Sildani Posted May 12, 2015 Posted May 12, 2015 You're right to worry. Still, the company seems to have legs since they're also making a cheap external battery pack, and they made a $20 drone that sold out instantly. They're also about to unwrap the OnePlus Two. In my opinion, the company will still be around for a year or two. As you say, the price is excellent for what you're getting. Even if the company dies, you'll still have a properly working phone. Go ahead and get one. I've handled a few, and the build quality and responsiveness of the UI belies its price. You'll be happy. Quote
David Hingtgen Posted May 18, 2015 Posted May 18, 2015 Current opinions on free anti-virus? Avast gets more annoying by the day. I swear they're inventing new things to bug you about... Quote
mikeszekely Posted May 18, 2015 Posted May 18, 2015 Current opinions on free anti-virus? Avast gets more annoying by the day. I swear they're inventing new things to bug you about... Tom's Hardware currently likes Avira. Honestly, I just use Microsoft Security Essentials (Windows 7)/Windows Defender (Windows , because it seems to be the least in my way. People like Tom's who test these things have been saying that MSE/WD has been going downhill, though. Quote
frothymug Posted May 18, 2015 Posted May 18, 2015 I had AVG for a long time and it started to feel like it had way too much overhead. I've been happy with Avast since I switched about 6 months ago. Quote
David Hingtgen Posted May 18, 2015 Posted May 18, 2015 ::reads linked Avira review:: Web protection not part of the free version? Then what's left? Does the free version only scan floppy and thumb drives? I used AVG before Avast, might go back. ::reads more reviews:: Hmmn, Panda looks interesting. I remember one time years ago, that a Panda scan was the only thing that found something---I *knew* my PC had something, but everything else I ran said it was clean---but doing a scan through Panda's website found it. Quote
azrael Posted May 18, 2015 Author Posted May 18, 2015 ::reads linked Avira review:: Web protection not part of the free version? Then what's left? Does the free version only scan floppy and thumb drives? I used AVG before Avast, might go back. Welcome (back?) to the world of free anti-virus. Me? I use work-provided corporate security solutions so I'm not a good example. Quote
David Hingtgen Posted May 18, 2015 Posted May 18, 2015 I've been free for years----but Avast Free is quickly becoming more annoying than most websites, due to relentless pop-up ads etc. Quote
VF-19 Posted June 7, 2015 Posted June 7, 2015 There's no electronics in this... YET! It's the floor of my Mk1 homebuilt cockpit. Side panels and monitor stand will be added as the paint dries. Seat and pedals to be mounted soon. Always wanted to build one of these! Quote
mikeszekely Posted June 7, 2015 Posted June 7, 2015 You're right to worry. Still, the company seems to have legs since they're also making a cheap external battery pack, and they made a $20 drone that sold out instantly. They're also about to unwrap the OnePlus Two. In my opinion, the company will still be around for a year or two. As you say, the price is excellent for what you're getting. Even if the company dies, you'll still have a properly working phone. Go ahead and get one. I've handled a few, and the build quality and responsiveness of the UI belies its price. You'll be happy. They had a sale, so I bit the bullet and ordered the 64GB one. Mailman actually tried to deliver it today, but I wasn't expecting it until Monday so I wasn't home to sign for it. Quote
myk Posted July 30, 2015 Posted July 30, 2015 (edited) So my laptop is pleading with me to eventually download a free copy of Windows 1,000, or 10, or whatever. Should I walk away from my completely acceptable and satisfactory Windows 7 and give this latest 0S a shot? Edited July 30, 2015 by myk Quote
JB0 Posted July 30, 2015 Posted July 30, 2015 So my laptop is pleading with me to eventually download a free copy of Windows 1,000, or 10, or whatever. Should I walk away from my completely acceptable and satisfactory Windows 7 and give this latest 0S a shot?Don't know yet. You do have a year to consider this, so I'd wait a few months and see what the consensus is after the launch sh!tstorm and inevitable growing pains have died down. Quote
myk Posted July 30, 2015 Posted July 30, 2015 Hmm....good point. Let the me-first crowd fumble about with this thing until I'm satisfied with it... Quote
