Got a shopping cart of parts that you want opinions on? Get advice from members on your planned or existing system (or upgrade).
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
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Eyeless Blond
- Posts: 20
- Joined: Wed May 10, 2006 4:08 pm
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by Eyeless Blond » Tue Sep 26, 2006 6:24 pm
In a bit of a bind on this one. Last week I got roped into making essentially an impulse buy: my brother needed a new motherboard/CPU so I got him
this combo at Newegg.
Overall it looks like the combo won't be too bad. Only one problem: I didn't notice until after I bought it that there was no heatsink/fan included! Now I'm looking to get a cooler for a socket 754 CPU on short notice, as I once again have parents, siblings, grandparents, etc. all screaming at me to HURRY UP. Any advice?
(Edit): Looking especially for cheap and relatively quiet. Emphasis on the cheap .
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
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jaganath
- Posts: 5085
- Joined: Tue Sep 20, 2005 6:55 am
- Location: UK
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by jaganath » Wed Sep 27, 2006 1:44 am
Yes.
NB. That Newegg combo is stunningly good value. £50 for a 2.4GHz CPU + motherboard? Incredible.
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Eyeless Blond
- Posts: 20
- Joined: Wed May 10, 2006 4:08 pm
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by Eyeless Blond » Wed Sep 27, 2006 3:35 pm
Cool.
Yeah. *now* I've got to worry about buying him Windows. He swears he'll be able to get it through his school, but then he swore he could buy his own d*** computer too. Anyone know where they're selling a legal copy of Windows XP Pro for cheap? Do those words even go together?
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
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Bobfantastic
- Posts: 193
- Joined: Sat Jul 08, 2006 10:32 am
- Location: Folding in Aberdeen
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by Bobfantastic » Wed Sep 27, 2006 10:56 pm
Search for "Authorised Education Reseller" - Microsoft do a sort of student discount to download copies of the upgrade disc. You can get XP-Pro for about £52 in the UK.
Or... you could get him Vista and really shut him up!
Hope this helps
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Eyeless Blond
- Posts: 20
- Joined: Wed May 10, 2006 4:08 pm
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by Eyeless Blond » Thu Sep 28, 2006 4:10 pm
Upgrade? Will that work without an "original"? All these weird licencing agreements and Microsoft-sanctioned spyware programs and stuff confuse the heck out of me. Personally I don't plan on ever buying another version of windows past 2000, but I don't think my family is ready to handle Linux and can't afford Macs so I've got to make the effort for them.
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Bobfantastic
- Posts: 193
- Joined: Sat Jul 08, 2006 10:32 am
- Location: Folding in Aberdeen
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by Bobfantastic » Fri Sep 29, 2006 1:48 am
You can do a clean install of the upgrade disc, I believe you need an original code to activate it though. School/college networks are a goldmine- usually, every PC is licensed for 98SE, but they tend to run a multi-license copy of XP instead and never need their own codes...
![Wink :wink:](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
Other than that, there's not much option for a cheap Windows beyond
this...
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a_punker
- Posts: 33
- Joined: Thu Oct 05, 2006 2:14 am
- Location: United Kingdom
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by a_punker » Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:40 am
i buy OEM system builder XP licences. You have to buy these with a 'significant peice of hardware' that the windows licence is then tied to.
maybe a HSF will be considered 'significant' enough.
XP pro OEM is around £70, home is around £50 i think.
i get them in packs of 3 form ebuyer.co.uk , but they do do singles
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a_punker
- Posts: 33
- Joined: Thu Oct 05, 2006 2:14 am
- Location: United Kingdom
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by a_punker » Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:44 am
you used to be able to copy the licence number down form a machine at work or school or from a cash machine even! and licence that since it was only used once or not at all,. However that would involve you telling a simple lie to the person on the telephone and would be illegal
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vitaminc
- Posts: 306
- Joined: Mon Mar 27, 2006 8:11 am
- Location: Silicon Valley, California
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by vitaminc » Thu Oct 05, 2006 3:55 pm
get Vista RC1 5768 (or perhaps RC2)
free download, works until July 2007.