Building new rig win7 or not?

Rich-Ando

Rich-Ando

Rich-Ando

Associate
Joined
26 Aug 2004
Posts
257
Location
Derby-UK
as i'm building a more up to date rig now with an i7, is it really worth buying win7 or just sticking with my current xp?

i do like using all the programmes i have currently and am not sure if they will work on win 7 or not?

are the 64 compatibility issues gone now?

will there be a vast difference that makes it worth spending over £100 on it?
 
If you're planning on using a DirectX 10 or 11 video card with it then you'd be crippling it by using XP since it doesn't support above DirectX 9, not to mention that XP is old and soon to be unsupported. Go for Windows 7.
 
k ty.

i'm just an old git stuck in his ways and as usual, can't be bothered with change.

i just hope all the programmes i use still work.
 
64-bit Windows 7 runs pretty smoothly to be honest mate. Like Broken Hope said, if you ever need DX10 or 11, you will be crippled by having XP.

Windows 7 is very smooth, and has excellent performance :)
 
I recommend win 7 to everyone now days. I generally just find it snappier at doing things than XP on the same hardware. Can't say I've come across a program yet that I've had issues running in 64bit W7 (even our in-house auditory training software that was built using VB6 works great in W7 at work lol)

XP is nearly 10 years old now, it really is showing its age now. Granted it is still a good stable OS but I would say W7 is as stable if not more so than XP is. Also if your going for an i7 spec then I'd assume your using at least 4gb of RAM? wouldn't it be nice to address all of your RAM and not be limited to around 3gb with xp? Go for the upgrade dude :)
 
Rich-Ando said:
i do like using all the programmes i have currently and am not sure if they will work on win 7 or not?
Click to expand...

No reason they won't.

Rich-Ando said:
are the 64 compatibility issues gone now?
Click to expand...

What compatibility issues? The only issues you might face are for old peripherals, where the manufacturers can't be bothered to write x64 drives. But that's been a problem since XP x64. Any recent device must provide both x86 and x64 drivers to get WHQL certified.
 
Got windows 7 64bit on my dual core pentium (not core2) with 1gb ram and an SIS agp graphics chip - more than fast enough for general use and some lightroom 3 as well, thats how well coded it is (compared to previous things - vista on this laptop was god aweful)
 
great info there everyone. it puts my mind at ease + it has told me a few things i didn't know, such as i have 6GB of ram, didn't know XP limited it to 3 so that would have been a waste of money.

i thought there were programmes that didn't work in Win 7 that worked in XP but it seems i was wrong on that.

got all of my gear yesterday from OC, just 1 day delivery, awesome and the help on here will get me set up, awesome too.

thanks all.
 
Rich-Ando said:
i thought there were programmes that didn't work in Win 7 that worked in XP but it seems i was wrong on that.
Click to expand...

It would be wrong to say there will definitely be no compatibility issues, but the vast majority of programs will work or have an update available.
 
Rich-Ando said:
k ty.

i'm just an old git stuck in his ways and as usual, can't be bothered with change.

i just hope all the programmes i use still work.
Click to expand...

My mothers fella bought a new PC earlier this year which came with Win7 32. He then told me he did not like the looks of it as he had been using XP for years and reinstalled XP! I told him I could have made it look exactly the same with a bit of fiddling but he did not listen.

I nearly cried over the absolute madness of it all. :D
 
Rich-Ando said:
k ty.

i'm just an old git stuck in his ways and as usual, can't be bothered with change.

i just hope all the programmes i use still work.
Click to expand...

You'll soon notice the difference running the 64 bit version and better use it makes of using the full amount of RAM on board

I run most of my older software in "compability mode" without any problems :)

Still problems with Windows Explorer but switch to Firefox or Chrome which are far better and faster anyway :)
 
Win 7 64-bit. No point sticking with XP, Windows 7 is superb.

Just built an i7 at work for a customer and it's awesome, Win 7 64-bit Pro installed.
 
Windows 7 64 bit all the way:). Couple of months ago I moved from XP to Win 7 and since then have never looked back. Windows 7 is very smooth and big upgrade performance wise.
 
Rich-Ando said:
k ty.

i'm just an old git stuck in his ways and as usual, can't be bothered with change.

i just hope all the programmes i use still work.
Click to expand...

The only programs that won't work are 16-bit applications if you're running 7 64-bit. If, for some reason, you do still have 16-bit applications then you can simply install them in XP Mode which works very well for stuff like that.

Also, some programs that require drivers to work (a good example is PeerGuardian) won't work if they don't have signed drivers - there are ways round this, but from what I've seen those ways are annoying. Most software company's will have updated their software to be 7 compatible now though.

Go for it! Windows 7 is excellent.
 
Win7 is such an improvement over xp in terms of driver support and hardware working right out of the box I wouldnt recommend xp any more
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom