New computer, Windows 8.1?

[Tiger7Moth]

I have been using a laptop that is dying. Keyboard doesn't work, DVD drive doesn't work, display has had to be replaced.....

Fortunately, I knew enough not to trust the first version of a major piece of software from MS - Windows 8.0.

In less than a month, 8.1 will be available. I am not sure when it will be available on computers, preloaded, in Thailand.

I recently bought Flight Simulator X, Gold. My laptop is not powerful enough to use it. Also, I will need a good graphics card and don't know anything about graphics cards.

Anyway, I am trying to prepare to upgrade. I imagine I should buy a desktop for power and would appreciate some advise for my future strategy (reviews of Windows 8.1 on CNET seem mixed).

I would appreciate any input.

Desktop I might consider.... - graphics card.... go with Windows 8.1 right away or wait (don't want to wait too long given the condition of my laptop)...

Any idea when desktops preloaded with 8.1 might be available in Thailand?

Try an entirely different strategy???

Any thoughts are welcome.

Thanks very much

[sammycic]

i just built a desktop using J.I.B. and very happy with it. I am running 8.1 pro preview edition with no problems. waiting for the full version to be released 17th October. i didn't install a graphics card and am using the intel onboard hd4600 graphics with an asrock z87 extreme 4 motherboard. The picture quality on my samsung tv is brilliant. My hd downloads never look so good. The audio from the asrock motherboard is excellent.

Hope this helps.

cheers.

[KittenKong]

There is no big difference for the end user between Win8 and Win8.1; 8.1 is just a service pack release.

There is nothing much wrong with Win8/Win8.1 as long as you can bypass the appalling Metro/tile interface, which is totally unusable for anyone without a touch-screen.

Luckily you can install (free) programmes like Classic Shell which do bypass the ghastly and unusable Metro interface, thus making Windows 8 quite acceptable.

The other option is to install Windows 7, which will also give you the Aero functions which personally I rather like. Personally if I was changing my main machine I would install Win7 on it rather than Win8. Win8 Pro version actually comes with a free downgrade option to Win7.

[sammycic]

With 8.1 you can boot directly to desktop and never have to use or see the metro interface. win 8 is much better than 7 IMHO.

[ETatBKK]

pre-loaded W8.1 already on some ASUS, HP and others NOTEBOOKs, ready-to-ship. pre-loaded W8.1 on desktop, no idea. I guess Microsoft offers free W8.1 upgrade for W8.0 users.

it will be easier if you could tell how far you will go on the gaming requirement, 25%, 50% or 75% for example; and also the budget. if an add-on graphic card is in mind, then you will be more flexible with any custom build computer, massive choices on components of different qualities and performances. yeah, no next-business-day onsite though.

custom-build computer could be started from B20,000, and easily over B60,000, depends on your graphic card specifications. NVidia GeForce is the most popular graphic card, from good enough GeForce GTX650 at about B4,000 to some extreme at about B40,000.

that exactly goes back to the first question - how far you goes on the gaming ?

[Chicog]

I've had 8.1 Pro running on various PCs since it appeared on Technet a week or so ago.

About 60-90 minute upgrade from 8.0 and it all works fine.

I did use it to upgrade from a Win 7 machine; it only gives the option of a full wipe or wipe-but-keep-user-data (i.e. got rid of the programs).

As others have posted, use Classic Shell or the like to revert Win 8 to the old Desktop/Start Menu style and there is not much of a learning curve; it is the fastest and most stable Windows yet.

[Tiger7Moth]

i just built a desktop using J.I.B. and very happy with it. I am running 8.1 pro preview edition with no problems. waiting for the full version to be released 17th October. i didn't install a graphics card and am using the intel onboard hd4600 graphics with an asrock z87 extreme 4 motherboard. The picture quality on my samsung tv is brilliant. My hd downloads never look so good. The audio from the asrock motherboard is excellent.

Hope this helps.

cheers.

I will trade you my laptop straight up. Seriously, you are way over my head. As I will say to another person kind enough to reply, I really only want to run Flight Simulator X Gold. I don't have your knowledge and will have to buy an off the shelf ASUS, HP or whatever. But, I can inquire about graphics card, processor inside... and I can see if I can negotiate a certain graphics card or whatever if I know what to ask for. I will pay whatever I must pay. But, as far as building my own or extreme customization, way beyond my abilities.

