Just curious. If I had a spare copy of Windows 7 lying around, used that to upgrade to Windows 10, then did a clean install and restart from scratch for Windows 10, would that cause minor slowdowns or issues?

Would simply buying Windows 10 outright and doing a clean install from the start make any difference compared with what I posted above?

@Master_Live: At this point, I think a Greek exit from the Euro seems to be the best option. Unless the EU decides to change tactics and actually give Greece a chance to get its economy back to sustainability, it just won't work. The latest proposals seem to call for more cuts and austerity, which means they have not yet realized Greece's true problem.

Greece will just be stuck in a brutal cycle with the EU indefinitely at this point. The cycle will continue: austerity, cuts, shrinking economy, can't pay back debts, bailout money and more austerity again. If Greece exits, it will be hell for at least a decade, but at least then they'll have a chance to shape their own destiny (or screw up on their own). Short term pain for long term gain. The point is, Greece should be in charge of their own destiny. The EU has failed in understanding Greece's issues, and perhaps only the Greeks themselves can solve it.

Sad as it is, if Greece should screw up again once they are free from the euro decades down the line, at least they won't drag down the rest of Europe with it. They'll have no one to blame but themselves for their failure to make a sustainable change in their culture and mindset.

Ok, opinion coming from a guy of Greek descent living in Canada. I'm no economist, and I hope what I propose makes sense, but I hope I can give an accurate portrayal of both sides of the coin.

To be honest, this whole mess is not the fault of any one person, government or organization. This is just the culmination of error after error on the part of the EU and Greece.

a) Why Greece is to blame for this

Knowing the Greek mentality, some of the population seems to have a rather snobbish view of superiority because of the history of the Ancient Greeks (democracry, inventions, etc.). Add to that the fact that Greeks need only work 35 years before collecting their pensions, and then you get 55-60 year olds that toil away in restaurants, cafes and a life of leisure and vacation for 20-30 years of retirement, and you can easily see why Greece is having the economic problems they are having.

Percentage of the annual budget that goes to pensions in Greece? Around 17%. Much higher than world average

Another major problem that Greeks have is a ''me before everyone else'' mentality. Tax evasion and corruption is a major problem in Greece, especially for the upper classes of society, costing it as much as 8% of its GDP per year.

Tax paying is just not a thing for Greeks. I've even had stories told me about how people would do things like build wooden floors over their backyard pools to avoid the taxes that come with them. Bank accounts, extra vehicles, on the side jobs in the fields collecting olives and farming, etc.. All these things are stuff the people consider their own business, and they feel like the government shouldn't be involved in taking cuts from that.

So, what is Greece's major problem? Mentality and culture making their economy incompatible with the modern capitalist taxing system and thus, unsustainable.

And that leads me to Europe's role in this whole mess

b) Why Europe is to blame

Now, besides the fact that the European Union should have been more careful before admitting Greece into the Euro (books were well cooked and padded to make the economy look better than it actually was), what the EU has done wrong is quite simple: they didn't properly understand Greece's problem and applied the wrong solution.

What do I mean by that? Well, we are all well aware of the rounds and rounds of austerity applied to Greece over the last 5 years. Now, I agree that austerity and cuts are part of the solution to stabilizing Greece's economy. However, the problem was the EU made that their only tool to fix Greece's problems: slap more austerity and cuts each time Greece's economy didn't improve in exchange for bailout money.

The first problem with this continued austerity is that it put Greece in a brutal cycle. The only way to pay back the debt was to get the economy running: job creation, increasing salary, more taxes, then pay back debt. The usual steps.

However, by slapping such strict austerity measures on Greece, this caused under-funding in major public sectors, which lead to massive job losses. This obviously leads to loss of confidence in the economy, media coverage of austerity makes people less likely to invest in said country, etc. Higher taxes also ensue, leading to lower money amounts for everyone and less spending.

