Any point to switch from XP to Windows 7 (home user)?

[rcgldr]

Just a home user. Mostly gaming. Home oriented stuff includes Office XP (2002), and Quicken. The other main software I use is Adobe Premier Pro CS3 video software (includes Encore, the DVD writing program), and Visual Studio 2005.

My system, isn't the latest, but newer stuff isn't a lot faster yet:

Intel core 2 extreme X6800 (2.93ghz)
Intel D975XBX motherboard, 2GB 667 mhz 4-4-4-10 ddr2ram.
ATI HD4870 (PCI Express) video card, 512 MB ram
Sound Blaster X-Fi Plantinum
4 Segate 7200.12 500GB sata drives, paired into two striped virtual drives via BIOS.
1 Seagate ??? 250gb IDE drive, used only for boot up.

All drives have multiple partitions.
Windows XP SP3 is installed on a partition on one of the striped sata drives.
Windows XP X64 is installed on a partition on the ide drive.
The second pair of drives are used for swap files, temp files, and backup.
There's also a USB drive I use for backup.

Each instance of OS is used to backup the "other" OS partition, and also I use X64 for for some 64 bit programming with Visual Studio 2005.

Other than one version of Halo, I haven't seen any games that don't run on Windows XP. I read that most games play faster with Windows XP than with Windows Vista, and Tom's recent article seems to state that Windows 7 isn't faster with gaming than Windows Vista.

So bottom line, is there any point in switching to Windows 7 (or replacing my XP X64 with Windows 7)?

 

[buwish]

If it doesn't work for you, then don't bother with it. However, if you do, you can still hang onto XP in a partition and "future proof" yourself for future games.

 

[sminlal]

What are you hoping to get out of Windows 7?

If you're looking for extra performance, I wouldn't bother. It would be worth doing if you're upgrading your hardware, but otherwise IMHO you're probably not going to see enough differences to make it worth while.

 

[anamaniac]

What are you hoping to get out of Windows 7?

If you're looking for extra performance, I wouldn't bother. It would be worth doing if you're upgrading your hardware, but otherwise IMHO you're probably not going to see enough differences to make it worth while.

I personally found enough differences to make it worthwhile.
While yes, it does have some of the issues of Vista lingering, Windows XP 64bit isn't worth it, And I suggest 4GB+ of RAM to all. The more RAM you have, the more it stuffs your everyday programs into RAM, and the smoother everyday use is.
Smooth as a 50 year old cognac.
I know it has other things to look at, but so far, I just love the slick looks and smoothness (which, being in front of my computer 8 hours a day, make those alone worth it).

Flame on.

 

[jamesgoddard]

Keep with what you have tbh...

I have a simalar(ish) system and will be keeping XP, actually my motherboard does not support Vista or W7 properly so I would have to bin the below completly to get W7 running

Intel core 2 quad Q6600 (3ghz)
Asus P5W motherboard, 2GB 800 mhz 4-4-4-12 ddr2ram.
ATI HD4850 (PCI Express) video card, 512 MB ram

 

[anamaniac]

Yeah, your motherboard will run Win7 perfectly fine...
Just googled it and the P5W seems to work perfectly fine in Win7...

 

[jamesgoddard]

It's drivers / software for the onboard raid, to go W7 I would have to drop raid

 

[anamaniac]

Google didn't show me that one... maybe I must Bing it!

My motherboard is having crazy issues with raid setups right now, and my second computers hardware raid card doesn't appear to like Win7 either...

 

[Zenthar]

If you didn't think Vista was worth the upgrade, I guess Win7 wouldn't THAT much better.

I would definitely switch to Win7 eventually, but if I were you I would probably wait for your next system and get an OEM version.