PSP X6 Upgrade to X8

[Phil47]

As I understand it because my 6 year old PC (i-7 920) runs on Vista Home Premium I cannot upgrade to X8.
I also have a laptop running Windows 7 which the boys use. Can I upgrade to the laptop which is on my Network?
Another option is to upgrade my PC to Windows 10 and then upgrade to X8.
Being not all that tech savvy how easy is it to upgrade from Vista Home Premium to Windows 10 on my PC?
Is there an instruction document anywhere I can follow?
The last option is to buy a new PC with Windows 10 for about $1,500AU.

Thanks.

[Cassel]

I don't think there is any limitation as to where you install any version. If you own a X6 version, you can upgrade to a X8.

Do you have an option to upgrade to Windows 7 instead? I run W7 and run all my PSP versions, from 8 to X8 on it. Would it be less expensive than Windows 10? I don't know. Someone else might be able to answer that part.

[Ken Berry]

First off, I didn't know that X8 was incompatible with Vista. Others would need to comment on that.

But if you are thinking of upgrading to Win 10, I don't think you would be able to get the free version of Win 10 since Microsoft limited the free upgrade to those running Win 7 or 8/8.1. In other words, you would need to pay for either a download or disc version of Win 10 and install from that.

[Phil47]

Ken, a few months ago I upgraded from X6 to X8 and paid the money only to find it would not work. Corel refunded my payment telling me that X8 is incompatible with Vista.
Naturally I was miffed as this came as a big surprise knowing that Microsoft are still supporting Vista up to March 2017, a year from now. Corel were not my favourite company.
These are the system requirements for X8 - Windows 10, Windows 8/8.1, Windows 7 with latest service pack (32-bit or 64-bit editions);
So I and all other Vista owners/users are forced by Corel to either upgrade from Vista or buy a newer PC, the latter being quite expensive of course.
I do have a laptop with Windows 7 but my son uses that all the time so it is quite impractical for me to use.
Worse still is that you can't get a response from any Corel management people.

[JoeB]

Hey Phil! I'm surprised at the price you quoted (AU 1500.00) for a new PC tower computer in Australia. That would be about 3 times more (CDN) than you could get one from a big box store in Canada. Have you shopped around, or is the fact that you're so far south just a factor that you have to deal with?

[LeviFiction]

JoeB, there are many ways in which Australians pay more for the same stuff. Of course that also depends on the kind of computer Phil wants. It's even more shocking when you realize that the CAD and the AUD are equal in value. But Australians pay between 30% and 75% more for many products compared to the US and Canada. Transportation is part of the reason, as it takes more to get foreign products to Australia. Not always to the point that the markup would suggest, but several hundred dollars difference could be understandable. Even services like PriceUSA, MyUS, and Bongo that lets AU citizens purchase at US prices from US companies still takes hundreds of dollars to arrange the shipping. Price wise an extra $100-$200 for a $300=$500 computer might be worth it. But not always.

On the software side there is also geo-locking where companies like Netflix, iTunes, and Corel sell their software and content for much higher prices even though downloads to them don't actually cost more. There might be some valid reasons for some markup, but often not to the extent that they do.

[brucet]

OK I can't help myself!
I'm an Australian who lives about 6 months a year in Australia the rest of the time in the USA. This price debate has been done to death. It's simply not true that Australians pay more. Yes for sure on some items we pay more. But we also pay less for many items. On balance A$ v US$ balances out about even. When compared to cost v incomes Australians are doing ok thanks very much.

I can give dozens of examples but this is not the place. (My laptops come from the USA. My cameras come from Australia).

Levifiction you do realize that most products come from Asia and they have less distance to travel to Australia. So cost of transport is not the issue.
GeoLocking is another debate.

I have a tower desktop that a local store built for me a few years ago. (About 6 years ago actually). It still is as good as the new ones. And was way cheaper than those for sale in the box stores. As usual it always depends on what you want and how you shop around.

regards

[LeviFiction]

Brucet, I know quite a few Australians that's why I used the words I did. For example "Many products compared to Canada and US" not "All products" and "Transportation is part" of the reason. Also "depends on the kind of computer Phil wants." I also know that Australians get paid more than most Americans do in their jobs. You income for waiters and servers is higher than most American restaurants for example.

In no way was I trying to suggest that Australians were poor or getting everything that terrible prices all the time. However, there are still many things that are price gouged. This has been my friend's complaints for years, often pointing me to news articles and studies on the issue.

So I do apologize if I frustrated you. But that was not the intention.

[brucet]

LeviFiction no worries. I just see this debate all the time on various forums. Some folks like to make one blanket statement which can't be done.
On balance we are about the same as the USA.

With GeoLocking anyone can get around it by using a Proxy site. Legal? No idea.

regards

[Phil47]

Hey guys, we seem to have deviated off the main point here and got into pricing of imported goods. I know all about that as I was a Purchasing Officer for many years and saw costs of imported goods to Australia from China increased by 400% for the selling price. Of course it doesn't happen on everything.
My tower was made specially for video editing but not for gaming. i-7 920 but only 3GB RAM.
I have been quoted $1500 for an i-5
Intel i5 6600K CPU Overclock 4.6G CPU

ASUS Z170-P-D3 motherboard

Cooler Master 212 Plus Cooler

8G DDR3 Kingston 1600Mhz

240G SSD Kingston + 1TB Seagate 7200rpm

2G ASUS Strix GTX 960 PCI Express Silent Gaming 0db

Cooler Master K282 Case with 650W Power USB 3.0

No keyboard mouse

No monitor

22 Speed DVD RW Dual Layer

Built in Gigabyte Lan USB 3.0 SATA 3.0

Windows ,10 64 bit

Total price is $1,520.00 include GST

Brucet, would I be wasting my money?

[brucet]

Wasting money? That's a very subjective question. Put it this way. I have a 2 year old i5 HP laptop for the bulk of my editing. 8gig ram. (I had a tower built for me some years ago. I now only use that for printing when I'm at home). Use a D7100 with 30meg NEFs. Do a lot of heavy editing often with 500meg tiff files. Rarely have a speed issue. I'm on the road 6 months a year. Thus the need for a laptop. My understanding is that for photo editing an i5 is just as good as an i7. My only weak link is hard drive write speed. Doing downloads from cards and backup to an external hard drive does take more time than I like. SSD would fix that.

My guess is that software will determine speed and efficiency more than hardware. I'm running both PSPx7 and Photoline on the same laptop. Photoline is light years ahead of PSPx7 for the same tasks. So it's possible to spend a lot of money on a computer only to have poor software let you down. (PSPx7 is almost a 300meg download. Photoline is just a 20 meg download. Photoline is far more powerful. My point being that poor coding will cost you more in performance).

My laptop cost me US$500.00. Your money. Never let anyone tell you how to spend it. But if it was my money I wouldn't be spending the $1500.00!! If you can, do a side by side speed comparison. You maybe shocked at how well cheaper computers perform.

(FWIW besides traveling to the USA for many years we also owned an import business. The 'debate' over Australian cost gets up my nose so please excuse my jumpyness!!! Way more complicated than just comparing advertised prices).

regards