Firstly, austerity in Greece's case was overdone. No matter the country and the situation it's in, no one can realistically expect any country to repay back hundreds of billions within the span of a few years when the austerity you slap onto said country makes the debt to GDP ration 170% (i.e: Greece has to bay back almost double its annual budget per year just to cover the debt payments and interest). Not to mention that Greece's unemployment nationwide is 25%, and among the youth, it is over 50%. That amount of people out of work makes it so much more difficult to get the economy running.

If it was truly in the EU's interest to get Greece back on its feet, it would give it a stricter guideline to follow in terms of law changes and austerity measures, but actually give them time to let their economy recover. It may take decades for Greece to recover, but at least if they recover, they can make payments, many over many decades, but at least they are functional and able to operate.

Basically, what should have happened was that the EU set the debt payments over decades into the future, but Greece has to meet certain milestones every few years, and if they don't, then you squeeze them with interest and move up the timeline to repay the debt by a few decades. At least then, everyone can claim that Greece was given a fair window of time to actually address their economic issues and deal with the growing pains. Nobody said Rome was built overnight. Greece's economy needed that scale of rebuild.

c) What would have been the ideal solution

However, even then, austerity was still the wrong answer to the Greek crisis. Why? For reasons I mentioned earlier:

Mentality and culture makes Greece's economy unsustainable.

The EU just saw the italicized and underlined part of the problem and applied what they thought was the best solution to that problem.

The real problem, that the EU failed to address, was the bolded part

What Greece needed more than an economic reform, was a social and cultural reform.

Austerity's main selling points are higher taxes and cuts to spending to get the economy back on track.

Corruption and tax evasion that is so relevant among Greeks basically negate any positives to be had from austerity and leave only the bad. If people don't pay taxes to begin with, what's the point of raising taxes? If people in the government are corrupt and funneling public money to private beach islands and boats, that basically makes any cuts to budget even worse than they look.

The right way to fix Greece's economy, in my opinion, was austerity mixed with a social intervention from outside EU countries that have successful programs running. I know that Greece has tried to implement reforms to address tax evasion and corruption, but again, the mentality of the people just basically negates any progress that Greece tries to make. Greece is basically a disobediant child, sad as it is, and you can't expect them to fix their problems themselves. They need parenting. Enter the EU as parents (with Merkel as the mom ;) )

For the corruption, I would have requested that the representatives from the Swedish government, which are known for their excellence in tackling corruption, to aid in a restructuring and change of mentality for the high levels of Greek society and for government representatives. Perhaps a way to enforce this change would be too give Greeks incentives to focus on the collective health of the government and country. Help the government, and help yourself sort of thing. I'm no sociologist, but if the Swedes can at least reduce Greece's corruption problems, that would go a long way.

For the tax evasion, perhaps the IMF could request members of the IRS from the USA to come give a hand? Again, I have no idea if they are any good, but based off stories I've heard, they can be quite persistent to the point of the extreme. Maybe Greece needs a bit of that system in them. If they do high level and focused investigations of a lot of the higher earners, they force them to give the money they actually owe. And as a bonus, they motivate other high earners and other earners in general to pay their taxes so they could avoid their headaches. It would be a big undertaking, but Greece has lots of time to repay its debt in this scenario, so long term projects are viable.

d) Conclusion (and a TLDR)

So, here ends a long rant from a random guy on the internet. Long story short, Greeks have been living the great life for a while, not paying their dues to society, and the EU came in and instead of showing them the right way to run their country (fixing their corruption and tax evasion, mentality and social problems basically), they came in and requested austerity and a massive pile of debt that was unrealistic and wrong from the start.

As a Greek in my culture and in my heart, it saddens me to see Greece's current state. They have such a beautiful country with a wonderful climate, incredible food, and great history. It literally is paradise on Earth, in my opinion. The only problem is, sometimes you gotta come down from paradise to face the realities of the modern world, and though I can understand why tackling real world issues like economy is a problem for the Greek mentality, at some point, sacrifices had to be made.

Ancient Greeks were some of the smartest of their time, and a lot of their ideas, inventions and discoveries have forever shaped our world. They were fore-runners, the ones who looked beyond themselves to discover a great many things. It is my only hope that their modern descendants today can also look beyond themselves to discover what is wrong with their great country, and take the Πατριδα (country) from a desolation in a world that already has too many back to its former roots, where Greece's old tales of discoveries and new tales of recovery from the brink can hopefully inspire the world all over once more.