Steiner21 Posted July 30, 2015 Posted July 30, 2015 I used to be in the trade so to speak so the heads up is that Windows 10 promises some good stuff especially for PC Gamers. Although bundled with a load of trash to support the Gaming PC "wanna be xbox". (its an AMD Tablet chip & basic AMD Graphics card running if I'm not mistaken a distant version of UNIX) live with it. You play your stuff, I will play mine lets agree to disagree. If rumours are to be believed 10 should better use all that new Graphics and CPU hardware that has been floating around for the last few years. The usual yard stick applies, let someone else try it first before committing. P Quote
mikeszekely Posted July 30, 2015 Posted July 30, 2015 I let Windows 10 install on my Surface Pro 3 (from Windows 8.1) but I'm hesitant to do so on my main desktop PC. Windows 10 is better than 8, but Windows 7 is so good and so familiar. There does seem to be a small learning curve for 10. On the other hand, the gamer in me is curious about Xbox One streaming and DirectX 12. Quote
technoblue Posted July 30, 2015 Posted July 30, 2015 Microsoft wants everyone to BELIEVE that Windows 10 is as revolutionary as MS-DOS. It could be. The question anyone who wants to trade their Windows 7 license for a Windows 10 licesne should ask is, "Do I want to be a software pioneer?" Because it doesn't matter how many pre-releases were tested before this. You are now part of a much larger group testing the mass-market retail version. It could go peachy and it could fail hard. Do you want to roll the dice on a perfectly good working system? Personally, I'm going to wait. If anyone clicks the blue button, though, please come back to tell us if your computer survived. Quote
myk Posted July 30, 2015 Posted July 30, 2015 So....you can't revert to 7 if you choose to do so? Quote
technoblue Posted July 30, 2015 Posted July 30, 2015 (edited) So....you can't revert to 7 if you choose to do so? I think there is a timer. You have one month to preview Win 10 and decide to roll back... Here's an article: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/windows/how-downgrade-windows-10-to-windows-7-8-3615606/ And this article says it may be possible to roll back after a month (depending on which Win 7 license you have): http://www.howtogeek.com/220723/how-to-uninstall-windows-10-and-downgrade-to-windows-7-or-8.1/ Hm. It may be more of a caution for OEM installs now that I think about it... Edit: clarification; adding in some missing words; returning to Zen... Edited July 30, 2015 by technoblue Quote
lechuck Posted July 30, 2015 Posted July 30, 2015 (edited) Wow, so much unnecessary apprehension. Upgrade went without any issues, only had to reinstall Bitdefender as that was completely removed during the process. Otherwise everything else works, Office, Visual Studio, MusicBee, VLC, StickyPassword, TeamViewer, AdFender, Firefox, Skype, WinRAR, Adobe Reader, HMA VPN, Notepad++, PowerDVD. All manufacturer direct hardware drivers were left intact too. GUI is very minimalisitc in style. Would have preferred if the Charms Bar was enhanced for the new version and the old taskbar ditched completely. Good to know that Start Screen is still available as an option, but will try and use the Start Menu for the moment. A bit annoying that "All Apps" is alphabetical order only now, sorting by "Catergory" is completely gone. Edge Browser is pretty fast, need to delve into it a bit more, but it could lure me away from Firefox. Search is pretty responsive, but a bit Bing heavy. Can't be bothered with the Cortana speech thing. All in all, Windows 10 is very solid so far, but if you ask me it is just further refinement here and there from 8.1 - not the biggest revolution. And I hope this is the last time Microsoft gives in to whiny yesteryear OS users and rolls back on design philosophies or anything else. Be radical and stay strong about it. Edited July 30, 2015 by lechuck Quote
myk Posted July 30, 2015 Posted July 30, 2015 Apprehension is easily warranted. Technology and the people's lives it touches is a rocky subject at best... Quote
technoblue Posted July 30, 2015 Posted July 30, 2015 Yeah, I'm sticking to the slow lane this release. I think I migrated to Windows 7 retail a year after its release, but I did manage to try out Microsoft's Win 7 beta releases when they were generating them. It was a fun experience, but something I only wanted to do one time. I keep thinking of dancing with Linux again, since I do so much with it at work, or dual booting that and Windows but I'm not sure what the license requirements are for dual booting with Windows 10. There were some articles about this, but I'm having difficulty digging them up at the moment. Quote
myk Posted July 30, 2015 Posted July 30, 2015 Slow lane indeed. Windows 7 works beautifully, better than any other MS OS has for me, so I am in no rush to adopt anything else unless it's proven to be the coming of the Messiah... Quote
