[Skivvywaver]

I've been running Vista ultimate since the final release and other than some "navigation" problems and updating my video drivers I haven't had any issues. I disabled UAC right off the bat with a quick google though.

Mind that my machine (listed in comp profile) was not the best available but a "pretty strong machine" anyway. I need a DX-10 card and it looks to me like the 8800GT or one of ATI's HD-3800 series cards. None of my games require DX-10 yet so I have some time to shop.

[steveie85]

Skivvywaver, how much did you pay for the machine?

[Skivvywaver]

A couple of grand when I built it. It is pretty mainstream now but back in the day.

[steveie85]

So you have had it for a while? So the parts would be a bit cheaper now.

[Compiler]

Originally Posted by loserOlimbs

My question is, if she just wanted to get online why not fix the old PC? Thats just common sense though.

6 year old computer, horrible by 6 year old standards. No recovery discs, blown HD. I said it could be fixed and upgraded a bit... $100 for XP (because HP's WinXP is not the same as standard OEM) + $75~100HD (If I could get one THAT night) + $50+ for RAM. So about $225 in parts. As I stated more than ONCE... SHE WANTED A PC THAT NIGHT.

And at that time, she did NOT have internet. Just solitare. Excuse me for thinking that a 512mb PC with a bloated OS could at least run a card game... My bad. Oh yeah, #5 time: Its a few minutes from closing time, limited selection, limited budget, wanted it that night. Added RAM, it didn't help much. Installed XP - works better & faster, granny is happy.

[gamerbyron]

Vista is really hungry with ram and the cpu.

[Compiler]

Originally Posted by katabby

The reason Iposted that link was I thought it might spark some interest. The processor is made by VIA and only uses 20 watts. A green computer running XP. I thought it was quite cheap, and perfect for someone on a fixed income that requires only light duty computing.

Actually - I guess its not too bad... in a world in which $40 gets you an AMD64 or $60 a dual core CPU. That VIA tech is not too bad, its still Cyrix P3 class tech. But with the advancement of CPU manufacturing its easy for them to get to 20watts.

If I was to build it as LOWEST cost system with some quality:

$40 - CPU (1.8Ghz AMD64 Sempron)
$50 - Asus Mobo (I can't go too cheap) Onboard video/audio/Lan
$25 - 1GB RAM (Cruical)
$42 - WD 80GB drive (There is a no-name brand for $37)
$21 - Asus DVD Burner (The $300 PC listed by Tiger is a Player only) $5 savings
$45 - CoolerMaster Case with 350watt PSU (cheapest "name brand")
$15 - Logitech M/K OEM pak
--------------------------------------
$238 for hardware

+ 90 for XP home : $328

Could have shaved off almost $90 more with even Cheaper parts and less RAM.

Man PCs can be cheap nowadays. The above is with good parts... but the way I am, I would push for faster parts... so about $300 in hardware alone for a basic system.

[Compiler]

Originally Posted by steveie85

Hey compiler maybe you need to go back to school or look at the links to pages you give out. Microsoft says mainstream support ends 14/04/09 which is APRIL 14 2009, not September like you "claim".

Going by the M$ site info. Mainstream support ends 5 years after SP2, which was September 2004. Link is on the same page... As I posted, MS says that general XP supports ends on the April date.

Maybe you as a "good" computer tech could have spent a few minutes giving her a quick walk through.

In English... her Vista PC was useless. It did not work. She did not like it, did not want it because it was slow and did not work very well. it was painfully sloooooowwww... taking 10 minutes to unpack a 40mb driver file (which I aborted)... its sooo sllooooow.

If Vista is so bad then the guy who owns 5 grocery stores, the lawyer, a judge, a district attorney

So? With my experince with in the legal and law enforement system - Many of them of are morons and have no business having such positions.

They love there Vista systems. All of which I built for under $900USD. So all this talk that it costs over $2000 is ludacirs.

Yeah... that you couldn't read what I said. (ludacris?) Here is a quote I typed "Each system would have cost about $200 more - $2000 total." But I was a bit wrong... Out of the 10 systems, only 3 where upgraded, rest brand new. About 6 months ago, that would have been $1,400 in extra cost for 7 systems to make them usable for vista. And instead of adding RAM and WinXP to the other 3 - they would have been replaced... and going with your math, $900 per computer (instead of $500~600 I charged for the XP systems with dual core CPUs) = $2700... soo total, that is $4,100!

