After a week of living with Windows 8 at home, I have found workarounds to the things that bother me most.

A little annoyed I had to do that, and I completely understand some folks don't want to re-train themselves to do simple things. But for me, the transition from XP at home is now made, and it was not that bad. It would have been easier with the changes MS is talking about, but I was not going to wait until August for a new computer.

In my case, I needed a new machine right away, and even 2 weeks it was going to take to order a Windows 7 machine was too long for me.

The improvements in processor and hard drive space are so great from my old system, I'm happy, despite Windows 8.

FWIW, this is the machine I got: http://www.officedepot.com/a/product...Computer-With/

i5 processor, 8GB RAM and 2 TB hard drive for $550, in stock at my local office depot. I know the power users will probably poke fun at its limitations, but for my family it works great right off the shelf (except for the Windows 8 part).

 

All it needs is a better power supply and decent graphics card and it would be a nice little gaming rig.

I intend to stick with Win7 ultimate till I can't anymore.

This is my current gaming rig. It sits in an HAF 932 Advanced and has a 750w corsair power supply. http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2383450 I recently upped the clock speed to 4.3ghz. Got lucky over the weekend an picked up two 24" Samsung monitors on clearance from Office Max for $79 each. I own 3 other desktops mostly built from left over parts after upgrades to gaming rig. All have win7 ultimate. I also have an Asus laptop that came with win7 home premium. I am a bit of a tech geek.

 

Thanks, dewalt 17.

Apologies to the OP for the thread jack, but I have absolutely no idea which affordable graphics cards are any good. There are no hard core gamers in the house, and reliability/ease of install would be important. Would prefer not to have to replace the power supply.

Is it worth it to spend $60 - $100 on a new graphics card, and if so, any recommendations are appreciated.

 

No gaming, not necessary, not worth it. Today's onboard video is miles ahead of what it used to be.

 

Thanks for the info, glc.

No serious graphics intense gaming going on yet, but I put on Sims3 for the kids and wife. The onboard intel video is handling that very well.

Guess I'll wait until the onboard is holding us back before upgrading.

 

If not gaming, it isn't necessary. Otherwise, a power supply swap would be required. A corsair CX 500 power supply would be plenty and isn't very expensive. Graphics card in that range would be an HD 7750 or HD 7770 on sale.

 

The CX series Corsair PSU's aren't very good. Better than most OEM but you can do a lot better.

 

I use a lot of Rosewill PSUs. Actually I use a lot of there products.

 

I have used Corsair and Seasonic (current 850 watt), no problems with any. Right now, just about everything in my system is about 3 years old (except video card). So far (knock on wood) I have had no reason to replace anything.

 

Same here, w/PC's.

 

I'm able to use both, on board (ASUS stack cool 3 mobo) and the Card (9600GSO). The card is an older (2008) version, but w/w/7, I can run 3 monitors without a hitch. I built this one quite awhile ago, never used it. Only used the laptop majority of the time, or the G5. Using this 08 now and it's not that bad. A little outdated, still fast.

 

Seasonic is the best PSU OEM out there. The higher end Corsairs are made by Seasonic.

Sorry, I won't touch a Rosewill PSU. Depending on the model, it could be made by any one of 6 different OEM's, and none of them are particularly good.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...er,2913-8.html

Scroll to the bottom of the page, copy/paste on that site is disabled.

 

I don't argue that Seasonic is great. I have a 520w in one of my other rigs. I normally buy Corsair. My TX750 has been running strong for 5yrs now. I have an HX650 in my file server. I have an OCZ 500w in my least used system.


I feel you are being a bit harsh on Rosewill, though. The Capstone series are very good. Some of their bronze and better rated PSU's have received great reviews also from various sites. If jonnyguru says it is a good PSU, as far as I'm concerned, it is a good psu. Anandtech also gave editor's choice to the Capstone series.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php...Story&reid=266

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5698/r...0w-80plus-gold

 

I use PC's to run our equipments control systems. XP has been the best as far as stability goes. Due to one software package we use we still dual-boot to Win98 in some cases. If you like XP and your software runs under it, keep using it. I wouldn't let lack of support make me switch to something new.

 

I find Win 7 to be more stable than XP. My XP machines at work frustrate me daily.