windows 7

[TOMCAT21]

Well, had last straw with Vista yesterday and installed Windows 7 and it is phenomenal. Was not that difficult to install it.

[Spikes]

Win7 is great especially for gaming...been using it since late Oct.

[TOMCAT21]

aces seems alot better..

[usvi]

I currently run XP home 32 bit on my machine.
XP runs AH fine but it does only recognize 3gb of the 4gb in my system.
I found a Full Retail version of Windows 7 Ultimate for a good price.
The ultimate version states it is both 32bit and 64bit,is this true?
Would it be worth the money to upgrade to Windows 7?
Does a full retail version allow me to install it on another system?

[TOMCAT21]

I bought windows 7 and it came with both the 32-bit and 64-bit installation discs. I like it, I am not a computer guy at all but I find Windows 7 much easier.

[guncrasher]

For about 100 u can get win7 64 bit worth every cent

Semp

[Ghastly]

I currently run XP home 32 bit on my machine.
XP runs AH fine but it does only recognize 3gb of the 4gb in my system.
I found a Full Retail version of Windows 7 Ultimate for a good price.
The ultimate version states it is both 32bit and 64bit,is this true?
Would it be worth the money to upgrade to Windows 7?
Does a full retail version allow me to install it on another system?

For Aces High, you are not likely to realize a performance increase, except whatever "clear the fudge" factor that any start from scratch installation would bring (remember, you can't upgrade XP to 7) such that you won't have as much junk loading (at least to start with).  

This is because a 32 bit program can only access 2 GB of RAM anyway under Windows, so your "lost" GB under XP isn't of much use to you while playing AH any way. Of course, if you are multitasking other stuff on a regular basis, then that's a different animal.

The retail version allows you to move the OS installation to another system as long as you de-install it on the old one.  (As contrasted to the OEM version, which is legally licensed only to the original computer.)  If that's what you're asking, right?

<S>

[Chalenge]

I recently did a benchmark run of XP 64 bit and Vista 64 and W7 64. The conclusion I came to is that XP 64 bit is the best hands down. However... Skuzzy will tell you that XP 64 has some real problems and I wont disagree I just dont know what that would be outside of some potential problems with large memory models.

W7 has about a 13-16% frame rate advantage on Vista 64. XP 64 has a 24% frame rate advantage on Vista 64 however this does not translate to an advantage by XP 32 over Vista 64 by the same percentage (my test required SLI which is not supported any more on XP 32 but for some reason does work on XP 64).

My test systems were identical models of a 780i evga MB with an E8400 for one data set and identical models of an i7 evga MB and using FSX with FSXMark07 on both I used 7200 rpm Seagates and SSDs to compare boot times and standard as well as custom ground and weather textures and their load speeds. I believe W7 is the system to go to if and only if you need to but I also believe there is absolutely no reason to use SSD drives. During testing I was forced to reset several variables in the fsx.cfg file which required exiting FSX and restarting FSX with the new changes (part of the benchmark comparison was utilizing certain config settings for comparison).

I discovered that SSD drives do in fact allow for quicker starts of the program on the first run after which any one of these OSs will have cached the program files and startups are nearly identical on Vista 64 and with Windows 7 being absolutely identical startup times between SSDs and HDs (XP 64 was not used with SSDs). My conclusion concerning SSDs is that since they generate less heat they are probably best suited for laptops with W7.

[TOMCAT21]

Chalenge , I would rather have XP but it is no longer sold, I just had to ditch Vista.

[usvi]

For Aces High, you are not likely to realize a performance increase, except whatever "clear the fudge" factor that any start from scratch installation would bring (remember, you can't upgrade XP to 7) such that you won't have as much junk loading (at least to start with).  

This is because a 32 bit program can only access 2 GB of RAM anyway under Windows, so your "lost" GB under XP isn't of much use to you while playing AH any way. Of course, if you are multitasking other stuff on a regular basis, then that's a different animal.

The retail version allows you to move the OS installation to another system as long as you de-install it on the old one.  (As contrasted to the OEM version, which is legally licensed only to the original computer.)  If that's what you're asking, right?

<S>

I'll stick with XP on my current machine.I don't have much junk installed(learned that on my last HP system which came pre-bloated with Vista,ect,ect).When I upgrade and build a new system I will probably use Windows 7.Thanks for clearing up the OEM vs Retail question.They love to confuse consumers don't they?I see they have full version and upgrade version also.What's the difference between these?
Thanks for your input. 

[Tigger29]

Would it be worth the money to upgrade to Windows 7?

My advice is.... if you currently have XP and it does every thing you need it to.... and you are happy with its performance... then do NOT spend the money to upgrade to 7.  The performance increase from the unusable ram and 64 bit processing will not be noticeable (and it may actually perform worse due to the increased overhead of the operating system... especially with older hardware).

If you HAVE to purchase an operating system due to a new build, or from a current build with Vista.. then don't spend money on XP... go ahead and purchase Windows 7.

One more thing, if and when you DO purchase 7, don't waste money on Ultimate.  Home premium has just about every option you'd ever want to use, and XP virtualization is more hype than anything.  Some old legacy software might require it, but 99.9% of what you use will still work just fine with Windows 7 (if you have software that requires the use of virtualization, then you'll know plenty about this before hand.  If you don't know what I'm talking about then there is a very slim chance that it would even matter for you).

I have 7 and yes I do love it, but the only reason I have it is because last December I found a "family 3 pack" of 7 Home Premium upgrades for $149 at Amazon.com.  I was going to buy it for my Dad anyway as a Christmas gift, and the 3-pack was the same price as a single.

Don't waste money on an OEM or Retail over an upgrade.. it's going to wipe XP anyway and do a full install, even with an 'upgrade' disk.  Even if you have no O/S installed prior, one small registry entry change will allow it to work, and even that might not be necessary.  I have seen OEM versions cheaper than retail upgrades though.. so IMO just go with the cheapest option.

[Ghosth]

I have to agree with tigger especially about the older hardware part.

If your system is less than 2 years old, and you want to upgrade, enjoy.

If your system has hardware that is more than 2 years old and XP is working, best to leave it be.
If its not working, best to repartition, reformat, and reinstall XP and get it right.

[Pudgie]

I'm gonna move to Win7 on the next upgrade of hardware since this will pretty much be everything being upgraded except the monitor, keyboard & speaker setup.

 

[Jayhawk]

If you're a student, check out your schools bookstore or tech shop, mine recently made a deal with Microsoft and I was able to get the software to upgrade my Vista to 7 for $10.