Gee... if I had done it YOUR way, my client would have spent an extra $4000+ and still have some software that wouldn't work reliable on it. And he wouldn't have gained any functionality or features over XP. Way to go, steveie85!!

[steveie85]

The $900 is a brand new system. I can upgrade hardware for around $150 to $200 and another $150 for Vista Home Prem. All my computers are throughly tested beore they leave my shop. If the customer is dissatisfied I offer 90 day monye back and 3year full warrnty against defective parts.

[Compiler]

? ? ? ?

okay.

[steveie85]

Also let me add one thing, $900 is for Vista and latest technology. Plus I don't use generics. I use brand names. Customers like to know they have lots of support options!!

[Compiler]

Most people don't know brand names of computer hardware. Sony, Pioneer, Sony, HP, Dell... sure. Asus, MSI, Antec, OCZ, Curcial, Corsair, PC Power & Cooling, Vantec, etc - means nothing.

Hence, many novice self-builders buy cheap stuff like ECS, Asrock, Rosewell, Raidmax/powMax. Cases with "400~500" watt PSUs for under $30... that might live for a day or so... motherboards for $25.. from the junk companies like PC-Chips. (nightmare)

As you can see... even on the low-end, for about $240 in hardware, all my parts are reputable name-brands. So add another GB of RAM and a faster X2 CPU - the cost is $300 or so and $112 for vista premo or XP-MCE. It should be a pretty good little basic PC (At least for the XP).

Cycling with a buddy today... who wants to upgrade his PC and his 8yr old son's... I told him it wasn't worth it (not with gaming goals) to swap and mix parts, but some new ones here and there. Old AMD 32bit parts with AGP - nothing to really upgrade... Without gaming, $200 or so per PC... but we're going with $180~200 video gaming cards since the rest of the hardware is cheap. Gaming cards that are faster than the old $500 ATI & Nvidia cards from summer of 2006. For $900 he'll have 2 powerful gaming systems.

[steveie85]

Don't forget $900 is keyboard, monitor, speakers and my time to build the computer. $100 to build it and another $200 for keyboard/mouse, monitor and speakers.

[Therion11]

I've been running vista for a few months now, and despite the crippling problems that have developed (see my recently created thread in the vista forum) it's been quite a pleasant experience.

Games I run are quick, it can perform alot of functions at once, and it's aestheticly pleasing. Which may not be very important to some people, I spend hours a day at my computer and I'd take a slighty bogged down, powerful machine over a monster of a machine that gives me a headache looking at.

Simply put, you pay for what you get out of it, if I remember rightly, 512MB is the minimum vista will run on, and considering that after it was installed the available memory was probably closer to 300 something, I'm not suprised it was slow.

Vista's a program with faults, and in order for it to be another xP in 3 or 4 years time people need to give it a chance, not test it once or twice with poor judgement as to the conditions, and write it off completely. Microsoft can't beta test programs for half a decade before releasing them so nobody complains.

[RobLinux]

And you're sure it's not Hardware issues needing driver & firmware updates? The Vista Basic edition doesn't even do the Aero stuff.

For what the lil' Old Lady is doing, seems like the $200 Walmart PC would work, card games, email, bit of Skyping. Good customer reviews at http://www.walmart.com/catalog/allRe...uct_id=7754614 The OS gOS is now available for free download. Fact is, I've been running latest Ubuntu 7.10 on a 7 yr old Celeron 450Mhz dual CPU system with 512MB RAM and performance is quite acceptable, despite CPU #2 rarely being used much (unless background tasks indexing etc).

Now though I spend most of my time in Linux, Vista seems to be by far the best M$ Home OS to date. They actually seem to have paid lip service to security, and on a fairly cheap low end Dell machine, AMD X2 4GB RAM, GE 8300 GS performance has been satisfactory. In general use it's only using 1.25GB. Of course to just play Solitaire and do Voice stuff, you don't need a commercial OS.

Guess, I shall look forward to meltdown so I can slag it off...