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On June 04 2014 08:14 Sovano wrote:Show nested quote +On June 04 2014 06:36 skyR wrote:
You do not need a key to install Windows. You can just leave that field blank and enter it later. Does it just send it to the trial version?
You have about 30 days to enter a valid product key, before you get spammed.
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Hi all, I'm looking at building a hybrid medium-performance gaming machine and high-performance scientific computing machine. I plan to dual boot windows8 and ubuntu.
I'll use windows8 to play games like league of legends/starcraft 2 on high graphics settings with optimal FPS, and random future games (2+ years) on medium-ish graphics settings with optimal FPS.
I'll use ubuntu to work on side projects that will require some computationally intensive experiments that directly benefit from additional cores, RAM, and quick disk I/O. So I need a high-end processor, 16gb of RAM, and given the dual boot (and data storage for experiments) a nice SSD with comfortable capacity.
I don't plan on overclocking or doing SLI/Crossfire, and I don't plan on streaming.
Ideally, I want the case to be micro ATX because I may have to ship it around a few times/carry it onto a plane here and there.
I plan to buy a couple decent monitors for a dual setup as well to replace my current crappy ones.
Here is my current build (missing power supply)
CPU: Intel Core i7-4790 $299.99
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 $49.98
RAM: Crucial 16GB $139.99
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R7 260X $109.99 (after $20 rebate)
Storage: Crucial MX100 CT512MX100SSD1 2.5" 512GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $244
Case: Silverstone PS08B (Black) $36.99
Wireless Network Adapter: Edimax EW-7612PIn $25.98
Total: $886.92
Some questions:
1) Is the graphics card I chose up for this? The one above seems like a good deal.
2) Do I even need the graphics card? I.e., what kind of performance can I expect from the processor-integrated graphics card?
3) I'm having trouble choosing a good power supply. I'd like one that
a) supports PCE-e x16 without an adapter, but I can't seem to figure out what power supply specs support this (does 2x 6+2 support that?)
b) fits into a micro-ATX case
c) is least 400W (makes sense for my build or no?)
d) is relatively quiet (but this is not essential)
4) Do I need additional cooling?
5) Any other thoughts on the build? Is everything compatible, etc?
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On June 04 2014 09:30 AcrossFiveJulys wrote:+ Show Spoiler +Hi all, I'm looking at building a hybrid medium-performance gaming machine and high-performance scientific computing machine. I plan to dual boot windows8 and ubuntu.
I'll use windows8 to play games like league of legends/starcraft 2 on high graphics settings with optimal FPS, and random future games (2+ years) on medium-ish graphics settings with optimal FPS.
I'll use ubuntu to work on side projects that will require some computationally intensive experiments that directly benefit from additional cores, RAM, and quick disk I/O. So I need a high-end processor, 16gb of RAM, and given the dual boot (and data storage for experiments) a nice SSD with comfortable capacity.
I don't plan on overclocking or doing SLI/Crossfire, and I don't plan on streaming.
Ideally, I want the case to be micro ATX because I may have to ship it around a few times/carry it onto a plane here and there.
I plan to buy a couple decent monitors for a dual setup as well to replace my current crappy ones.
Here is my current build (missing power supply)
CPU: Intel Core i7-4790 $299.99
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 $49.98
RAM: Crucial 16GB $139.99
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R7 260X $109.99 (after $20 rebate)
Storage: Crucial MX100 CT512MX100SSD1 2.5" 512GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $244
Case: Silverstone PS08B (Black) $36.99
Wireless Network Adapter: Edimax EW-7612PIn $25.98
Total: $886.92
Some questions:
1) Is the graphics card I chose up for this? The one above seems like a good deal.
2) Do I even need the graphics card? I.e., what kind of performance can I expect from the processor-integrated graphics card?
3) I'm having trouble choosing a good power supply. I'd like one that
a) supports PCE-e x16 without an adapter, but I can't seem to figure out what power supply specs support this (does 2x 6+2 support that?)
b) fits into a micro-ATX case
c) is least 400W (makes sense for my build or no?)
d) is relatively quiet (but this is not essential)
4) Do I need additional cooling?
5) Any other thoughts on the build? Is everything compatible, etc?
Yes, R7 260x can max out League of Legends and Starcraft II while being able to comfortably handle the majority of other games on reasonably high settings at 1080p. Integrated graphics would suffice for low settings but there'd be issues in some of the more graphical intensive games.
I think you should look into getting an overclockable build. If you are 100% sure you don't want to overclock then you should at least get a board with four DIMM slots to be able to expand to 32GB of memory and maybe an additional PCIe slot as well.
Also, Core i7 4790 requires a 9 series board. The 8 series boards require a BIOS update to support the new CPUs and you require a supported CPU (eg. Core i7 4770) to do the BIOS update.
Rosewill Capstone 450w is pretty much the de-facto standard for most single GPU builds. Not sure what you mean by supporting PCIe x16 since that is a slot on the motherboard. If you are talking about the video card than yes, the Capstone 450w comes with two 6+2pin PCIe connectors so it will support the R7 260x (which only uses a single 6pin PCIe) and the vast majority of video cards without the need for a molex-to-PCIe adapter.
Not all mATX cases have the same dimensions but the Capstone 450 should fit in most of them, if not all of them.
No you do not need additional cooling.
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@AcrossFiveJulys:
Just be aware that NVIDIA are the only ones that do a full-featured driver for Linux that can do all of OpenGL.
Intel opened documents about the internals of their GPU and sponsors the open-source Mesa OpenGL driver project.
