Should I install Win 7 64bit

[JDogg]

I'm using Windows xp 32 bit atm, and I'm in the process of building a new gaming machine, will Win 7 64bit increase my performance, is there much problems?, can it be used as a primary OS or do you recommend I install it on a partition?.

 

[TonCharr28]

Ultimately, Windows 7 RC is still a beta: no telling what issues are still there, and there are some people who've experienced issues finding the right drivers to make their hardware work under the OS.

On the other hand, based on my experience, Windows 7 has performed well as my laptop's primary OS. I'm still keeping my XP installation though, even it takes up space, just in case something goes wrong with 7 and I don't have the time to immediately troubleshoot.

As for 64-bit OSes, it really depends on what machine you use. Personally though, I would only use a 64-bit OS if my computer had more than 2GB of RAM—which is neither the case with my laptop or desktop.

 

[JDogg]

Ultimately, Windows 7 RC is still a beta: no telling what issues are still there, and there are some people who've experienced issues finding the right drivers to make their hardware work under the OS.

On the other hand, based on my experience, Windows 7 has performed well as my laptop's primary OS. I'm still keeping my XP installation though, even it takes up space, just in case something goes wrong with 7 and I don't have the time to immediately troubleshoot.

As for 64-bit OSes, it really depends on what machine you use. Personally though, I would only use a 64-bit OS if my computer had more than 2GB of RAM—which is neither the case with my laptop or desktop.

Well the machine I'm building will have 6GB of ram, so I need 64, just wondering if I should hold back till retail is released, or just try it out. Anyone know if gaming performance is better/worse?, I saw some benchmarks, but that was comparing 64 to 64 probably.

 

[makotech222]

Rc2 was just leaked today(7201). I have RC1 x64 and never had any real problems yet. I highly recommend it over any other OS

 

[horendus]

Do it.

Throwing my windows XP OEM out the window and running turning it into shrapnel with my lawn mower was the best thing I ever did.

People say XP is so great...

I say these people need to screw there heads on and look at the computing standards other people are experiencing with Windows 7 RC.

Here are just a few of my personal reasons for running windows 7

- Games run smoother. Period.

- Makes windows XP look like the dated piece of garbage it is

- Can run 2 sounds cards without issue and switch between WHILE running a sound stream (even vista doesnt do that)

- New way of organising the task bar is much more logical IMO




Ultimatly ull be the judge.

You could run dual boot. I did, and formatted the windows XP drive a week later.

 

[Lippy13]

I'm currently running Windows 7 RC x64 on my main machine. The only problem I had was the driver for my wireless card seems to have been removed from this build. It existed in the beta, and it exists in Vista. No problem I thought, I'll just download the driver from the manufacturer's website instead, only to find that the drivers hosted there are unsigned. And the problem with 64-bit versions of Windows is that it mandates signed drivers. I attempted to grab the driver from my Vista partition but it doesn't work and gives an error, so the last resort was to run Windows in Test Mode to get the unsigned driver to work. Other than that hiccup, Windows 7 has worked flawlessly. Even the beta was stable as hell.

I also tested the beta on my laptop (that used a Pentium M Dothan at 1.86 GHz and had 1 GB of 400 MHz DDR2 RAM), and it just seemed to bring it back to life after its stint with Vista. Vista was by no means slow on the laptop, but it felt like it could perform a little faster at times. On the other hand, Windows 7 seems to fly on it.

Anyway from my experience, Windows 7 seems to perform a lot better than Vista on less powerful machines. On more powerful machines, the performance difference is a bit more negligible when compared to Vista. You will notice certain parts of the OS will feel a bit snappier though. I think gaming performance under Vista is rather similar to XP if you have the hardware to run it well. Windows 7 just seems to have much less overhead, but otherwise has similar performance. Overall, I think the biggest impact on gaming performance will be down to the drivers.

I've more or less been using Windows 7 as my primary OS since the beta. I still have it dual-booted with Vista, but I never really boot into it any more. I've had no issues with gaming on here. It's all been nice and smooth on my GTX 260.

Anyway I recommend that you give it a try, especially since it's free. Then you can get an idea of its performance and stability before the retail comes out.

 

[JDogg]

Yeah thanks guys, I will definitely download it and give it a go, as Lippy said, it's free so I have absolutely nothing to loose. How does upgrading work?, if I get the latest version and a new one comes out next week how does the upgrade system work?, is it automatic like Windows System Update type thing, or do I need to download the whole OS again?, thanks for the info makotech222, I'll take a look at the leaked version .

 

[Scotteq]

7 is Free for the time being, and works very well. Just be advised you'll likely have to do a clean install when the real thing becomes available.

 

[JessicaD]

Lippy13,

It sounds like you may want to check out Microsoft Springboard. They have great Windows 7 support forums and other valuable resources.

http://tinyurl.com/832nco

Jessica
Microsoft TechNet / Springboard
v-jedeen@microsoft.com

 

[grieve]

IM running Win7 RC 64 on my desktop and love it. RC32 on my laptop and love it....

It is FREE... install it, run it... if you have issues go back to old faithful (XP). I suspect after 1 week you will never load XP again.

 

[nocteratus]

I have a spare 100Gb sata drive for my laptop and I installed Win 7 on it and kept my original 160Gb hdd that came with the laptop and vista as the OS.

I have installed the 32bits version and it's better than Vista, my laptop feel snappier...

 

[IzzyCraft]

I wouldn't unless you have a software conflict that matters, like MeGUI doesn't run so well on the RC.

As long as Opera 10 Beta runs on mine i'm fine

 

[JDogg]

I basically only use Itunes, Firefox, Thunderbird, and games:TF2, CoD4, CoDWaW etc. I am downloading it atm, can't hurt to try it, and I will install it on a spare hard drive for sure, just in case.

 

[captaincharisma]

i use 64 bit version and i advise you to wait till it goes retail. windows 7 found everything but there are no drivers for my chip set yet. I had to turn off all the power management features because my pc would freeze once it tried to enter sleep mode

 

[JDogg]

i use 64 bit version and i advise you to wait till it goes retail. windows 7 found everything but there are no drivers for my chip set yet. I had to turn off all the power management features because my pc would freeze once it tried to enter sleep mode

Ah ok, when does it come out? And should I upgrade to XP 64 bit or Vista 64 in the mean time?.

 

[z999]

dude, your'e listening to the one person who tells you to hold your horses and not the five others telling you they mostly don't have problems?
if you go 64bit then vista. xp 64 is problematic.


does it support multiple GPUs from different manufacturers?

 

[JDogg]

dude, your'e listening to the one person who tells you to hold your horses and not the five others telling you they mostly don't have problems?
if you go 64bit then vista. xp 64 is problematic.


does it support multiple GPUs from different manufacturers?

I already have it, I'll try it out for a month and see if it's good for me, if not I'll install vista.

 

[cimtaurus]

I already have it, I'll try it out for a month and see if it's good for me, if not I'll install vista.

Please be sure to come back and post here in a wekk and in a month and even in 2 months.
I want to see how long it takes you to forget how to even spell XP.

Win7 is smooth and creamy like, umm, something really smooth and creamy.