Windows 7 pre-order

[Demon Cleaner]

Zyriax just told me that he pre-ordered Windows 7 Home for 50€. There's many online shops that had this campaign, and they were sold out in minutes!!! I found now a pre-order copy at amazon.co.uk of Windows 7 Professional (Home not available anymore), for 90£ instead of 220£!! I pre-ordered it because Amazon only charges you when they deliver, which will be in october, and so I can still cancel my order if necessary. Better this than pay 220£ later.

[Stephen Coates]

I can't really see any point in purchasing Windows any more. Though I expect version 7 would be a better investment than Vista.

I know someone who will probably not hesitate to buy it. Apparently it gave him an orgasm. First time I have heard of a Microsoft OS do that to anyone.

[Harrison]

Windows 7 is going to possibly be the best M$ OS released since Win 2000. Having all of the features of XP and Vista, but streamlined and optimised to remove all of the hardware overheads and resources needed. There seems to be a lot more interest in this OS than any other version of Windows since possibly 95 was launched. XP did cause a stir at the time due to the ditching of 9x code and the move to the robust NT code base, but Windows 7 is going to be the first OS that really takes advantage of this fully.

As for preordering a copy. I'm just going to wait. I fully expect OEM copies will be half the price of retail copies so it isn't a problem. There isn't really much rush either as Vista SP2 on a powerful enough system is actually a very stable OS. Not so much if you have an underpowered system, where Win7 will really matter the most.

Regarding versions of Win7. I think Home is one to avoid as it is cut down too much for my liking, plus I think it will still have a memory cap limitation impossed on it like Vista basic. Professional is the base one to go for really, and Ultimate if again you want the best package.

BTW, did you order the 64-bit version?

[Demon Cleaner]

BTW, did you order the 64-bit version?

They don't offer it as pre-order (as far as I know).

[Harrison]

I know that the Win7 uptimate edition will be the same as Vista, and come with both versions in the box as standard, but I don't know about the other versions. I'm sure like Vista anyone who buys a boxed copy of Win7 will be entitled to a free copy of the other version of the same package. So those with a 32bit copy can order a free 64bit version.

[Demon Cleaner]

But what does the 64bit version offer/give me more?

[Harrison]

It allows access to more ram, which is the main selling point. 4GB memory limit of 32bit (about 3-3.5GB accessible) is removed, allowing access to as much ram as can be installed.

Another benefit is native 64bit applications. Software compiled for native 64bit processors run faster than 32bit versions. In recent rests this was shown to be between 13% and 28% speed increase when testing the same actions being performed identically on 32bit and 64bit versions of the same applications.

The biggest increase in speed comes from 64bit versions of compression utilities, where 64 version so zip and rar decompressors can be twice as fast.

64bit is also finally going to be becoming much more important and hopefully take over from the new aging 32bit code base. More games and applications should be released on the next two years that include 64bit native versions of their code.

[Bloodwych]

Anyone pre-ordered their copy?

I was looking at the differences between Home Premium (about £65) and Professional (about £150!!) and Ultimate (£160).

Home Premium sounds fine unless you want to join a domain, use encrypted external storage file system or use XP mode (I'd just dual boot).

Can't warrant the extra expense of the Professional or Ultimate version.

I'm REALLY tempted to pre-order home premium. £65 for a full retail version (which can be re-installed on any PC rather than single license per motherboard OEM) is a pretty good deal that beats any offers over in the USA.

Really tempted. Anyone taken the plunge?

[Harrison]

I probably won't be pre-ordering Win7 in any version and just wait for the final release before buying a copy. I do however want a version with the XP mode, and if the final retail copies are so closely priced I will probably buy the Ultimate edition.

The XP mode is worth it if you can afford one of the versions with it included. Unlike a copy of XP running in a virtual machine it actually works seemlessly with XP mode applications just opening in an XP mode window and looking identical to Win7 applications running alongside them.

And for older games, and for me older emulators that are no longer updated, this seemless XP mode will be a great inclusion.

The other big inclusion of Windows 7, DirectX 11, is also likely to be more of a leap forward in game visuals than DX10 ever was, and will probably be more of a requirement if gamers want to have the best from new games due next year. However for this requirement it will also mean a new graphics card, of which no DX11 supporting cards are yet on the market. I might therefore wait until these are on sale before upgrading to Win7. Possibly the ATI Radeon HD 5870 or very tempting will be the 5870 x2, which unlike the 4870 x2 which is 2 4870's joined together, the 5870 x2 is going to be more like a dual core CPU on a single card, with two 5870 GPUs on top of each other. This could be a big upgrade at a reasonable price compared to anything nVidia have planned on a price to performance basis. Plus the ATI 58xx cards are due out at the end of October, whereas nVidia won't be able to get their GT300 GPU based cards out until next year.