Should I use 32bit windows 8 or 64bit windows 8?

[johns0]

The one issue with windows 8 i didn't like was when viewing files in a folder you don't see the total size in the lower right taskbar unless you highlight the files and if you include a folder the the total size disappears.

[usually_quiet]

The one issue with windows 8 i didn't like was when viewing files in a folder you don't see the total size in the lower right taskbar unless you highlight the files and if you include a folder the the total size disappears.

I never noticed that. Probably because I auto-hide the task bar and there are other ways to get that information.

[yoda313]

It's single channel memory and the sata drives are backwards compatible,win8 will

partition the hdd for you,you don't need to partition your hdd since you have a couple others.

Thank you. I needed to know that. So I can just pop in the new hdd as is and go for it without doing anything else. I like that.

I would move the data from the 500GB drive to the 1TB drive and install the OS on the 500GB drive. You could partition the 500GB drive if you want and make one partition C:\ for the OS and one partition D:\ for storage and the 1TB drive E:\ for storage.

I don't know. I guess I have a latent fear of disturbing that drive and losing what I have on it. True I have backed up most of it to a usb drive and burnt backups of most of it but I haven't done a 100% backup of it. ----- I don't know that I want to go in that direction.

Out of curiosity, why did you decide to buy a five year old PC instead of an I-5 or I-7? The Q6600 is a fine CPU, mine has served me well for a long time and is a good overclocker if needed but if I could afford to build a better PC with a modern CPU, I would.

My backwards thinking - cheap way onto the quad core scene even though I'm buying a lot of extras for this barebones system. FYI I'm still using a dual core amd x2 as my "fastest" computer. This is a stiff upgrade with 3 times the ram (6 versus my current 2) and double the cpu cores (4 versus 2).

But yeah, I've partitioned a big hard drive before into a small partition for the OS, and the second for capture, whatever. Captures can fragment pretty readily. Never had any problems, but don't do more than 2 partitions.

Well as stated I don't really want to mess with my 500gb and try converting that to a boot drive. I want to leave that intact. Hence the reason for buying a new drive. I'm glad the partitioning will be easy enough. I've done it on externals on a live os. I've just never partitioned on a brand new os installation which is why I was asking about it.

So is Win7 not available any more? I'd go with that if possible.

I think I mentioned it earlier - it was actually cheaper on ebay. The only win7 discs I could find were twenty dollars more with a code versus the win 8 one that I bought.

Plus this is kind of backwards thinking future proofing for me. I know it will be relatively old internal parts but I'm doing it for a new os. I'll be retiring my xp computer to serve as a media server - I'll post a thread on that in the future for the best uses for a xp machine in that regard.

I'll move my vista machine to a surfing/word processing duty and the "new" win8 machine will be my encoding unit. That way I'll have my two main machines with the longest switch off dates. Since xp is going dark next year that computer will be limited in its uses. But my vista and now win8 pc will still have updates and be "safe" for quite awhile to come.

I will eventually buy a truly brand new computer but for me this is my step in that direction.

Best Buy is not exactly the last place on Earth selling Windows 7 nor likely the least expensive source. If yoda313 finds he made a mistake by getting Windows 8, there are others (probably many others) still selling Windows 7 online at present. I know Newegg and B&H Photo Video have both retail and OEM licenses of most versions.


However, I think yoda313 will probably be OK with his bargain purchase OS. Windows 8 is not as horrible as some here make it out to be. Once a Start Button and Start Menu are returned to the Desktop via a third party program and file associations are changed, it is quite usable. There is no built-in video or DVD support with Windows Media Player, but most long-time videohelp.com members avoid anything Microsoft has ever created for video, and wouldn't miss these things.

As mentioned win8 was actually cheaper on ebay from what I dug through. And yes I'd be using mpchc mostly for playback anyway so thats not a problem.

My main thing is so long as I can install and use ripbot and handbrake and format factory thats all I really care about.

[fritzi93]

Sorry, didn't read carefully enough that part about why you got the Win8 install disc. I wasn't looking to derail your thread or argue about it.

Anyway, you'll be okay, you've thought this through.

[classfour]

Windows 8 is for touch screen machines - 7 is a better GUI.

[usually_quiet]

Best Buy is not exactly the last place on Earth selling Windows 7 nor likely the least expensive source. If yoda313 finds he made a mistake by getting Windows 8, there are others (probably many others) still selling Windows 7 online at present. I know Newegg and B&H Photo Video have both retail and OEM licenses of most versions.


However, I think yoda313 will probably be OK with his bargain purchase OS. Windows 8 is not as horrible as some here make it out to be. Once a Start Button and Start Menu are returned to the Desktop via a third party program and file associations are changed, it is quite usable. There is no built-in video or DVD support with Windows Media Player, but most long-time videohelp.com members avoid anything Microsoft has ever created for video, and wouldn't miss these things.

As mentioned win8 was actually cheaper on ebay from what I dug through. And yes I'd be using mpchc mostly for playback anyway so thats not a problem.

