The PC (Personal Computer) is a highly configurable and upgradable gaming platform that, among home systems, sports the widest variety of control methods, largest library of games, and cutting edge graphics and sound capabilities.
I would highly recommend picking that up. Actually, I'd probably go with Win7 Professional. Apparently, the Home edition doesn't have the XP compatibility mode. I think I might have used that a few times to get games to work. There's a list of the differences between the versions here.
" If you know how to install your own OS and choose to keep it bound on one motherboard forever then it's a good deal. "
Windows 7 OEM isn't bound to one motherboard. It has limited activations which count down as you change parts enough to make it seem like you're moving to another system (CPU, Motherboard, Graphics in some cases like when going from onboard to PCIe or from one major brand to another) but once these run out all you need to do is call MS and get the activations reset which they can do over the phone. Please don't spread useless FUD.
@Castro said:
" I would highly recommend picking that up. Actually, I'd probably go with Win7 Professional. Apparently, the Home edition doesn't have the XP compatibility mode. I think I might have used that a few times to get games to work. There's a list of the differences between the versions here. "
The Home Premium edition has all the same compatibility features as Ultimate. Windows XP Compatibility Mode is actually a variant of VirtualPC with a preloaded virtual hard drive file with Windows XP installed. It is not really made for games and in fact doesn't even have a Direct3D/OpenGL translation layer. Windows XP Compatibility Mode is actually made so that older Windows 9x (95, 98, Me) 16 bit apps will run because since Vista MS have removed any support for 16 bit Windows System Calls. Windows 7 Home Premium lets you set compatibility settings just as Windows version has since XP.
" My coffee told me, that Win XP is not that bad too. Unless you have to have DX10/DX11. "
Microsoft is dropped (or already has dropped) support for this OS and they are going to stop distributing fixes for security problems soon - WinXP is going to become one huge security risk. I too was hesitant to switch from XP, which is why I completely skipped Vista. But with Win7 I finally left XP behind. XP is just mad old at this point.
And good luck trying to play "Just Cause 2" on Windows XP.
" If you know how to install your own OS and choose to keep it bound on one motherboard forever then it's a good deal. "
Windows 7 OEM isn't bound to one motherboard. It has limited activations which count down as you change parts enough to make it seem like you're moving to another system (CPU, Motherboard, Graphics in some cases like when going from onboard to PCIe or from one major brand to another) but once these run out all you need to do is call MS and get the activations reset which they can do over the phone. Please don't spread useless FUD. "
was not my experience with windows vista ultimate, had 1 activation before i had to call microsoft to reactivate after a reinstall. I've not read the changes for licensing on windows 7.
@Marz: Still, you made it sound like it's tied to the motherboard permanently, which is untrue. You were still able to call MS and reactivate it if you had changed motherboards.
We should be careful with the different versions here, since there are two Win7 versions that are both called "OEM" in the wild.
a) The proper OEM edition as in "comes preinstalled with a new PC" b) The "System Builder" edition which is basically the stand-allone version of the "proper" OEM
Now, the thing is, for reasons of competition the EU forced Microsoft to sell version b) as boxed copies. You get two disks, one OEM-Preinstall-KIt (which you can chuck in the garbage) and the actual OS which is Win7 Home Premium. You get no support from anyone, because normally you would get support from whoever sold you the PC with the preinstalled OS - but that's of course impossible in this case. You are on your own, but the internet is always there for you. You can change the hardware freely, but sometimes Win7 will force you to reactivate your copy. No biggy.
For the "proper" OEM that comes with a new system things could be a little different though. It's certainly possible that this one is stricter when it comes to hardware changes, but I doubt it.
this is straight from the microsoft website in their FAQs.
" The OEM software is licensed with the computer system on which it was originally installed and is tied to that original machine. OEM licenses are single-use licenses that cannot be installed on more than one computer system, even if the original machine is no longer in use. The End User Software License Terms, which the end user must accept before using the software, states that the license may not be shared, transferred to, or used concurrently on different computers. System builders must provide end-user support for the Windows license on computers they build, but cannot support licenses on computers they didn’t build. This is a fundamental reason why OEM System Builder licenses can't be transferred."
technically when you swap the motherboard or cpu with a different make and model, it becomes a different computer. This is how it worked for XP and Vista. If I'm throwing out false information for windows 7 then i do apologize.
"System builders must provide end-user support for the Windows license on computers they build, but cannot support licenses on computers they didn’t build. This is a fundamental reason why OEM System Builder licenses can't be transferred."
This goes for System Builders. You are not a system builder when you use the system builder edition. DELL and ACER are system builders. You are not. Therefore that whole part of the EULA (which, by the way, is not legally binding in the EU) does not apply to someone who uses a separately sold System Builder Edition. Microsoft doesn't acknowledge those versions all, because as I said, they are not meant to be bought by Dude McEnduser.
Using the system builder edition does not make you a system builder. There simply is no system builder in this case, so screw that part of the EULA.
@atomic_dumpling: Things must have changed since i last had to reinstall then. According to this article people used to be able to use a system builder OEM for personal use and this is what i remember when i built my own computer.
Well, when you change a larger piece hardware you will have to re-activate the OS. If you change your hardware piece by piece you will be fine (including the mainboard). Just don't change half the system at once. I changed my graphics card three times and my CPU twice in the last five months. I had to reactivate my Win7 SB only once.
As far as I know, the system generates a checksum based on a few key parts of the system. When there is a low difference, it will ignore it. When there is a bigger change, it will force you to reactivate it online after which you get a new checksum. When there is suddenly a big deviation (new mainboard, VGA and CPU for instance) well, it might refuse to work altogether. I've never heard of such a case though.
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