Be VERY afraid. I personally use Windows 7 Signature Edition, but if you have any computer science friends, see if they can get you a copy of windows 7 for free through MSDNAA.
Be VERY afraid. I personally use Windows 7 Signature Edition, but if you have any computer science friends, see if they can get you a copy of windows 7 for free through MSDNAA.
Or, alternately, buy a piece of hardware from NewEgg and buy the OEM version for about $100 less or so.
Be VERY afraid. I personally use Windows 7 Signature Edition, but if you have any computer science friends, see if they can get you a copy of windows 7 for free through MSDNAA.
Or, alternately, buy a piece of hardware from NewEgg and buy the OEM version for about $100 less or so.
I shy away from that one cause they say you can't transfer it to another computer and I've changed my hardware enough that Windows thought I had a new computer before.
You never know what kinda malware you can get when you pirate software... Pirating media is one thing, but "there be dragons" when you go down the software piracy route, unfortunately.
Be VERY afraid. I personally use Windows 7 Signature Edition, but if you have any computer science friends, see if they can get you a copy of windows 7 for free through MSDNAA.
Or, alternately, buy a piece of hardware from NewEgg and buy the OEM version for about $100 less or so.
I shy away from that one cause they say you can't transfer it to another computer and I've changed my hardware enough that Windows thought I had a new computer before.
Ah, I did not know that. Good to know in the future when I decide to build my next machine (gonna replace my Mac desktop with a Windows desktop and my Windows laptop with a dual booting Mac laptop when the time comes).
They should be. Almost everything out there is full of malware. The people who pirate creative tools like Photoshop get the worst of it.
And, of course, Adobe likes to milk the people who legitimately buy those tools for every dime by changing the file formats with every version and only allowing you to import (not export) the immediately prior version's files. It's not that big a deal when you only use them for personal projects, but when you have multiple clients and don't know what version they may be using themselves... But I digress.
You can actually get guaranteed safe windows releases from what.cd, but that's a private invite only tracker and it'll probably also kill your ratio.
You can also get them from your buddy who's got an MSDN subscription... and actually I'd trust that guarantee better than that from any tracker, private or otherwise.
Back in the day, I used to buy from a buddy who worked at Microsoft. $30 for a legitimate, non-upgrade copy of XP is a pretty good deal, IMHO. Sadly, the guy I used to buy stuff from has since left MS.
Be VERY afraid. I personally use Windows 7 Signature Edition, but if you have any computer science friends, see if they can get you a copy of windows 7 for free through MSDNAA.
Or, alternately, buy a piece of hardware from NewEgg and buy the OEM version for about $100 less or so.
I shy away from that one cause they say you can't transfer it to another computer and I've changed my hardware enough that Windows thought I had a new computer before.
Ah, I did not know that. Good to know in the future when I decide to build my next machine (gonna replace my Mac desktop with a Windows desktop and my Windows laptop with a dual booting Mac laptop when the time comes).
I should caveat this with this has never actually happened to me, but I'm scared of it. I just don't know how strict MS is about it.
I should caveat this with this has never actually happened to me, but I'm scared of it. I just don't know how strict MS is about it.
I have heard that they really do hate random people buying OEM versions of their software when they aren't actually OEMs. No idea how often they clamp down on the behavior though, but it is something to legitimately be paranoid about, especially with all the Windows activation BS and crap.
I should caveat this with this has never actually happened to me, but I'm scared of it. I just don't know how strict MS is about it.
I have heard that they really do hate random people buying OEM versions of their software when they aren't actually OEMs. No idea how often they clamp down on the behavior though, but it is something to legitimately be paranoid about, especially with all the Windows activation BS and crap.
Other than Windows 2000, every OS I've over bought was an OEM version. I'm my own OEM.
If someone around here has MSDNAA and can get me a stack (5? 10?) of Windows 7 keys, I'll do you a solid somehow. I used to get them free, but Microsoft terminated that part of the agreement with UIUC and now I can't.
Alright, then. I'll just hit you up if/as I build something. Also, I'm sure some of the UIUC engineers can help me out; they still have MSDNAA agreements for that shit. But thanks, bro.
MSDNAA Protip: The 32 and 64 bit keys are different, but interchangeable.
Also, I've heard (though haven't tried it myself) that you can request additional keys if you say something like "I just inherited a 3-year-old laptop running Vista, can I have an extra Win7 key for it?"
Just wanna say I did a tiny bit of research. Apparently a big Intel upgrade is around the corner, like a matter of a week or two. Wait for that to hit before building any PCs. You'll either be able to get the current Sandy Bridge for a way lower price, or get the next gen Ivy Bridge CPUs for normal price. If you buy now you will get Sandy Bridge for normal price.
It's not going to be much of a difference, as far as I know - the figure I've heard is 5-15% more performance at the same price levels.
That's to be expected, given that it's just a die shrink rather than a new architecture, and Intel doesn't really have any competition right now except perhaps below $100.
It's not going to be much of a difference, as far as I know - the figure I've heard is 5-15% more performance at the same price levels.
That's to be expected, given that it's just a die shrink rather than a new architecture, and Intel doesn't really have any competition right now except perhaps below $100.
That's it? You would think that 32nm to 22nm is a pretty big shrinkage. There should at least be huge gains in power efficiency, no? Also, they have new Intel HD 4000 GPUs. Not that they are any good, but they are still significant improvements over the 3000. If you are laptopping, that is the GPU you are probably using, so yeah.
I think I'll wait for the next bridge after Ivy. Rope Bridge? Monkey Bridge?
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I personally use Windows 7 Signature Edition, but if you have any computer science friends, see if they can get you a copy of windows 7 for free through MSDNAA.
Back in the day, I used to buy from a buddy who worked at Microsoft. $30 for a legitimate, non-upgrade copy of XP is a pretty good deal, IMHO. Sadly, the guy I used to buy stuff from has since left MS.
Also, I've heard (though haven't tried it myself) that you can request additional keys if you say something like "I just inherited a 3-year-old laptop running Vista, can I have an extra Win7 key for it?"
That's to be expected, given that it's just a die shrink rather than a new architecture, and Intel doesn't really have any competition right now except perhaps below $100.
I think I'll wait for the next bridge after Ivy. Rope Bridge? Monkey Bridge?