If only I was about to merge posts like on BWC...

Please just edit your post next time. Thank you.

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I still use XP since my computer isn't too powerful, so it'd be worthless for me to run Vista. On top of that, I run XP in like... Windows 98 mode. So it's seriously not looking like it'd be a visuals winner here. I just hope Windows 7 allows for making it lose more graphically stuff so I can keep my '98 look and have better performance on this old rig...

okay, post edited. by the way, im running the windows 7 beta, got it installed today, installed in 15 minutes on my beast machine! 2 games dont work so far, they are C&C 3 tiberium wars, and Fallout 3.

How does that work anyway? Do AMD/ATi and nVidia have drivers out for the beta?
Win7 is NT 6.1 so there is a slim possibility that Vista (NT 6.0) drivers are compatible.

to tell u the truth, idk. but, windows 7 picked up every piece of hardware but the sound card I have in my PC! windows 7 is a really magnificent OS although its only beta!

In that case it is probably an integrated driver. They are rarely good compared to the ones made by the company that makes the hardware.

I agree! windows 7 maybe my next OS to purchase!

I agree. My 8800GTS G92 wasn't recognized as a G92 till I installed the drivers from nVidia. That's a lot of difference you know.

As for the OS bashing. I never agreed on bashing Windows XP, it was a magnificent OS when it came out. Then when Vista came out, it somehow became cool to overrate new stuff, so all the bugs and shit in this Windows 7 early Alpha were tolerated way too easily. Now Windows 7 is out, and I'm eager to try it. I'll start off from a virtual machine though. Until the compatibility is higher and it's not in BETA, I will stick with XP for a while.

Im stickin with XP for a while myself until windows 7 comes out!

So, whoever IS trying Windows 7. Give the forum users of RuneStorm a taste of what it is like.

I'm using Vista at the moment, but I would like to see how this beta testing for W7 progresses. I hope Microsoft actually managed to fix all the bugs.

I see nothing but happy Win7 testers around the web. I think this is the next XP.

I hope so too, I just wonder how long i gotta wait for it. So i can use all 4 gigs of my PC.

@uglypants.... Ill give u my opinion on windows 7! I like windows 7, its amazing, its faster than vista and XP, my games launch faster in 7 then xp or vista! the beta is out if u want to go download it!

You can theoretically use 4 GBs of RAM on a 32-bit OS & processor, but then there is nothing left for vRAM or any other RAM for that matter.

The mathematical limit of 64-bit processors is around 17.18 billion GBs (a 64-bit processor can recognize 64-bit big numbers, up to 2^64 in other words, so this means it can fetch data from that many mem. addresses, which means 2^64 bytes). But Microsoft put a 128 GB limit on Vista and will probably keep it in Win7. Not even enthusiasts will be putting that much into their systems for years to come.

I think i might. Likely would have it take a portion of my drive, instead of being a whole reinstall.

Anyone know when Windows 7 will come out?

christmas season this year, if not, early in january next year!

Really! That soon. Wow, terrific stuff if its true.

They used Vista as a starting point for Win7 as far as I know, so they can get away with an early release date.

I will most definitely buy Win7 x64 for my next upgrade.

How will i know if i need 32 bit or 64 (aka if my computer can support 64 bit?)?

well, depends on what kind of hardware u have bud! I have 64 bit hardware, and 4GB of Kingston Ram, so Im going to get a 64 bit copy of windows 7!

64-bit is necessary for 4+ GB of memory.
But that isn't the only advantages, 64-bit processors can work with bigger numbers, making processing in certain situations faster depending on if the program/OS is programmed to utilize that advantage.

The only drawback I can think of is that 64-bit value types take up more memory, but it doesn't make any difference compared to how much RAM can be installed nowadays.

I'd go 64-bit with Win7 even if you don't need the extra memory. Hell, I'm surprised Microsoft are even supporting the 32-bit standard this time around, they definitely won't do it with the next generation of Windows.

Vista was the... argh I've been saying this enough by now. The only reason they released the alpha is because it took too long. Without Vista, there would be like 8 years without any Windows release, and that's not motivating the income of MS.

So the only thing you really need is 4 gigs of ram. Sick, and here i thought it was a motherboard issue.

Ah well, next year i'll likely have upgraded (i'm quite likely going to) to a Quad core 2.8Ghz or higher... just waiting for the price to be $150-175 (Canadian)

i bet the processors are not cheap up there in canada!

Yep, damn expensive stuff, right now a Quad core 2.8 Ghz would cost me $456 Canadian. If it would drop to $200 Canadian i'd be willing to drop that.

It actually is both a mobo and architecture issue. My mobo can do 8 GB but my OS can only do 2 without tweaking (3 at most).

As for the processors, if you want the best bang for the buck; check out the AMD Phenom II X4, on NewEgg it costs $250 US dollars and competes with the Intel i7 9xx series which are better known as Nehalem.

Oh, and I should add to what I said above about 64-bit processors. None of the modern ones are true 64-bit, usually the address buses are between 36 - 48 bits, both virtual and physical ones. Though this isn't really a problem, just 36-bit can allocate 64 GBs of memory, which is many times more than the norm (4 - 8 GB).

Well mobo is a beast, doubt i'll swap it out. CPU.. yes, plus i can wait til whenever Windows 7 is roughly out to then upgrade.

Do you need to upgrade in the next year or two? You got a much more powerful computer than I do (8800 GTX and whatnot) and I still manage at high settings. Right now I'm playing Dead Space (fekking awesome game btw) and it maxes out without causing any lags; 3 years old and still kicking ass.

What you can do when Win7 comes out, is to start from scratch. Back up everything you want to keep, format the hard drive and then install a fresh copy of Win7 x64.

Well, I like it !
Normaly I ingnore Beta's, but this one has peeked my interest, and we are running a few copies at work, and I am it running at home (as well as some of my colleeges at work) and I'm quite impressed. For a beta it is unusual...heck, even my games run (DX9 due to graphics card) and on a beta, that's like amazing...there was even a nVidia update for Windows 7 for my graphics card when I enabled the automatic updates....

I however, see a few things on this site that IE8 doesn't like....need to fix that...

Yeah, but its a best case scenario, if the CPU (heck if their is a GPU like my 8800 GTX out their for cheap i'd get that and throw it in, cause with W 7 it seems you can have GPU's that are from different manufactures (something like that) on the same system.

Formatting is a definite must. Though at the time, I'm going to consider if i should keep my current Raid (O i think) setup of 2 x 320gigs or to go out and buy a completely new (large) harddrive. I think that when Windows 7 comes out, I'd be willing to spend max $400 (Canadian) to beef up my system with a CPU and GPU (to make it SLI) or CPU and harddrive. Just gotta see what 2009 presents me with.