compie woes...
I built my new computer on Monday. The build went smoothly and this things is real quick. It puts my old machine to shame several times over. The only problem is I can't get XP to install to a SATA drive. It has something to do with XP not having proper drivers for many SATA controllers. I could pop in a floppy during install to manually provide the controllers, but I didn't put a floppy drive on this computer (my first one without a floppy drive...it's like a security blanket yanked out from under me...). I looked around online and found instructions on how to do this without a floppy drive, but the instructions were odd and required a second machine running XP natively - which I could set up with my old computer, but I'm lazy. The other two choices are to go buy a new copy of Vista (if I'm paying for a new copy of Windows, I'd just move to Vista, with SP1 out, it's gotten pretty damn stable) or to install an IDE HDD, but that's a definite downgrade and a step towards older technology.
I'll probably end up buying a copy of Vista...but how often will I even use Windows? I'm a die hard penguin at this point. I just use Windows right now for checking my sites in IE, Safari and Chrome. I've got that handled through a virtual machine, though. I got XP installed there just fine, since it thought it was working with an IDE HDD. However, virtualized stuff runs slower, so I couldn't do any gaming...but I don't do PC gaming much anyway these days. But, that begs the question of why. I'm a gamer, always have been, always will be, I just game on my 360, PS3 or Wii these days. Did I switch out of a growing preference for a console, or did I switch from a computer that was getting too out dated to keep up?
I could test this out, for a few hundred bucks. I didn't get a dedicated video card with this computer, with the plan to be a future upgrade. I could go buy Vista ($99 through newegg for OEM edition), a dedicated video card ($189 for an EVGA GeForce 9800 1GB GDDR3), and another $50 for a game (probably Crysis, just cause, or The Orange Box, cause I love Team Fortress 2). If I did that, I'd be all set to rock out on modern games and find out if I would go back to them with a capable machine - but if the answer is no, I'm out about $350.
Maybe I'll pop in an IDE HDD and install XP to it, and try to game with my integrated graphics chip (ATI HD3200 - the best ICG out there right now, although that's not saying much at all). That would cost me nothing (except maybe for a copy of The Orange Box, which even this IGC could handle well), and it would help answer the question.
The one other upgrade I want for my computer is a new monitor. I recently got a new keyboard (Logitech G11), and my mouse (Logitech MX1000) and speakers (Creative Inspire P5800) are old, but are still great. I'm looking to get a 22" or larger widescreen monitor with HDMI input.
I'll probably end up buying a copy of Vista...but how often will I even use Windows? I'm a die hard penguin at this point. I just use Windows right now for checking my sites in IE, Safari and Chrome. I've got that handled through a virtual machine, though. I got XP installed there just fine, since it thought it was working with an IDE HDD. However, virtualized stuff runs slower, so I couldn't do any gaming...but I don't do PC gaming much anyway these days. But, that begs the question of why. I'm a gamer, always have been, always will be, I just game on my 360, PS3 or Wii these days. Did I switch out of a growing preference for a console, or did I switch from a computer that was getting too out dated to keep up?
I could test this out, for a few hundred bucks. I didn't get a dedicated video card with this computer, with the plan to be a future upgrade. I could go buy Vista ($99 through newegg for OEM edition), a dedicated video card ($189 for an EVGA GeForce 9800 1GB GDDR3), and another $50 for a game (probably Crysis, just cause, or The Orange Box, cause I love Team Fortress 2). If I did that, I'd be all set to rock out on modern games and find out if I would go back to them with a capable machine - but if the answer is no, I'm out about $350.
Maybe I'll pop in an IDE HDD and install XP to it, and try to game with my integrated graphics chip (ATI HD3200 - the best ICG out there right now, although that's not saying much at all). That would cost me nothing (except maybe for a copy of The Orange Box, which even this IGC could handle well), and it would help answer the question.
The one other upgrade I want for my computer is a new monitor. I recently got a new keyboard (Logitech G11), and my mouse (Logitech MX1000) and speakers (Creative Inspire P5800) are old, but are still great. I'm looking to get a 22" or larger widescreen monitor with HDMI input.