Whokeys seems to be a decent recommended reseller. I'd never go 365 licence for what I use office for, my copy of 2013 is more than adequate. I have 365 at work and MS constantly moving stuff about and changing things does my head in. If putting 2013 on is a ballache I'll investigate the cheaper resellers but won;t rule out buinyg a full licence and keeping it for another 10 years.
I've got a couple of old slow laptops So may just ressurect one of those. I did experiment with putting Android /chrome as an op system on one but it;s problematic with CD drivers, the other has XP which seems to old for more recent anti ripping software so was my go to for problematic disks anyway. For £15 I can get a new external writer with built in card reader which may be the goto option. Ideally a case to but my internal reader in would be ideal but just not cost sensible. If I feel particularly adventurous I may dabble with linux on the older machine.
The beast has arrived. spent the last 2 hours removing crapware. I can get on here so it appears to be working.
I've actually managed to get an old PC working that I found in the storage bin area near where I live. Had a keyboard, mouse, big bulky monitor and tower. After spending a long time cleaning and dusting all the fans, removing all the crap and polishing it all up, I re-pasted the CPU booted it up and was shocked to find out it's actually Windows XP Home Edition from 2004. I don't care what anyone says. This desktop is peak Windows. Obviously cannot get online with it any more as the drivers are decades out of date, but it's good fun to browse the old girl and re-discover just why this Operating System was so beloved.
If you can grab an XP cd then the drivers for a network card of the period should be on it. Just had a root through my collection, got NT, 95, vista, 98 but no XP I'm afraid. The great thing about Windows is it's compatibility. On my new machine I've managed to get Office 2013 & Photoshop 6 working. PS 6 is 25 years old!!!
The only reason backward compatibility exists is because Microsoft do not gut the source code from the older OS's. There is a reason why the Windows folder is massive, plus it has a System32 folder (which holds all the DLL files from the x86 era). Pretty sure only Vista was hardcoded back into after they buggered up the original build and coded Vista Longhorn in .NET when it should have been C++), I can see a time when backwards compatibility will end, because eventually nobody wants to download an office suite with that annoying Clippy.
You should be put on some sort of list for having a Windows NT service pack disk - that OS was an abomination to the computing world. Even Microsoft publically stated they hated it. "New Technology" yeah right, just a flashy Interface which was copied into Windows 2000 anyway.
Iirc I "upgraded" from 95 as it offered a few bits and bobs 95 didn't. Was at Uni at the time living with computer science and cybernetics students. They wouldn't shut up about Linux so it was a way of getting them off my back.
Update on the beast: After spending a good few hours trying to share the DVD writer from my old PC I spent £13 quid on an external unit which is usb3 and also has Card reader and USB hub built in. Workign flawlessly and I can now rip any new (secondhand) CDs I buy. Back in the day I remember having to buy a soundblaster and CD rom drive just to run the RS catalog CD.
Sound Blaster was the shiz back in the day, though. Before, Realtek overtook them for the default digital sound card driver manufactory. Every single PC from 3.1-98 had software that needed a "Sound Blaster" card. Nowadays though, as long as your PC can turn on it will run audio on the lowest recommended level. Oh and £13.00 for what that is? What a bargain!
Blimey. This is almost as weird as the Bargain Hunt thread. All you need is an iPhone for day to day things, an iPad for fun, and a MacBook for when you need to look like you’re working.
Is that stuff actually legit? I've seen it advertised, but never really looked into it. How much cheaper is it than RRP?
I'm going to build a gaming PC for my Niece's 17th Birthday. I'm currently on PC Part Picker, and I was wondering if I should use an Air Cooler or an AIO for the i9 1400K? As she wants to play games and do college work, getting a Ryzen CPU wasn't really necessary. I've heard the 1400k can get a bit toasty, and I do have a limit on budget. The Kraken Air Cooler is just within what I have left, but for an AIO I would need at least a three fan radiator. Case dimensions are enough to fit either. I want to make sure the CPU doesn't throttle, and although I probably will under-volt in the BIOS beforehand, I want to make sure it stays as cool as possible. Would an Air Cooler be good enough, or should I spend a bit more for a decent AIO?
