PC Tech Thread

Yeah, I see it as a bit pointless until they do. Less games than OS X, lolzers...
I might set Steam t launch on open and into big picture mode which is roughly the same thing...

Also, anyone have an old spinning drive kicking abut? 500Gb would do.
If not, I can use a laptops HDD in a desktop right? Its being mounted directly to the case so no need for carriages or whatever they are...

Haven't used it yet tbh.
Will give it a bash this week though and see how it performs over wifi. I'm replacing flooring in a few months so will probably run some cabling at the same time, but I expect most people will go for wireless so shall report back...

Yeah, assuming it's just a SATA cable to connect then you'll have no probs.
Most SSDs are same size as laptop drives (2.5") now.

Cheers.
Yeah, have a couple of SSD in atm but thinking I might need a big drive for ALL the movies.

The only point of Steam OS at the moment is to avoid paying for a Windows licence. A large number of games are incompatible (it's basically Linux) and if you want the same experience then just set your PC to load steam on startup and use Big Picture mode. Personally I launch XBMC/Kodi on startup and if I want Steam launch it from there in Big Picture mode. No keyboard/mouse required.

Yeah, and I tried playing on Linux... no luck.

Good thing my University hands out Windows licenses for free. Might try that W10 everyone's talking about...

I need to upgrade my PC as it's really struggling with modern software on only 3.2GB of RAM (32bit processor). It's currently an E6850 core2duo so I need to change the MB, processor and RAM - everything else is ok. I don't want to spend much but I don't want to lose any performance and I have no idea how i3/i5's stack up against what's already there... Any clues anyone? Would also like to stick an SSD in there for speed but the real bottleneck now is RAM.

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core2-Duo-E6850-vs-Intel-Core-i3-4330

Yours vs my cheap build, shown as an example, not an attempt at bragging.
What do you use the machine for?

Amazing thanks, that's pretty clear!

I primarily use it for audio recording/production with a bit of design/video work. I intend to get an all-singing-all-dancing MBP when the refresh happens so I just need a stopgap upgrade to reduce the out-of-memory errors.

Sounds pretty good. Wise waiting for the refresh too.
Don't know if you caught it, or if I am being a complete bore, but I built a dual boot (OS X + W10) machine that performs on par with the top retina iMac for around £300 (it also out performs my top end pre retina iMac which I secretly deny).
MBPs are lovely, but if you are after a budget performer a Hackintosh could be a good option?

Is this the Hackintosh where the sound doesn't work? :p

It ALL works now! EVERYTHING. All the sounds.

@chrisbmx116 did the W10 key work out?

Sorry, forgot to reply, it didnt!

That's pretty good, how stable is it? Ideally I want to switch the hard-drive, get it working and not have to think about it again (aside from an update to a 64bit windows).
A hackintosh might be something for the future once I have the MBP but I want to spend more time making music and less time fiddling with computers!

Oh and I need firewire.

Could be wrong but I think Macs have long since dropped firewire.
I'm yet to put it to much use (built it for fun rather than need) but have gamed on it, both OS, and no issues.

I'd be needing a lightning dock anyway so that should have firewire but it looks like cards for PCs aren't very much anyway.

Looks as if I can do an i5 4-core skylake 16gb build for just over £300.... Hm.

Looks like the spec. of the box changed while in my cart...
You had selected: Gigabyte GA-Z170X-UD3 LGA1151 ATX Motherboard
Now: Gigabyte GA-Z170MX-GAMING 5 LGA1151 Micro ATX Motherboard

They've also got rid of my bluray burner and SoundBlaster. #sadface

I bought a SSD to replace the old noisy hard drive that hosts the Windows side of my Hackintosh.

This is fine but I didn't think about how to install it - can anyone recommend a HD cloner please?

Last time I tried to do this it went wrong, if it was a Mac installation I'd know what I was doing...

Have Windows 10, if that makes any difference.

How's that seasonic PSU holding up?

#notastalker

Can you see into my cellar?!

Good, would recommend. It's had a load of builders dust to contend with but is still as quiet as it was. I'll give it a hoover this weekend probably if I get round to the SSD install.

Quite happy to build a not even hackintosh PC. Just doesn't feel like the right time as GPUs are about to have their SSD moment with what's around the corner.

http://lifehacker.com/5839753/the-best-disk-cloning-app-for-windows

I think I used Clonezilla last time.

Macrium Reflect has served me well and is straight forward to use ("if I can..." etc).