My main thing is so long as I can install and use ripbot and handbrake and format factory thats all I really care about.

I did understand why you are going with Windows 8 Pro Pack. For $48 it is a bargain OS purchase.

I wish I could answer you concerns regarding ripbot, handbrake, or format factory using Windows 8, but I never tried them with Windows 8. I don't really have much use for them.

You might want to try the Windows 8.1 preview too, to find out if upgrading to Windows 8.1 RTM for free in October is an option for your new PC. It corrects a few issues some people have with Windows 8, like booting direct to the desktop. There is no Start Button or Start Menu, but there is now an icon on the taskbar that returns to the Start Screen. There is no need to mouse over/hover in the bottom left corner of the screen or hunt for it on the Charms Bar anymore.

I just installed the 64-bit version of the Windows 8.1 preview on my Desktop in its own boot partition today. So far it looks good but I haven't gotten very far yet. I have mult-boot working for Win 7, Win 8, and Win 8.1, set up Win 8.1 to boot to the desktop and installed Classic Shell plus Chrome.

[yoda313]

Thanks everybody. I'll update the thread when I actually get the machine.

I do appreciate the info and insight.

[jagabo]

I did understand why you are going with Windows 8 Pro Pack. For $48 it is a bargain OS purchase.

Did he say Win8 Pro Pack? I thought that was only for upgrading Win8 Home to Win8 Pro.

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows-Pack-Upgrade-Online/dp/B009VI8E82/

Only if you currently have a device running Windows 8 ("Core") operating system can you upgrade to Windows 8 Pro (Professional) using this Windows 8 Pro Pack (upgrade) product.

Can you install Win8 Pro Pack without already have Win8?

[Kerry56]

Handbrake works fine in Windows 8. Don't know about the other two, but I have yet to find a Windows based encoding program that doesn't work in this operating system.

The only video related failures I've seen for Windows 8 are TMT 3, which won't even install, and Vob2Mpeg, which won't work in vobset mode, but does in IFO mode.

[yoda313]

I did understand why you are going with Windows 8 Pro Pack. For $48 it is a bargain OS purchase.

Did he say Win8 Pro Pack? I thought that was only for upgrading Win8 Home to Win8 Pro.

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows-Pack-Upgrade-Online/dp/B009VI8E82/

Only if you currently have a device running Windows 8 ("Core") operating system can you upgrade to Windows 8 Pro (Professional) using this Windows 8 Pro Pack (upgrade) product.

Can you install Win8 Pro Pack without already have Win8?

The picture they provided on the auction shows it specifically saying WINDOWS 8 PRO. its not an upgrade disc. I did ask the seller specifically if this version will install on a blank computer and I was given assurances it will.


Thanks kerry56. In truth I actually use ripbot more than handbrake. But its good to know about it.

[yoda313]

Well it actually came last night. However my win8 disc didn't come till tonight so I didn't have much to report on. Though I did use an old opensuse linux disc I had just so I could be sure it could boot anything, which it did.

So far as I can tell the motherboard name is foxconn ls36. Its the optiplex 755 full size tower.


I had to fight the ram to get it installed. I only have the 2.5gb installed right now. I'm not sure whats going on with the 2 2gb sticks I got in the mail. There is a chance they are bad. I'll have to test just those sticks alone to know for sure. Of course i might be doing it wrong.


It also took me awhile to get my new 1tb sata drive available for formatting. I even tried a stint with opensuse to format it anyway I could.


Turns out a deeper dive into the bios showed not all of the sata ports were active. So after activating them I was able to get the win8 install disc to find it. I then just had it set the whole drive up and no extra partitions (other then the one win8 forces on you).


I also just finished swapping over my 500gb media drive with my video files and stuff on it. That reads just fine now. I also did my video card that has the hdmi out. I haven't tested the hdmi out yet but I was able to hook up the dvi out to a monitor that I have that is dvi. All is good.


The only thing I have to work on besides the ram is my bluray rom drive. I put it in the first bay and connected it but it has no power. I can't open the tray with the button and it doesn't show up as a drive. So I'll have to open it up again and make sure its all squared away. It was working just fine on my vista pc.


All in all I'd say I'm very happy with it. For 50.00 plus the extras for ram and the new harddrive and win8 I'm liking it. Its actually fairly zippy with just 2.5gb ram right now. Though obviously I want to get the extra 4gb working. If not I might have to send it back.


I did happen to have a 3 license version of norton 360 and after I got win8 loaded I put that on right after so I could go online safely. I got firefox, chrome, mpchc and I'm just getting ripbot now.


I'm also looking to get ffdshow and ac3filter just in case. Though aren't they included in the ripbot install??? Anyway...


Thanks everyone for your advice and support.


Also I have a pci-e riser slot (the little 2 inch slot) so I want to get a usb 3 pci card. Will that be worthwhile? this is a usb 2 computer. I think I posted a thread about that but is it worth 30.00 to gamble on a suspect amount of increased transfer speed?