Thanks for your response

[Tiger7Moth]

pre-loaded W8.1 already on some ASUS, HP and others NOTEBOOKs, ready-to-ship. pre-loaded W8.1 on desktop, no idea. I guess Microsoft offers free W8.1 upgrade for W8.0 users.

it will be easier if you could tell how far you will go on the gaming requirement, 25%, 50% or 75% for example; and also the budget. if an add-on graphic card is in mind, then you will be more flexible with any custom build computer, massive choices on components of different qualities and performances. yeah, no next-business-day onsite though.

custom-build computer could be started from B20,000, and easily over B60,000, depends on your graphic card specifications. NVidia GeForce is the most popular graphic card, from good enough GeForce GTX650 at about B4,000 to some extreme at about B40,000.

that exactly goes back to the first question - how far you goes on the gaming ?

Here is my response to the reply by someone who built their own computer:

"I will trade you my laptop straight up. Seriously, you are way over my head. As I will say to another person kind enough to reply, I really only want to run Flight Simulator X Gold. I don't have your knowledge and will have to buy an off the shelf ASUS, HP or whatever. But, I can inquire about graphics card, processor inside... and I can see if I can negotiate a certain graphics card or whatever if I know what to ask for. I will pay whatever I must pay. But, as far as building my own or extreme customization, way beyond my abilities.

Thanks for your response

[Tiger7Moth]

pre-loaded W8.1 already on some ASUS, HP and others NOTEBOOKs, ready-to-ship. pre-loaded W8.1 on desktop, no idea. I guess Microsoft offers free W8.1 upgrade for W8.0 users.

it will be easier if you could tell how far you will go on the gaming requirement, 25%, 50% or 75% for example; and also the budget. if an add-on graphic card is in mind, then you will be more flexible with any custom build computer, massive choices on components of different qualities and performances. yeah, no next-business-day onsite though.

custom-build computer could be started from B20,000, and easily over B60,000, depends on your graphic card specifications. NVidia GeForce is the most popular graphic card, from good enough GeForce GTX650 at about B4,000 to some extreme at about B40,000.

that exactly goes back to the first question - how far you goes on the gaming ?

I am not at all adverse to a notebook if it has sufficient power and graphics ability.

I simply want to run Flight Simulator X Gold. This will be the first 'game' I have ever tried.

I will pay what I must pay. If you could make specific recommendations (is there a notebook with enough power?), would GeForce GTX650 be sufficient for FS and available? Is there a specific Notebook that would suffice that you could recommend?

Any info is appreciated and thanks for your reply.

[Tiger7Moth]

pre-loaded W8.1 already on some ASUS, HP and others NOTEBOOKs, ready-to-ship. pre-loaded W8.1 on desktop, no idea. I guess Microsoft offers free W8.1 upgrade for W8.0 users.

it will be easier if you could tell how far you will go on the gaming requirement, 25%, 50% or 75% for example; and also the budget. if an add-on graphic card is in mind, then you will be more flexible with any custom build computer, massive choices on components of different qualities and performances. yeah, no next-business-day onsite though.

custom-build computer could be started from B20,000, and easily over B60,000, depends on your graphic card specifications. NVidia GeForce is the most popular graphic card, from good enough GeForce GTX650 at about B4,000 to some extreme at about B40,000.

that exactly goes back to the first question - how far you goes on the gaming ?

Well, I am not adverse to a notebook - I just want to run Flight Simulator X Gold. Are there specific recommendations you could make that would meet my desire. I will pay whatever I must pay but I surely don't want to pay B40,000 for a graphics card if B4000 is sufficient.

Thank you for your reply and any additional information.

[phil2]

Build yourself and you'd be surprised by the cost of the build. I'm not a gamer, so my top end am3+ processor, 2tb HDD, 8gb ram, a highend nonname mobo and other accessories came to about 16k. The shops that build for people in Pantip make a couple of grand on the build, but it's designed to look as if they don't. Get quotes, then shop around for the parts.

[kkerry]

This gives you an idea of what is required to run the software. It's not exactly new so you may not require a top of the line graphics card.

http://www.game-debate.com/games/index.php?g_id=371&game=Microsoft%20Flight%20Simulator%20X:%20Gold%20Edition

Also, have a trawl through the Amazon comments to get an idea of what people use.

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Flight-Simulator-X-Edition-Pc/product-reviews/B001DPZE84/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_recent/180-4019206-8461750?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

[sammycic]

Tigermoth, before i ended building mine i was looking at a dell xps8700 desktop or hp pavillion 200 pretty good specs but i saved money and increased the specs. look at the specs of the dell and then get jib or invadeit to price building similiar. i think the dell had geforce 650. As i use it as a home theatre pc the onboard graphics are fine. Try the onboard graphics if not enough just buy a graphics card and pop it in.

have fun

the hp is the envy 700 038d or 040d.

main thing is 4th generation intel cpu.

