Another possible computer

[ffutures]

This one is by Zoostorm - a company I don't know at all. It's more expensive but a faster processor (3ghz quad core) and comes with a 500gb drive, 64-bit Windows 7 Pro, and 8gb RAM. Graphics use main memory, but it's got a pcie x16 card slot so I could put in a dedicated card if needed. I would have preferred a 1TB drive but they can't supply it with that configuration out of the box, it isn't a deal-breaker.

Any thoughts?

Comments

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Ha, I love the Windows 8 downgraded to Windows 7 part. :)

The old questions

[nojay.livejournal.com]

What do you want it to do, how much are you willing to pay for it, do you have an idea what you'll want to do with it two or three years from now?

Zoostorm seem to be a white-box builder company selling branded machines assembled from bits through the usual suspects like Misco and Ebuyer at reasonable prices but with some hardware choices hidden from view for the less technologically experienced among us.

Reading the spec of the machine on the Misco link you gave I notice it actually has a separate graphics card and doesn't share main memory (Graphics Controller Type Plug-in card Interface Type PCIe x16Graphics Processor NVIDIA GeForce GT 630) so the PCIe x16 slot isn't free. The GT630 is about the cheapest PCIe graphics card being made these days, about 30 quid retail -- even Maplin sell one with 2GB of onboard RAM for under 40 quid.

Here's another Zoostorm box from Ebuyer, a little bit cheaper with onboard graphics but with a 2TB HDD and a couple of USB3.0 ports which are great for doing backups etc. It runs Win8.1 rather than Win7 Pro though which might be a dealbreaker for you although I've been using Win8 for a couple of years now without many problems.

http://www.ebuyer.com/570071-zoostorm-haswell-desktop-pc-7873-0484

Re: The old questions

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Really not terribly keen on 8 - from the little I've seen of it, I get the impression it's expecting everyone to be using a tablet. I gather you can configure it to be a little more like 7 but I really don't know what's involved. I've used 7 at work and can get along with it.

Re: The old questions

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Having said that, that does look pretty good, and it does have the express graphics card slot if I need to add one.

So - am I being unfair to windows 8?

Re: The old questions

[nojay.livejournal.com]

The tiles are just one interface, effectively a giant Start Menu with bells on but there's a complete and very recognisable Windows desktop "behind" it. The mouse and keyboard work, just click on the "desktop" tile at the bottom left of the tile array and the desktop appears. The system defaults to the tiles on startup because it doesn't really know if you're using a touch-only interface (the mouse and keyboard might be plugged in but locked in a cupboard somewhere) and you can't easily drive a desktop GUI purely with touch. If you don't have touch it's a trifle annoying but only on startup. I understand Win8.1 doesn't even have this problem and can be set to always start up in desktop mode.

At first if you click on, say, an image file the system will flip back out to the tiles interface to run a full-screen tile app to display the image for you. It's easy enough to reset the prefs by right-clicking on a file like letter.doc and selecting the program you really want it to launch and tick the box to say "always use this program for files of this type". After you've done this for your usual programs it's not a problem any more.

BTW the command line DOSbox is still there too -- "run cmd.exe" works the same as in Windows 2000. Backwards compatability for the win.

Re: The old questions

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Interesting - too late to order now, but it's certainly one to think about.

Re: The old questions

[ggreig]

If you do wind up going with Windows 8, it's well worth reading the End User Training Brochure. One of the things Microsoft got really wrong with Windows 8 was that they made a lot of user interface hidden by default (to maximise the amount of screen given over to content), but then failed to provide a tutorial telling people how to find it. The training brochure plugs that gap.

Windows 8.1 tiles and full screen apps behave a bit differently from Windows 8, it's more configurable to look/behave like previous versions of Windows, and it has better help/training built in, but that document is still worth checking out.

Re: The old questions

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Thanks - if I end up with an 8.1 machine I'll check it out.

Re: The old questions

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Just had a quick look - how the hell do you get back to something like older versions of Windows?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

If I could I'd stick with XP, but they stop supporting it next year and I suspect it will become more and more buggy. I REALLY don't like what I've seen of Windows 8.

Re: The old questions

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Just discovered there's a Windows 7 version at the same price - much more to my taste, I think!

http://www.ebuyer.com/570064-zoostorm-haswell-desktop-pc-7873-0494

Re: The old questions

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Just found a Windows 7 version at the same price

http://www.ebuyer.com/570064-zoostorm-haswell-desktop-pc-7873-0494

Think that might be a better bet for me.

Re: The old questions

[ggreig]

There's a "Desktop" tile on the Start screen you can click on in Windows 8. In Windows 8.1 you can also choose to configure it to drop back to the desktop whenever a new-style app is closed.