Hi, hopefully there may be a computer expert or two out there to help with a couple of questions I have. looking to buy a gaming PC for my youngest for his birthday, and having looked at various sites and asked a few questions, Cyberpower systems seem to be coming in pretty reasonably for what appears decent spec machines. looking at something with AMD 8 core processor, 8GB ram, AMD video card, standard sound card, 650W psu, liquid cooling. anything missing? also, looking to display via a HD TV - will this work ok? however, they don't come with a OS (or more to the point, they want to charge £74 for windows 10). Is there a way of installing a free older version of windows then doing the free upgrade that windows are offering? I am a computer user (not expert by any stretch) with limited knowledge, so building my own is not an option. any help appreciated. thanks, Pete
I'm not a gamer so can't really say, but: There are no free, legitimate versions of Windows that I know of. It usually comes bundled with your PC through an OEM licensing scheme and the OEM includes the license cost in the purchase price. There's a fair bit of advice on the web for gamers, e.g. look at this.
Try eBay for a Windows 10 OS. Here's one example Windows 10 Professional on a bootable USB stick. Under £30 with licence Windows 10 Professional 32bit/64bit | Bootable USB Drive + License | eBay Provided is a bootable USB containing Microsoft Windows10 Professional (32bit & 64bit)installation setup& an official OEM product key to license the software.(The key can also be used to register an existing installation of Windows 10). The bootable USB can be used to install a fresh copy,or upgrade to Windows 10.
thanks gents. I did a little bit of reading around, and it seems the licence key with windows 10 is somehow hidden into the machine when it gets loaded on, and is not transferable, however earlier versions are transferable from machine to machine provided the old machine gets its version wiped (e.g. if scrapping a machine with windows 7.1, then removing the licence key from it, transferring to a new machine then upgrading for free to windows 10, would be a possible way forward - although I am not too knowledgeable in this,so would probably have to get an IT savvy colleague or friend to do this). @Wally - the guide has been helpful, and as you say, there are lots of resources around, so much so that I spent about 3 hours just trying to get my head around some of it last night! @Red998 - I guess as a reduced price compared with that being sold by the PC vendor, then the £30 option is pretty good (and given I can get full Office Pro via a work scheme for around £10, then I probably ought to let poor Bill Gates have a little bit of my hard-earned) Cheers, Pete
Hey Try to get more memory, its pretty cheap and makes a big difference. You need to check the videocard spec against the games he wants to play. The games should come with a minimum and recommended spec. I'd advise to go higher though as new games will come out with a higher requirement and video cards are not cheap. No mention of hard disc space, go for 1TB these days. Best bet would be to speak to the supplier and ask there advice. Re license: OEM = Original Equipment Manufacturer. This means the license is "tied" to the machine, you are not allowed to move that license/software to another PC. FPP = Full Packaged Product. This is more expensive but it can be moved from one machine to another PROVIDED it is removed from the original machine first. This is of course the legal requirements, the chances of getting caught are very slim and technically its not hard to do, but you would be breaking the law moving an OEM license from one PC to another. There are free OS out there but if you are not PC geeky you don't want to go there. i'd be wary buying cheap Windows OS from eBay.
One ebay angle you might want to consider is that there are quite a few suppliers who purchase end-of-lease PCs from corporate users, refurbish them and then resell with quite a lot of flexibility of specification (graphics, RAM, drives) and usually with a fresh licensed Windows installation (often 7, and upgradeable free to 10 I assume). Depending on budget you might want to take a look at some of those - this can be a way to get what would originally have been expensive equipment, and well maintained at that, for a low price (think in terms of city traders etc!) - often big brands like Dell, HP, Lenovo. A search for "gaming workstation" turns up lots like this.
I used to work for a memory manufacturer so know a bit! 8GB-12GB is about the sweet spot for a mid range PC but make sure it's al running in matched pairs (called Dual Channel) often on the more gaming focused machines they will list this as (8GB RAM (2x4GB)). 2nd point, make sure u get a 64bit version of any Windows OS. Otherwise u won't see more than around 3.5GB of RAM!! is a limitation of how much the OS can address. Get a decent ish video card, I like ATI Radeon, they are owned by AMD so likely to work nicely. AMD processors have always been better value for money but I personally think that Intels always seem more reliable and perform better. (Core i5 is really minimum for games) Finally Solid State Hdd to put your OS on, and a few of the most used games, they are expensive but worth it for the value they bring in speed. Perhaps get a hybrid drive, best of both worlds. Hope that helps.... Any questions fire them across to us Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