(And I realized I basically wrote an essay even though I am on summer vacation from college. Oh well :), Hope you guys enjoy it)

@PredatorRules:

1) For mobo: Gigabyte is my preferred brand. If I look at what I have available here in Canada, this is what I get:

- the mobo you reccomended (Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI ATX LGA1150 Motherboard), which seems to have a high failure rate and mediocre reviews according to Newegg.

- Mobos in the 150-200$ range. Some are good and seem solid

- My mobo. For 50$ more over the previous catagory (which isn't much for me to be honest), I get a mobo that is more aesthetically pleasing than the mobos in the 150-200$ range, since the one I chose is all black with nice accents. I also get a mobo that's been tested extensively and proves its durability, as well as a mobo that comes with some more advanced features, like better audio, more ports, and some long-term features like M.2 and SATA Express. Since I'm planning on keeping my mobo and my PC for a long time, spending just 50$ more for bells and whistles as well as durability that may be useful down the road is not an issue for me.

You're probably right that a cheaper mobo would probably serve me and perform just as well as the one I chose, but I'm more than happy to pay just a bit more for little details that would give me peace of mind.

2) For PSU: I'm ordering all my parts from my aunt, who works at a distribution company. She has a good selection, and plus I get stuff slightly cheaper than what you see on my list and I save on shipping. The thing was, the higher quality PSUs (according to sites like JonnyGuru and Tom's Hardware tier lists) also happened to be the ones with more wattage. Turned out that the one I found had the best quality, and maybe a bit more wattage than I would need. Other PSUs with less wattage were of lesser quality, and I know the last part you want to skimp on is your PSU.

Just curious though: what is the general wattage overhead that is recommended for PCs? Most I would probably go for my new PC is a slight CPU and GPU overclock and a 2 way SLI.

3) As for your recommended build, it seems solid. It's just that I'd prefer to invest a bit more in the quality of my mobo and CPU before investing in more GPU power right away. GPUs are advancing much faster than CPUs right now (thanks Intel), and since a single GTX 970 is fine for me right now. I can always invest in more GPU power down the road, but whatever CPU and mobo I get now is the one I'm stuck with for a good while unless I make a whole new rig. The little touches like the M.2 slots, the improved audio, the extra FPS I'll get for hyperthreading for some games are stuff I'll notice for the whole life of my rig. I'm not sure I could stay the same for two AMD 290s, which will probably need replacing in about 2 years in order to keep up those high graphics settings.

@GTR12:

I'm guessing when you meant cheaper RAM, you also meant less RAM? Because the 16 GB of RAM I chose is 130$ and the cheapest ones are 110$ from Kingston. Not much savings there.

As for the mobo, pretty much see my above response to PredatorRules. Compared to the alternative motherboard here in Canada that I would get in the 150-200$ range, an extra 50$ for a more advanced an durable mobo with bells and whistles is nothing to me.

Case came down to aesthetics, unfortunately. My dad got my old PC with a window and now I can't live with a PC without one haha. And cases with windows tend to go 100$+ since they are higher end. I would appreciate suggestions for cases if you had though.

So, even if I did the cuts you mentioned, I would only end up with about 200$ (60$ for RAM to 8 GB + 75$ for Mobo + 60$ for Case, as an aggressive estimate).

980ti costs about 800$ here in Canada vs 400$ for 970. So I'd still be short 200$

Would the 980ti's benefits even be noticed on a 1080p 60 Hz monitor, like the one I have? Or is it more of a future-proof card that might be perfect should I decide to upgrade my monitor? I had considered the 980ti, but 400$ more for performance I wouldn't even notice on my current monitor would be wasted money, right? Right now, I'm thinking about waiting about a while and performing both a GPU and monitor upgrade to 1440p 144Hz G-Sync. That way the tech will have time to mature, drive prices down, more selection, etc. Do you think that is a good mentality, or is the 980ti worth it on the possibility that I might upgrade my monitor later on?