[ETatBKK]

envy your fresh box of FSX Gold, I still couldn't get it yet. I am not a gamer but I know enough FSX.

in FSX, there are different settings on the fidelity levels on the augmented virtual reality, from the cockpit instruments to the external flight scenes. you can play FSX out of the box, but get bore soon; or you challenge the last details on how the wings vibrate. up to personal preference. search FSX community websites and there are more info on what hardware and what fidelity levels. you see completely different view on a B40,000 graphic card than that on a B4,000 graphic card.

yes, there are laptop could run Microsoft FSX Gold SMOOTHLY, listed below :

ASUS N550JV i7-4700HQ/8GB/DDR3/1TB/15.6"FHD/GeForce GT750M, B40,000
ASUS N46JV i7-4700HQ/4GB/14"Led/GeForce GT750M, B30,000
ASUS G750JX i7-4700HQ/16GB/2TB/17.3"LED/GeForce GTX770M, B65,000
ASUS G750JW i7-4700HQ/8GB/1TB/17.3"LED/GeForce GTX765MX B45,000

HP ENVY14 i7-4500u/8GB/DDR3/1TB/14"touch/GeFrorce GT740M, B36,000
HP ENVY15 i7-4900MQ/16GB/1TB/15.6"touch/GeForce GT740M, B54,000

Dell Inspiron 5421 i7-3537U/6GB/1TB/14"LED/GeForce GT640M, B29,000

of course, Dell Alienware 3 product variants are always available ( at a price ) :

http://www.alienware.com/Landings/laptops.aspx

custom-build gives you complete flexibility on the choice of the graphic card. get the info from the FSX community websites, go to a 'good' shop and they hand you a complete-build desktop in hours.

[Chicog]

How much do you want to spend?

[Tiger7Moth]

How much do you want to spend?

I am willing to spend any reasonable amount. I could take a hit and get top of the line, but, I don't want to waste money (baht).

[Chicog]

Ah good, that narrows it down.

[ETatBKK]

in between your line, you want a dedicated computer for running the FSX, no more, no less. try the specs below for SMOOTHING the FSX :

a smaller micro ATX motherboard, and fit into a living room friendly casing

- Socket LGA1150 / Z87 / 4 x DDR3 / 6 x SATA 6Gb/s, about B5,000

- keep it small, don't need too many extension slots

a fast intel i7 CPU for smoothing the FSX calculation

- Core i7-4770 Haswell, about B10,000

extreme graphic card won't help FSX, more memory help smoothing FSX rendering
- nVidia GeForce GTX650 1GB GDDR5, about B4,000, or

then a 120GB SSD, about B3,500

more RAM is better, yet at least 8GB DDR3, about B2,500

other components are personal preference.

invadeIT.com, or compute and more at 4/F Pantip

[Tiger7Moth]

Ah good, that narrows it down.

Well, I will try to give you a more complete, complex answer to your question.

I can afford to pay for top of the line. However, if someone recommended a specific computer that would satisfy my needs (basically doing nothing special except running Flight Simulator X Gold) and the cost was say 75% of top of the line, I would buy that and save the 25%.

I am not trying to spend a minimal amount of baht. I will spend whatever is required to meet my needs and don't want to spend more for performance, capacity that I don't need.

I have no specific amount of baht as part of my criteria.

[ignis]

My PC is old and Sunday gave up, so all the sites and option are on there, I was looking at http://www.tomshardware.com/articles/ and then found what was best and looked here for what I can get...

Here the shop Advise [ or online http://www.advice.co.th/] appears to be the best prices...

So a Intel i7 CPU built to my spec around 27,000 baht, same sort of spec with AMD cost 20,000 baht... I have only ever used AMD, even this old laptop on it's last legs, but bought new in April 2000 is AMD..

AMD CPU is a lot cheaper than Intel, as are AMD Radeon Graphics Cards.. eg: Gigabyte PCi GTX 680 13,900 baht, Gigabyte ATi 7850 is 7.200 baht, same sort of power.

If you have no idea how to build, most small shops will build it it for you, cost 300 - 500 baht.. many IT shops that sell all the part will build it for you.

If you do lots of research on already built PC off the shelves, I see things that are to me daft, why have a Motherboard with on board graphics when your going to add a graphics card ? total waste of money. on the other hand if you are going to put in only 8 GB of memory, myself would buy 2 x 4 GB, if you have only 1 x 8 if it did go wrong you have nothing.. fine if 2 x 8...

Worth remembering if you are going to use Windows 32 bit, Max Memory can be used is 3 GB..

