Windows 10 from the ground up

DeaconFrost said:

I still say you are overthinking a the concept, making it more complicated than it needs to be. You decide on a purpose and a budget. Obviously, if you want a gaming laptop, $250 isn't going to work, so it needs to be realistic. Then you go find the best deal you can find for that budget. Simple as that. No need to write up a guide or write a missive on the subject.

You are getting hung up on individual specifics. Just get the best you can for your budget.

There is no 250$ lappy that would be a good gaming machine. If you start to head to the 600+ dollar models then there might be a better selection.

NavyLCDR said:

Yeah, but just think what a massive disappointment it would be to buy a computer with Windows 10 loaded on it from the factory, with a Microsoft Windows 10 certified sticker on it, a Windows 10 product key in bios, and then find out it was "designed for" Windows 8.1. I would be heartbroken.

Yes, Sheldon, that was sarcasm.

Or it was designed for Vista.

*Purple for sarcasm..

msny said:

How long do you plan on keeping the new box?
Personally, I have always built my own, and I tend to do it to the high side
and keep the box for a long time, so I build ahead to the max.

My current box has run XP, Vista, windows 7 and now windows 10. No performance issues
at all. I plan on keeping it for a good long while.

Two main things really count, RAM and SSD right now.
For RAM I'd go with 8 gigs. Almost any SSD drive will speed thing up quite
a bit, I have used both Samsung and Intel drives.

If you go retail, then I'd say try for these two things minimum.

Many newer prepackaged deals at this time are seeing 2tb size drives as well as having been seeing the 1tb. Depending on planned usages leaving room for expansion is something to consider for later hardware upgrades as well as expansion of local capacities. All-In-One types are very limited for anything like this.

For custom builds on the other hand it used to be you had to keep planning out having enough ram as well as figuring out how drive space as well as the hand pick of video cards especially for any gaming rig with enough feuding having been seen for which was this or that as far as who performed better. Eventually every brand surpassed the level of what was needed for the influx of pc games once you hit the high enough clock speed and GRam capacity with 2tb cards, SLI, Quad SLI, etc. 6 months later everything was considered outdated when the next new line ups of cards were out.

DeaconFrost said:

I think you are still getting hung up on marketing terms as NavyLCDR suggested. A computer isn't built for one specific version of Windows. It's built to fill a product segment...high-end gamer, business professional, cheap for students, etc. Then, the marketing materials will be created to say it was meant for whatever version of Windows is the current. Linux is such a small percentage, and you can't legally install OSX on a PC, so that only leaves Windows.

In short, there's no such thing as built for Windows *insert revision here*. A computer is built to perform a certain role or be sold at a certain price point, with either home or business users in mind.

For premade as we already only know too well are bought by the options that come with a particular system such as cpu, memory, how many usb ports, how many are now 3.0, and size of drive since capacities have gone up as far as the 2tb and even higher with some models seen lately. Which once would have been a large gap between gaming rig and web browsing, email, chat box has been closed tremendously since even the lower end machines have passed the once maximum capacity as far as minimum for video, sound, memory, and capacity.

With the OS MS realized Vista was Windows getting too big and saw 7 resolve that fast until bringing in 8 where Windows grew again but not at the kernel level but Dual GUI end of things. And when I mentioning I would be waiting a couple of versions allowing MS to get things worked out which I knew back in 2012 would be what it took here we now have 10 needing it's own bugs worked out much a better offering! But that's still at the OS/Software end of things.

As far as hardwares those tend to be evolving platforms that occasionally undergo some rather striking changes. For each newer version MS has to then reshape things in order to get the OS to function fully each newer innovation seen. The lean for the last several years now however has been on the Tablet/Mobile spectrum which is reflected on the premade desktops being seen as well. Touchscreen this and that is now a common item on laptops as well as tablets and things like Windows Phone.