Hey all,

After many months of long research (interrupted by college life, unfortunately), I have finally nailed down all the parts for my new build. You guys might remember my thread from a few months ago (here) that basically degenerated into a Z97 vs X99 debate. I went with Z97 finally, and I'm quite happy with the result. Hoping to play maxed out settings for 1080p for quite a while. If everything checks out, by next week my order will be placed.

Here is the parts I want to get: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/9bJPWZ

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H-BK ATX LGA1150 Motherboard

Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory

GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB Gaming G1 WINDFORCE Video Card

Case: Corsair 450D ATX Mid Tower Case

PSU: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply

Total: $1453.93 CAD (Max budget was 1500$)

I already have keyboard, mouse, monitor, and OS (Windows 8.1)

I also already have storage in the form of a Seagate Barracuda 2 TB HDD and a Samsung 840 EVO 256 GB SSD.

I know I probably could have saved about 200$ by trimming down the i7-4790k to an i5-4690k and RAM from 16 GB to 8 GB, but in my opinion, 200$ for extra RAM security, higher stock CPU clock and hyperthreading are worth it. My primary purpose will be gaming, and I know some games benefit from the extra threads, especially games that are CPU bound like RTS and Simulation games. At 4 GHz, I don't think I'll have to overclock for a while, and knowing that current gen consoles use about 8 GB, I figured 16 GB will guarantee any issue with my PC will never come from RAM size, especially when I'm researching PC parts with dozens of tabs open and music/videos running in the background.

Gigabyte motherboard is a bit on the expensive side as well, but it has more ports than I'll ever need (which means it will be really expandable) and I get the extra reliability and stability I've gotten used to with my old Gigabyte mobo. The black edition I'm getting is also extensively pre-tested and comes with an extended warranty (5 years), which gives me extra peace of mind.

My hope is to keep the core of my PC (CPU/RAM/Mobo) around for many years and just periodically upgrade the GPU (or SLI). With the mobo, CPU and PSU that I have, I'm also happy with the fact that I have the capability to take on higher end cards down the line and SLI, since I may be considering a 1440p G-Sync monitor down the road. For now I am happy at 1080p, but in a couple years, selection and tech will have matured and make it much easier to jump into higher end monitors.

Any improvements, comments and suggestions are welcome,

Thanks :)

Man, the games just keep looking better and better...

With games like the Witcher 3 pushing 1080p60FPS with a GTX 980, does this make it reasonable to get a 980 Ti and expect it to max out 1080p for at least the next year? Is it even worth discussing 1080p and the 980 Ti in the same sentence? Not to mention that the 980 Ti comes with 6 GB of VRAM for extra security. Would a 980 Ti be a future-proofers choice for 1080p, or will software advances like DX12 or other stuff render it's extra power irrelevant by the time it's needed?

So, as a college student who has a 6 year old PC, do you guys think Skylake is worth it and coming soon enough to warrant the waiting? I'm currently on summer vacation and would love to play some of the more recent games, but I also don't want to get the short end of the stick in terms of hardware that's around the corner.

I'm willing to wait, but late August/early September kind of kills my hype and free time if I wait for Skylake, since I would be back at school around that time.

Ugh, I understand this all too well. This latest hardware jump just can't come fast enough. I know next gen hardware like Skylake, DDR4 RAM, Windows 10, etc. are just around the corner, but I just finished my college semester and now have all the free time to build, since I'm on summer vacation.

But there's no point in building now since anything I build will be outdated in about 1-2 months.

So I'm stuck. During the school year, my parts list for my next PC was ready, but I never had any time to actually order, build and game. Now, I have all the time in the world, but now my parts list is ''To be updated''...

@Coseniath: All the better than! Will certainly be a "small" upgrade over my current Core 2 Duo E8500.

So Skylake slated for release in Q3 2015? Maybe you guys have been around here longer and know more about these sorts of things, but would it be realistic to hope for Skylake to be released by July 2015? Waiting for it to release before I examine build options, but I'd like to be able to play with it a bit and actually play some games before college starts in late August.