Bent to BestBuy and got me a Asus with 8300 AMD processor (but Win8 ) and it's blazingly fast compared to my old (and now dead) friend. It may have just been the power supply and, back when I replaced the heatsink and video card, I said to myself that I wasn't going to spend another penny to keep it going. Had to get Office too (I know; some here will be mad at me and say why not Open Office; lol), so spent just over $1000 for the machine but I guess I will be happy once I get all my programs installed; just don't expect it to be over night since I still have to order an external HD reader since I don't want to void my warranty.

Well, sorry to hear your old PC died.

Glad to hear you have a fast new one, though.

Sorry that your stuck with Win8. Welcome to Metro!

There's always Linux to look forward to.

YES,

Re-installed my XP VM, but still doing updates (so risking my Win8.1 by browsing; lol). Talk about blazing fast; understatement doesn't even come close to describing how fast my new system is. I still have to do a lot of work though and may not be able to get all that I had before since 90% of what I had installed on ol' Betsy I never really used. lol

I only wish there was a decent RAW program out there; I really don't want to install Photoshop CS5 since I only use it to process RAW. I'm going to hold off actually doing so and if I never need to (that is, I find a good RAW processor), then happier I will be. I told my sister that it s*cks to be me, but she said, you should think of this as, you are lucky to have the money in the bank to actually buy a new computer (not to mention car) since most do not. Still, I hate to spend money; just hate it. I guess, hurting for over a decade until I got my current job still engrained in my brain to hoard my money for as long as possible (sad for me I know; lol). Man, I really denied myself for way too long. The 8 processors will be much used soon when I get GIMP installed again. I'm even going to decide not to install GIMP 1.2.4 (lol). Oh well; back to the updates. Then, I will have to install Ubuntu VM too. Going to be way too busy for the next week or so (and I still have to buy a USB3 to SATA adaptor so that I can retrieve files that I've not done backups on yet). I guess, now that I had to bite the bullet, I am happy w/ my new machine. Even XP is blazing fast (VM that is). lol

With all that new memory, drive space and CPU power, you can just load up several VM's and run them all at once. You'd rarely even have to look at Metro.

Hey Tux; now that I played with Metro, it's really not that bad (inconvenience, but not bad). I really do like the new Freecell too even though I had to download it from the apps store (for free). lol

Actually typing this in my sandboxie XP VM now. Got a lot done; got a heck of a lot more things to do though. Now that I am the proud owner of an Win8.1 system with 8 cores and 12Gs of RAM (and 2 Terabyte HD), I'm quite happy. It actually boots up quite fast too so I don't see really needing a solid state drive after all.

That is a really powerhouse PC. I'll bet it is very fast.

I guess you can always get used to Metro. Heck, you can get used to anything.

Seriously though, you know I'm just pickin' at ya.

Congrats on the new PC. .
<-- Me = Jealous.

Yup; can get use to Metro so long as I have my XP VM. lolololol

I just can't believe how even my XP VM feels 4 times faster (no joke) then my old XP VM (each core is clocking at nearly 4Gs as opposed to 2 with the old so that makes sense).

Well; got GIMP2.8.10 and GMIC 64-bit plugin installed. Still, I'll wait until I get my harddrive (hopefully I can find a USB3 to SATA adaptor) so that I can transfer my files to my new system. Think I'll stop installing now and just be happy. lol

Lyle, I don't know if it is 'decent' but LightZone opens RAW and processes them. I usually do a little in there and then transfer to gimp.
Comparison of four free raw file processors: RawTherapee, Darktable,Lightzone and Photivo
http://johnwiddall.wordpress.com/2014/0 ... processor/

Congrats on the new computer. Will be looking forward to some even better work from you in the future. Sorry it had to come on the back of your old pc

The guy didn't sound all that enthusiastic with any of the 4 RAW processors Sallyanne. lol

lol, I didn't read that article. Also he probably had a bought one

Well, I've yet to re-install PS. I did install DAP and Flame Painter though. Installed most of the important GIMP plugins too. Only thing (and that's despite Rob's instruction) is the only plugin (well, Paint Engine too) that I could not get GIMP to like. I guess that's what shellout's for.

Just finished installing 64-bit Ubuntu with 4 processors; typing this in Ubuntu now. I get pretty much instant boot now; can't believe if. Sorry that I'm boring you all with these details. lol

Welcome to Ubuntu!
Here's a link worth a look-see.
Easy Linux tips project

Thanks Odin; will check it out next time back in Ubuntu land (now in XP). lol

Even finally got my Win98 working like I want it (sole purpose is to play UNO; lol). It too me hours to get it to work; remembered that I had to change the drive from SB to AC97 and then I had to hunt now the AC97 drivers (tried 4 different sites before I finally found one that worked; what a pain). I guess soon Virtualbox will no longer support XP either so these issues may crop up in Virtualbox as well. We shall see.

"Now that I am the proud owner of an Win8.1 system with 8 cores and 12Gs of RAM."
12 GB of RAM? Are you sure? Maybe 12 MB.

@Carlos I got an 4-core machine with 8 GB of RAM some years back--and did a double-take when I got it--4 cores? 8GB? and they let people LIKE ME buy them???

@lylejk Blazing as your machine is--- Hating to spend money as much as you is--- I'm thinking: "GIMP Batch Processor"! We send you our WrapMap[ofnuts] and PathBlend[RobA] jobs, and in just 4 or 5 days, you ship back the results! And get a little coin in return--a very little. And in the form of variations on a "THANKS!" theme, but you would be able to sleep better at night knowing that Every Single CPU Cycle was being used.

Seriously, Money Well Spent. I could never ever spend $1,000 at one pop without risking a heart attack, but I bought a log-splitter (could not recommend it more highly for heightening one's sense of accomplishment...) and regularly congratulate myself out in the woods with a little dance. That I designed myself.

Cheers!

How about this weed wacker GraMP; think you will be envious. lolol

http://www.chonday.com/Videos/excamuoich2

By the way, I did break down and re-install PS. lol

Can't get the updates to install though; not fretting it since the only thing I do with PS is RAW processing and even before I ran updates the last time, it processed my Leica RAWs fine.