AMD stumbles around and people even report they are happier using the open-source driver that's somewhat reverse engineered and has lesser performance than AMD's official one because the official one is a headache.
On the flip side, NVIDIA doesn't want to disclose anything about their GPUs to make the open source driver work well on their cards so that might be annoying.
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Hello
Could umart please be added to the list of Australia suppliers? I find them cheaper than the three listed ad just as
http://www.umart.com.au/
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What is your current build?
ASUS P5N-D
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 @ 2.66Ghz
8GB DD2 RAM, 800Mhz
Evga GTX 560Ti DS SC - Link
Corsair GS 600 PSU
What is your monitor's native resolution?
1920x1080
Why do you want to upgrade? What do you want to achieve with the upgrade?
I want to finally be able to play my current games without my PC being brought to its knees constantly. I primarily play Diablo III, WoW, Skyrim, and hopefully FFXIV after this upgrade. On D3 if there's a ton of stuff on screen, my FPS goes down as low as 7, even with many CPU-bound settings turned down. Even WoW on occasion will dip below 30FPS.
After this upgrade (damn near a brand new build but I'm keeping my GPU and PSU) I hope to be able to achieve 60FPS 95% of the time on the titles I listed, although I realize for FFXIV I will not able to max out and keep 60FPS.
What is your budget?
$800 CAD
What country will you be buying your parts in?
Canada
If you have any brand or retailer preferences, please specify.
Intel and NVIDIA; Memoryexpress for retailer (I will check for Pricebeats right before I buy).
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So here's what I've come up with so far (prices are from Memoryexpress):
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-B85M-D3H, $90
CPU: Intel i5-4670, $245
RAM: G.Skill Sniper 2x4GB @ 1600mhz, $100
Case: Corsair Carbide 400R, $120
SSD: Samsung EVO 840 Series 120GB, $100
HDD: WD Blue 500GB, $60
Before taxes: $715
After taxes (5% + 8%): $807.95
I rounded up all prices to the nearest whole number, so actual price will probably be a few dollars less. At any rate, I'm pretty much at budget.
So how does this build look? Will I be able to achieve what I want out of this build? Are the parts I chose the most optimal to get? Should I forego the HDD and stick with the one in my current build (it's from 2008, not sure what kind it is)?
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Northern Ireland26657 Posts
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/li5TQ0Q.jpg)
Relatively basic queries (I hope). I have been rather low on the old funds for quite a while now, I originally started a build to primarily play Starcraft, with the idea of building it up over time. Performance isn't too terrible, but I think I'm being incredibly hampered by a lack of RAM, hard drive space and indeed the fact that my only hard drive is terrible (a friend's old 3rd backup HD  ). Graphics card is pretty solid, I got quite a good deal on that.
I figure the lack of useable RAM is due to only having the 32bit Windows 7 install, so that'd be one of the first ports of call would be doing a clean OS install?
In terms of performance is it a good idea to boot the OS off a relatively small solid state drive, and use an additional HDD for dealing with the majority of additonal storage? What would be the optimal way of going around that kind of thing and would there be any drives that you guys would particularly recommend?
I need one of the SATA cables replaced on the motherboard as well, but once that's done I can progress and get things sorted.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
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On June 04 2014 22:43 Wombat_NI wrote:+ Show Spoiler +Relatively basic queries (I hope). I have been rather low on the old funds for quite a while now, I originally started a build to primarily play Starcraft, with the idea of building it up over time. Performance isn't too terrible, but I think I'm being incredibly hampered by a lack of RAM, hard drive space and indeed the fact that my only hard drive is terrible (a friend's old 3rd backup HD ). Graphics card is pretty solid, I got quite a good deal on that. I figure the lack of useable RAM is due to only having the 32bit Windows 7 install, so that'd be one of the first ports of call would be doing a clean OS install? In terms of performance is it a good idea to boot the OS off a relatively small solid state drive, and use an additional HDD for dealing with the majority of additonal storage? What would be the optimal way of going around that kind of thing and would there be any drives that you guys would particularly recommend? I need one of the SATA cables replaced on the motherboard as well, but once that's done I can progress and get things sorted. Thanks in advance for any advice.
Yes, a 32-bit operating system is limited to 4 GB of addressable memory a.k.a if you have 4GB of RAM and a 512MB video card then you would only have ~3.5GB of usable RAM. Also, 32-bit software such as Starcraft II and most other games, as well as software, are limited to using 2 GB of memory. So RAM is probably not an issue causing you problems. There is no reason to have a 32-bit operating system in this age (unless you refuse to give up some ancient peripheral or software that only works in 32-bit) so you should do a clean install of the 64-bit version.
What kind of performance issues are you having exactly? Storage does not affect FPS unless your disk usage is at 100% or a constantl high. A slow HDD would be a culprit for stutters but your HDD would have to be ancient for this to happen in Starcraft II I think. Stutters are much more common in world games where there are auto saves and constant loading of new zones.
Yes, you would install the operating system along with your most used applications / games onto the SSD and use the HDD for storage of media and applications / games that do not require to be speedy. Samsung 840 EVO is generally what is recommended, great performance & reliability at a great price. The Crucial MX100 was also just recently released and also boasts great performance and reliability with an even better price though availability may be scarce right now due to it being new.
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On June 04 2014 19:09 enLighteN wrote:+ Show Spoiler +Hello Could umart please be added to the list of Australia suppliers? I find them cheaper than the three listed ad just as http://www.umart.com.au/
Added. Thanks!
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EPT