azrael Posted July 30, 2015 Author Posted July 30, 2015 And I hope this is the last time Microsoft gives in to whiny yesteryear OS users and rolls back on design philosophies or anything else. Be radical and stay strong about it. Actually, more like Microsoft realizing that we still use keyboards and mice and that their last attempt at a brand new interface worked against what people currently use and will still use for a long time. I'll upgrade to 10 when I do a hardware refresh, which I just did last year so it will be a while. I keep thinking of dancing with Linux again, since I do so much with it at work, or dual booting that and Windows but I'm not sure what the license requirements are for dual booting with Windows 10. There were some articles about this, but I'm having difficulty digging them up at the moment. Usually, install Windows first then Linux. The other thing you could try is using a virtual machine, unless you need direct access to the hardware. Quote
technoblue Posted July 31, 2015 Posted July 31, 2015 Usually, install Windows first then Linux. The other thing you could try is using a virtual machine, unless you need direct access to the hardware. Thanks, azrael. That's the process I remember from my XP/Debian days. As for the licensing stuff, I'm probably overthinking it. I haven't moved to virtual machines at home yet, but I couldn't do without them here at work. Some of the doc software that I use needs a dinosaur on a treadmill to run, and a virtual machine is the best support for that scenario. Quote
mikeszekely Posted July 31, 2015 Posted July 31, 2015 Usually, install Windows first then Linux. The other thing you could try is using a virtual machine, unless you need direct access to the hardware. Yep. Because IIRC doing Linux first will cause Windows to replace GRUB/LILO/whatever bootloader with the Windows bootloader, which doesn't like Linux. So, a day in and Windows 10 seems ok (at least, no worse than Windows 8.1) on my Surface Pro 3. The handwriting keyboard is definitely improved. On bug/annoyance, though, is that it keeps prompting me to re-enter my PIN/password on the lock screen, even though I set it to not require a password when I've been away. Having issues with a laptop, though. Not really Windows 10 issues, though. See, when I got the laptop it had Windows 8, pre 8.1. I hated it, and Steam wasn't playing nice, so I tossed in an mSATA SSD, flipped the BIOS mode to legacy, and installed Windows 7 with a VLK I have. I figured the laptop, which I don't use a lot, would be a good place to mess around with Windows 10, so I'd again dumped Windows 7 and put the developer preview on it. Now I want to upgrade it to the "official" Windows 10, but the preview doesn't update. I tried using the Windows 10 Media Creation thing, but giving it the Windows 8 key from the UEFI doesn't work. And of course, I can only find the first two recovery media discs I'd made before I wiped Windows 8 to install 10... Quote
JB0 Posted August 1, 2015 Posted August 1, 2015 Yep. Because IIRC doing Linux first will cause Windows to replace GRUB/LILO/whatever bootloader with the Windows bootloader, which doesn't like Linux.Yeah. Windows strongly believes that it is the only operating system on a computer, so it blows away any existing bootloaders during install. Quote
spanner Posted August 1, 2015 Posted August 1, 2015 Current opinions on free anti-virus? Avast gets more annoying by the day. I swear they're inventing new things to bug you about... I just use Windows Defender in Win8.1 (basically security essentials) which works extremely well and have Malwarebytes active in the background which also seems to work well. Maybe once a week will I do a scan with either Win Def and with Malwarebytes but I also run a Spybot Search & Destroy scan along with them. I haven't had an issue running with these. Gone are the days of using McAfee, Stop Sign, AVG, Kaspersky bla bla bla.. they are all just nonsense money making loads of crap which do more harm than good. Quote
BeyondTheGrave Posted August 6, 2015 Posted August 6, 2015 (edited) Any recommendation for a <$200 monitor? Edited August 6, 2015 by BeyondTheGrave Quote
Chewie Posted August 6, 2015 Posted August 6, 2015 Any recommendation for a <$200 monitor? Usage scenarios? Quote
azrael Posted August 6, 2015 Author Posted August 6, 2015 Any recommendation for a <$200 monitor?Preferred size? Usage? Special needs? (USB port? Height adjustment?, Ports? (DVI, DisplayPort, HDMI), etc) Quote
BeyondTheGrave Posted August 7, 2015 Posted August 7, 2015 Preferred size? Usage? Special needs? (USB port? Height adjustment?, Ports? (DVI, DisplayPort, HDMI), etc) 19" and upGaming , video watching None that I can think of. Still have to get my main HDD and mouse replaced Quote
azrael Posted August 8, 2015 Author Posted August 8, 2015 19" and up Gaming , video watching None that I can think of. Still have to get my main HDD and mouse replaced Try this one? BenQ RL2455HM Quote