Taking all that into consideration OEMs generally introduce each new model series with a short life expectancy in order to retain a profitability margin by a faster turnover of newer models. Support simply gets dropped off sooner on older lines which were sold as "disposable goods"?!

When ordering parts for custom builds in contrast the manufacturers take into account people may be building brand new but still running older versions and generally a one or two previous version margin as far as the initial support factor and may go two versions newer then the present to be able to continue to sell the same or updated version of same. The board for the present main build here ends off with 8.1 apparently while the 10 installer found what it needed on it's own with some drivers being 7 x64 drivers.

The next board may or may not see 7 support when finally getting to the next build while not immediate rush to build the next is presently seen due to having planned for expansion when first built to avoid any need to rush into the next new. I could still have XP on this build as well as Vista as far as the Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4 board in use here which apparently saw support for 2000 as well as XP when first introduced and still seeing XP 32/64 support long after XP became DOA by MS! Component manufacturers who market items separately will maintain support much longer then OEMs will on anything premade. That is one thing to keep in mind when trying to plan out any new system that you want to see last for any lengthy period of time.

Vince Massi said:

The missus and I are getting ready to buy a new desktop in a few months. Researching on the web, I am trying to find the difference between a rig built from the ground up for Windows 10, and a rig designed for 8.1 that has 10 installed at the factory.

Is there any difference other than having more RAM on the 10 computer?

Well there is no difference in ram limitations between 8.1 and 10 if you are comparing 64 bit. Most of the limitations are in hardware and not in the software. Basically all the new hardware are designed to be Windows 10 compatible which most likely will be Windows 8.1 compatible. Basically companies certify a product/device as compatible with an OS but because it's not certified doesn't mean it doesn't work it only means it wasn't tested at the level of the compatible OS and it may or may not work.

Buying a Cheap Windows 10 Laptop Part 4

Some of your choices will include a Celeron chip as the CPU. Built like an Intel chip, a Celeron has a much smaller cache (the cache allows the CPU to locate information much more quickly) and sends out much smaller amounts of information than a Pentium chip running at the same speed.

Decades ago, the phrase "Celeron chip" meant "This computer is built with cheap parts in order to slightly lower the price while greatly lowering the quality." Knocking $40 off the price of a $1,000 laptop was a really bad way to save money. (The difference today is about $50).

But today, the best Celeron chips are better than the middle-of-the-road Intel chips of 18 months ago. And we successfully ran cartoons, movie, and Windows Store aps on a laptop with a Celeron chip. The laptop was made by a company that cobbled together left-over unsold parts to make a rugged budget rig that ran well.

$50 does make a difference on a $250 low-end laptop. Go home and research before you buy, but a Celeron chip is not cause for an automatic reject of a budget laptop.

DeaconFrost said:

I think I see now, however, your guide or explanation is misleading. No one should care if a computer was "designed" for 8.1 or 10. That's nothing more than marketing drivel. A person should care about the hardware specs and their intended purposes for the computer, while considering their budget. You don't need to focus on the OS. You need to focus on the applications (including games) that the system will run. For example, my wife does digital photography. I play games and update a food blog. The software we run is completely different, so we have two computers, a laptop for her and a tower I built for me. The OS didn't factor in to my choices at all. The budget and getting the best hardware for the uses is what mattered.

There's no need to care what OS it is "designed" for, as it's a meaningless label. Get the best hardware you can for your budget.

Prescisely! Systems are not designed OS specific but OSs are designed to run on specific hardwares. That would be the "Fruit company" that leans on seeing OS Specific Hardwares/Hardware Specific OS. Why else do you also see OS patches due to continual changes in hardwares as well as manufacturer's updates for boards and other things?

With OEMs a laptop isn't 10 specific BUT only would be seeing 10 support regardless if 2000/XP could run on it as well. Everything is competitive marketing as well as disposable in order to see the fast turnover.

Celeron is Intel, Just hobbled down "Full" Pentium. That gives it lower power requirements and with that less heat and longer battery life. With newer processors it also may mean no GPU integrated.