PC builders, what is the best Windows 8 machine you can build with the parts around you?

Question

If restricted by what you could get in your town right now, whats the best Windows 8 PC you could put together? I'm not looking for quotes or anything, just curious about the distribution of hardware around the country. Is it close to your ideal machine?

Answer 1

You can get a nice Windows box (i7 3770, H77 Chipset, 8 Gigs of ram, a few bells and whistles) that 8 will run well on (about $1300 if you buy name-brand, or $800 to do it yourself) but you really need a touchscreen to enjoy 8 - and I have yet to find one on sale in H-town (without a PC built into the back of it, or it being a laptop lid..)

I have installed and used windows 8 on a variety of locally sourced hardware - I have not yet found it fussy about components, nor have i seen it go-slow on lesser systems. But damn I miss that start button. Guess i'm getting old. Will have to wait for 8.1!

Comments

I'd seen a few i3 and i5 boxes in a window or two but I guess I've got to look harder for those i7's! As for touch monitors, maybe the retailers felt 3d was as far as people were willing to be pushed price wise. I hear the next major update for w8 (blue something something) might have a start button and a boot direct to desktop option so fingers crossed!

---

I heard the same - windows 8 is a huge improvement in compatibility and general DM features - and easy enough to shoehorn a freebie start button add-on. However the hot-zones and other elements are clearly geared for a touch interface and (not intending to be rude) a facebook-generation user-base - its not fluid enough for those of us a bit longer in the teeth..

---

I have been running an i7 2600k  on ASUS P8Z68V Pro board with discrete Nvidia 560ti, 16GB Ram 1600MHz ,2T HD, 90GB SSD, 750W PSU all sourced locally for about 2.2k all sourced locally  since March 2012. Recently added thermalright true spirit 140mm cooler bought directly from Taiwan.

Answer 2

I think what is important to consider is the experience you get from the machine you are trying to build. You can throw in parts together totally ignoring MS hardware recommendations and you can hav a PC which boots up and show a Windows 8 logo. Bt after it boots then......

Comments

Then what? Then nothing. 8 has great compatibility - better than 7 IMHO... but you can pry my 7U from my cold dead hands - unless 8.1 really is Kickazz

Answer 3

yes its doable, whether its an "ideal" machine or not is totally subjective and depends on the use case of the machine - the point i'm making is that its possible but you have to assume money is not a problem because it would be very expensive - all you need is one of the top spec mac book pro's and thats easily $3-4k removed from your wallet! and will more than run Windows 8 at very respectable speeds (note i do this myself for gaming)

Comments

Are yu telling me you buy Apple Mac jus to install Windows?

On a serious note, Is Windows working flawlesly on Apple hardware, not that l want to do it bt jus curious.

---

I love the insinuation that mac hardware is somehow different from PC hardware lol...

---

no insinuation its basically the same, the only difference is mac hardware has no BIOS its been EFI for years now. i just believe because apple use a limited hardware selection they can select and vet drivers much more closely for windows on there hardware than microsoft can for any combination of hardware possible with straight windows installed

it says something about closed gardens on hardware control if anything