spanner Posted August 8, 2015 Posted August 8, 2015 Any recommendation for a <$200 monitor? I used one of these for a while and it was great! Only sold it to upgrade to a much larger (42") non gaming screen.. http://us.aoc.com/monitor_displays/g2460pqu but now im back down to 27" gaming monitor. Quote
MechTech Posted August 8, 2015 Posted August 8, 2015 BTG, Staples had a nice looking 24" Samsung for $149 yesterday, video sample running looked good. I've had a couple of Samsung monitors for years with no issues. Hey everyone, it's time for me to get or build a new desktop. Has to be able to handle 3D drawing, but no gaming. I built my last computer, AMD dual core with ASUS motherboard. But I'm thinking it's cheaper to just buy a decent desktop this time around. I'm on a student budget so it's got to be cheap! Any suggestions? I haven't kept up on hardware so I'm a little behind the power curve. I was happy with my AMD chipped machine and personally think Intel is usually over-priced. I'm not animating a movie so it doesn't have to blow the doors off my shop. - MT Quote
azrael Posted August 8, 2015 Author Posted August 8, 2015 Hey everyone, it's time for me to get or build a new desktop. Has to be able to handle 3D drawing, but no gaming. I built my last computer, AMD dual core with ASUS motherboard. But I'm thinking it's cheaper to just buy a decent desktop this time around. I'm on a student budget so it's got to be cheap! Any suggestions? I haven't kept up on hardware so I'm a little behind the power curve. I was happy with my AMD chipped machine and personally think Intel is usually over-priced. I'm not animating a movie so it doesn't have to blow the doors off my shop. - MT 1. What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming, Photoshop (or other intensive programs), Web browsing, strictly HTPC/Playback, etc. (If you have multiple things you want to do with the system, make sure you rank them from most important to least important). 2. Will you be overclocking? (If so, are you looking to watercool?) 3. What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included in this budget? Is your budget flexible? Is cost a driving factor in component selection? 4. Do you have any big B&M (brick and mortar) computer chains nearby (e.g. Microcenter, Fry's, etc)? 5. What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need (especially if you will need 3.5" hard drives or expansion cards as these may restrict case options). 6. If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. For reused parts, list brands, model #s, and, if applicable, firmware revisions. 7. What specific features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Thunderbolt? Crossfire or SLI support? How many USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s? etc. Which is more important, size of the system or having the particular feature? Make sure you indicate *required* vs. *wanted* for each feature you list. 8. What resolution output do you need? 4k playback, 1080p playback, etc for HTPC or give a vertical/horizontal resolution for gaming SFF rigs. Do you need multiple monitor output? 9. Does this system need to fit into a particular space and do you need an optical drive? Think entertainment center shelves, closet space, rackmount, etc. Many modern SFF cases have either removed the optical drive or have been constructed so that removing the ODD increases the configuration possibilities immensely. 10. How important is the noise/silence of this sytem? HTPCs typically want to be quiet while all-out SFF gaming rigs don't care 11. How mobile does this system need to be? Need a carrying handle or carrying straps? Is weight important (carry-on bag, etc)? Water cooling quick disconnects, etc? 12. Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit? Remember that OEM copies of Win7 have issues with new motherboards 13. When do you plan on building/buying the PC? You kinda answered #1. A few more specifics would help #3. Quote
MechTech Posted August 10, 2015 Posted August 10, 2015 Thanks Azrael. TIGHT budget, about $500. I could go refurbished, but my limitations are based around Adobe Illustrator's requirements (for school). CPU is not a problem, but the graphics card needs to be a minimum of the list below. Best Buy is the only big chain near me. They have an ASUS A10 with R7. I'm starting to think that's my best bet right now. Other refurbed PC's seem to have below requirements graphics card. Thanks for your input! - MT NVIDIA Quadro K Series Intel HD Graphics 4000 Series AMD Radeon R7 / R9 Series Graphics 8 GB RAM P4 or Athelon CPU (definitely got to do better though) Quote
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