I haven't bought windows ever, if I'm honest -- even on laptops I bought I just wiped the harddrive and installed the cracked OS

If you download the correct version of windows 7 off certain sites, it will automatically register/authenticate the computer as an OEM based off whatever motherboard is in the computer. I have been running my laptop like this for ~2 years now, still get all updates + authentic features.

I'd go for Windows 7 for sure, 8 is garbage.

Can anyone point me to some overclocking how-to's? 2 year old rig is just starting to show age but I'm on stock clocks so I'd rather overclock than upgrade.

Windows 8 is garbage? :fulloffuck:

The OS itself is solid, but the interface is clunky on any regular non-touch PC / laptop.

Plus people are still used to the good ol' XP UI. :troll:

The interface has frustrated the crap out of me so many times I haven't been able to find out if the core of it is any good. On a touch-based device I can see how it could be better but I dislike touchscreens.

You don't have to even look at that interface though, ever... The only time I do is when I open a program by typing in the name. If you like the old start button, all you have to do is install Classic Shell.

The idea of buying an OS that is over 5 years old because you want the start button is :fulloffuck:

I like Win8.1... I rarely go into the metro UI... mostly stay on the desktop part...

It's not just because of the start button and familiarity, there's a legit reason a lot of people prefer Win 7 over 8, and it's performance. If you want maximum performance out of your OS whether it's regular tasks and especially gaming, you go with Win 7 because it delivers exactly that.....
Win 8 sucked on release and for a long time and only recently did it start catching up performance wise to Win 7, especially as far as games go where there was a pretty large performance gap.
I personally got no plans to upgrade to Win 10 when it comes out because it's really Windows 8 version 2, if you really look at it both Vista and Win 8 were a massive beta test for Microsoft, they both came out and received a lot of justified criticism and both were replaced pretty fast with a proper version....



what would you guys recommend for a good 1440p monitor that's reasonably priced? 27 inches or bigger, I got a 1080p right now, but there's one game I play on my system and it does not support any sort of Anti Aliasing, so I was thinking higher resolution could help with that....
I remember somehow forcing this Benq I got right now to a custom resolution of 1440 last year after a lot of Googling, but I can't fckin figure it out at all anymore, totally forgot how I did it

Thx for input, but correct me if I'm wrong, if I install windows 7 and it registers I'll be able to get all the updates?

This is absolutely not true.

you can force it under your nvidia control panel/AMD catalyst if it's not native in-game

I know you can avoid Metro, but it's not just Metro that bugs me. I've tried the whole Classic Shell thing and while it does make it a lot more tolerable, I'd rather use an OS that I like than an OS I'm forced to just tolerate all the time.

Well now things are working well I'm sure, and what I said was wrong if you compare the two OS's right now, but what I was trying to get across was that for quite a while after first released Win 8 ran games like shit compared to Windows 7, which I guess was due to them trying to have that system be half tablet OS and half desktop OS, so there were obviously driver issues with various software, other related things, that's fact and not just my opinion.

But pretty sure it's safe to say that 8 was another failure like Vista was, the fact that they're coming out with another OS (10) pretty much shows that.... I skipped 8 and directly heading into 10 which looks to be pretty keeeewl



twitchy, AMD doesn't have support for custom resolutions like Nvidia does unfortunately

I tested them as soon as Windows 8 came out, and it was already faster. If things have improved since then (which they have), it'll be even faster.

There is absolutely no reason to use Windows 7 any more. Unless you have old hardware or something that isn't supported in 8.

Help! I just bought new parts for my computer and I can't get it to boot to bios. My computer was working fine for about five years until one day it would turn on with a black screen then after ten seconds it would reboot and repeat. I originally assumed it was a psu issue so I replaced that since it was aging. Put the new one in and it was still the same problem. I bought a new mobo CPU and ram then and reran.. Same problem. I don't get any video from the monitor (both these mobo do not beep). Brass stand offs are installed and I've tried booting with no gpu.

I've tried running the board out of the case on an anti static bag and with only the CPU ram and psu in.. Same issue. Pulled the battery and tried that. Completely stumped.. I am leaning towards rmaing the board.

Specs: gigabyte z97x sli, i5 4460, corsair hx750 psu, corsair 8gb ddr3, wd drive, gtx 560 sli

I meant AMD has anti-aliasing options

you're trying to run custom resolution on 1080p to downsample? took like 5 seconds of googling

Downsampling for AMD cards is now possible - NeoGAF

It's the motherboard

The game I'm trying to play doesn't allow AMD control center to override any aliasing options for it, the only thing that works is SweetFX so I been using that the whole time.
But yea I've tried that program you posted before, didn't work just fails when I try to load, and I've spent hours last few weeks looking for solutions, I have a 1080p 27 inch Benq screen and months ago I made a custom resolution of 2560x1440 @60hz, luckily this monitor was able to to it. I think what I used before that worked was Powerstrip, I tried various tools nothing works, I think this newest 14.9 driver from AMD fcks everything up from what I read on the driver forums, I tried like 4 5 different programs today and they all fail in different ways

I'm really just waiting for some 4k screens to come down in price a bit and able to do 60hz at 4k as well, no point in buying a 1440p monitor now if I'm able to create a custom rez on my current led, which I guess I can't do anymore... but oh well



EDIT: fck I just remembered, when I did it before it was when I had Nvidia cards and I did it through their control panel, you can create custom resolutions with Nvidia, but AMD for some fuckin reason does not support it

Hey guys

I'm trying to expand my HTPC's capacity and ability. My drives in my HTPC case are basically full so I'm going to expand and I'm thinking about expanding with a NAS but I'm not sure if I need one or if it would do what I want (I'm clueless!)

I'd like to be able to stream videos from my HTPC to other parts of the house, do I need a NAS unit to do this or can I use my HTPC for this?

I would like to be able to stream to at least 1 other room without affecting the home theatres feed (lag)

If I use a NAS can I have a wired connection to the HTPC which would be able to access the files on the NAS without having the NAS stream to it wirelessly?

With the NAS streaming is it able to stream full Blu-Ray .iso's including the DTS-HDMA/Dolby TrueHD audio streams? or would that just be too much data for a NAS?

any help is appreciated

anyone selling a dual DVI connecter for cheap? ncix or ME has it for $40... LOL

need my 120hz :/

You'll be able to stream videos from your HTPC via VLC. You can stream via ethernet or wireless.

You can also use a NAS to stream, but it would make more economical sense if you just used your current HTPC.

And just throwing this out there as well, but if you use Steam, their In-Home Streaming function is great if your HTPC computer is powerful enough. Some people have thrown Linux on their Chromebook and use Steam In-House Streaming to play games without lag.

^ more info on that in home streaming? I could really use that.

quick question for you pros. If i have a hard drive split into 2 partitions, lets say C and D. If I delete the C partition, will it go back into 1 partition with the D drive and leave the contents the D drive untouched? Planning on getting an ssd so I dont need that drive as 2 partitions anymore

[edit] Found out by extending the D partition to take in the unallocated C drive, my d drive contents will remain untouched

will i5 4670k haswell bottleneck a gtx980?

friend is building a comp for the first time and is not too tech savy, as am i.

nzxt 410 case
mobo recommend?
i5 4670k
16gb 1600 rip jaw. is 32gb overkill?
h100i cooler
samsung 840 evo series
WD RE4 1TB
Corsair HX850W
Geforce 980

if you reply to me, plz thank or fail me so it notifies me that you replied. thanks.