[Bpuumike]

pre-loaded W8.1 already on some ASUS, HP and others NOTEBOOKs, ready-to-ship. pre-loaded W8.1 on desktop, no idea. I guess Microsoft offers free W8.1 upgrade for W8.0 users.

it will be easier if you could tell how far you will go on the gaming requirement, 25%, 50% or 75% for example; and also the budget. if an add-on graphic card is in mind, then you will be more flexible with any custom build computer, massive choices on components of different qualities and performances. yeah, no next-business-day onsite though.

custom-build computer could be started from B20,000, and easily over B60,000, depends on your graphic card specifications. NVidia GeForce is the most popular graphic card, from good enough GeForce GTX650 at about B4,000 to some extreme at about B40,000.

that exactly goes back to the first question - how far you goes on the gaming ?

Well, I am not adverse to a notebook - I just want to run Flight Simulator X Gold. Are there specific recommendations you could make that would meet my desire. I will pay whatever I must pay but I surely don't want to pay B40,000 for a graphics card if B4000 is sufficient.

Thank you for your reply and any additional information.

One tip: if you are wanting to run FS then go for a larger rather than smaller monitor and definitely not a notebook.

Maybe a desk top (can go under desk of course), gives more bang for your bucks.

[Tiger7Moth]

pre-loaded W8.1 already on some ASUS, HP and others NOTEBOOKs, ready-to-ship. pre-loaded W8.1 on desktop, no idea. I guess Microsoft offers free W8.1 upgrade for W8.0 users.

it will be easier if you could tell how far you will go on the gaming requirement, 25%, 50% or 75% for example; and also the budget. if an add-on graphic card is in mind, then you will be more flexible with any custom build computer, massive choices on components of different qualities and performances. yeah, no next-business-day onsite though.

custom-build computer could be started from B20,000, and easily over B60,000, depends on your graphic card specifications. NVidia GeForce is the most popular graphic card, from good enough GeForce GTX650 at about B4,000 to some extreme at about B40,000.

that exactly goes back to the first question - how far you goes on the gaming ?

Well, I am not adverse to a notebook - I just want to run Flight Simulator X Gold. Are there specific recommendations you could make that would meet my desire. I will pay whatever I must pay but I surely don't want to pay B40,000 for a graphics card if B4000 is sufficient.

Thank you for your reply and any additional information.

One tip: if you are wanting to run FS then go for a larger rather than smaller monitor and definitely not a notebook.

Maybe a desk top (can go under desk of course), gives more bang for your bucks.

Yes, I think I will go that as a larger monitor would be better and I could use the extra space by having the desktop under my desk.

I appreciate everyone's input. I have to say, I am unfortunately pretty ignorant with regards to computer specs and a lot of information that I am sure was good info, simply was over my head. In any event, I would like to thank everyone who tried to help me.

[inthepink]

My PC is old and Sunday gave up, so all the sites and option are on there, I was looking at http://www.tomshardware.com/articles/ and then found what was best and looked here for what I can get...

Here the shop Advise [ or online http://www.advice.co.th/] appears to be the best prices...

So a Intel i7 CPU built to my spec around 27,000 baht, same sort of spec with AMD cost 20,000 baht... I have only ever used AMD, even this old laptop on it's last legs, but bought new in April 2000 is AMD..

AMD CPU is a lot cheaper than Intel, as are AMD Radeon Graphics Cards.. eg: Gigabyte PCi GTX 680 13,900 baht, Gigabyte ATi 7850 is 7.200 baht, same sort of power.

If you have no idea how to build, most small shops will build it it for you, cost 300 - 500 baht.. many IT shops that sell all the part will build it for you.

If you do lots of research on already built PC off the shelves, I see things that are to me daft, why have a Motherboard with on board graphics when your going to add a graphics card ? total waste of money. on the other hand if you are going to put in only 8 GB of memory, myself would buy 2 x 4 GB, if you have only 1 x 8 if it did go wrong you have nothing.. fine if 2 x 8...

Worth remembering if you are going to use Windows 32 bit, Max Memory can be used is 3 GB..

As they are part of the CPU on all the latest Intels, you will find it hard to put a PC together that doesn't have onboard graphcis if you want a decent CPU.

[ignis]

Upgraded my PC yesterday, up and running fine now.

M.B. GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3P NO onboard graphcis

CPU AMD FX-8320

2x 4 GB Ram Hyper-X DDR3(1866) 8GB. Kingston (C9T3,kit2) 'Ingram/Synnex

and Windows 8

Not much idea on laptops but did see this one [ I do have 2 but old and cost near 40,000 baht back then, the Sony is 14 years old]

http://www.advice.co.th/products/preview.php?code=A0056718 Promotion ๑ 16,200 baht........ Think is a good make ? TOSHIBA Satellite