Well, if you don't hear from me for a while, assume the Windows 7 RC installation did not go so well... I am curious though if anyone has tried the RC, and your thoughts on it. I'm just doing it to play around, and see if the fuss is worth the effort.

Hey, I hope you survive the install. I look forward to hearing what you have to say.

From what I understand, the rc is available to anyone that wants it. So how does MS extract money from you once they formally release?

The license expires early next year and in such a way that you WILL have to upgrade.

I've been running the Windows 7 beta and now the RC since it was first released (posting from it now).

I had no choice but to use Vista on my new computer. As I have 16 GB of RAM, and XP x64 (standard XP can only see about 3.2 GB of RAM) is waaayyy worse than Vista with compatibility of software and hardware.

That said, the Windows 7 beta is what Vista should have been, and the RC is actually very nice. Of course I'm running it on a computer with 16 GB of RAM, a 512 MB video card, and two and a quarter terabytes of storage which is spread across four, 15k RPM, Serial Attached SCSI, hard drives. If you have less than that, your experience may be scaled in proportion.

What do you do that requires that hardware? I'm jealous, even though what I have exceeds my needs.

Oh, forgot to mention the processors: two Opteron Quad Cores.

I use this machine to read e-mail, browse the web, etc.

I don't game on it, because I work with computers all day long. When I want to relax I don't want to be trouble shooting frame rate issues; I just want to game. I have a PS3 for that.

The biggest workout it gets is processing raw photos. I'll usually shoot a couple hundred when I have a session. Rendering them to TIFFs to send to the print service used to take about a minute each. Now, I'm down to 5 seconds. Also as I make adjustments to color, exposure, etc. the preview is nearly instantaneous; which is a big help. While I do back up my photos to an remote server, I also have a local copy of each. That's about 240 GB at this point. So 2 TB may be overkill, but one day I'll have that many.

I also used to do 3D rendering, and video compression. Not so much these days, but if the need arises I'm in a position where it won't be painful.

But mostly, I like playing with new technologies and having a hot rod of a computer.

It sounds like a good time.

What do you play on the PS3? The only disc-based game I bought for it was Metal Gear Solid 4, and I just gave that to my nephew, since I wasn't playing it. Meanwhile, I have plenty of Xbox 360 games to catch up on. I was actually thinking of passing my PS3 on to someone else who would appreciate the backwards compatibility of my launch 60 GB version, now that I'm getting an OPPO for Blu-ray playback. I imagine I'll get another PS3, but I can wait for ever-smaller manufacturing.

I have Win 7 Beta on my Dell Mini 9 Hackintosh (dual boot). Win 7 screams.

I even ran Win 7 on Virtual Box on my Macbook, with the Win 7 file on an external HDD. Win 7 ran faster than my native WinXP T42 Thinkpad. WAY faster than Parallels 4.0. I have a copy of RC that I may try this on.

I haven't run RC yet on my Hackintosh because I figured I'd just wait for the retail release in October. I don't want to install all my apps and then reinstall in a few months. For me, it's a definite buy because I found it to be very good. However, it'll take me some time to get used to the GUI since it's so different from XP and OSX.

I'm going to try 7 RC on my new Core i7 box, assuming that I can actually find my arctic silver and build the thing...

Ironically, I play mostly PS2 games. I too have a launch 60 GB (but it has a 250 GB drive in it now). I'm pretty exclusive to RPGs, and am a huge fan of Atlus (especially the Shin Megami Tensei series); do some Final Fantasy too.

I've really been considering the Oppo. I'll probably wait until I get back from Europe in the fall. I doubt the price will fall any (not Oppo's style), but there are still a few bugs I think I'd trigger; so I'll wait until they're squished.

My PS3 plays SACDs, and I have the last Pioneer Elite flagship DVD player they made, the DV-79AVi, which handles my DVD-As. It's also been modded to be region-free so that takes care of that. The only thing I can't do is play out-of-zone BDs (not even the Oppo does that), nor zone-free PAL BDs (the Oppo will do that). So, I'm reasonably set for now, though I think the Oppo will do a better job scaling DVDs, and will surely be quieter than the first-gen PS3 (or any, for that matter).

OK, the expiry thing makes sense.

I'm pissed at MS bacause Vista is now an orphan OS. They have actually resolved all of the early release issues and its a good OS, but I doubt they will put any effort into it now that they are focusing on W7.

VC, you can never have too much ram. Sooner or later you will run out of memory as each generation of applications takes more and more space. I will put 2 2gig sticks on my internet computer when budget allows.

Sheesh ClubNeon, you've got a monster PC there!! 16GB of ram? Holy moly. Our main IBM Bladecenter servers at work don't even have that much!

I've been running RC7 for a few weeks on a "secondary" laptop at home. Both for personal reasons and for work evaluations. Nothing too special - a Dell 1420: Intel Core2 Duo 2.0ghz, 2gb ram, 256mb 8400GS video. Much more of a 'normal' PC compared to ClubNeon's hotrod.

It's running well. I find the interface and layout to be something of a hybrid between XP and Vista. It's like they took the functionality of XP and combined it with the eye candy of Vista. Very intuitive and, IMHO, solidly good. RC7 is speedy, hasn't crashed on me, and generally looks great. I suspect that it will play out to be viewed as how XP is compared to WindowsME, where Vista is WindowsME V2.

Honestly though, I have no real problems with Vista, especially since SP1 came out (SP2 seems to have made no difference, +/-). And that's on my 'main' PC, a Dell 1520 Core2Duo 2.2, 2gb, 256 8600GT notebook. Really, the only problems I've had involve hardware failures, which isn't Vista's fault.

I've had good luck with Vista myself. The only thing is that I can't run my AS-EQ1 software on Vista 64-bit (yet), which, again, isn't Vista's fault.

Well, much to my surprise, I really like Windows 7 so far. I am running it on my secondary computer, which is very old and actually has roughly the stats of a standard netbook. Much faster than XP ran, and a much cleaner look and feel. I did have to play around with some driver installation issues, but otherwise the transition has been seemless.

I'm going to play around with the setup for a few more weeks, and if all goes well I am already tempted to install Windows 7 on my main rig.

Been highly considering downloading the windowds 7 RC, just because I haven't added anything new to my PC in a while. It's still running everything I need to do quiet nicely on XP and I know I shouldn't fix what's not broken but hey, I'm a geek at heart.

Is there a compatibility list anywhere that has started up, official or non-official on a newsgroup maybe.? I'm sure most of my apps are standard enough to not be an issue but if SqueezeCenter goes down, I'll be needing meds as I'll lose music and radio on my main floor. I can check that one on the Squeezebox forum.

My only other concern is Evercrack II. (Everquest). I'd miss the hilarious laughter of my Wed. night and sometimes Friday night's misadventures with my buddies in the land of Norrath.

I too have been having no problems at all running Vista 64-bit (which is supposed to be the most finicky of the Vista 'flavors')... I hear that Windows 7 really tackles the 'problems' with Vista, but since I am not having problems, I am not sure if they mean hardware compatibility for people running older hardware or what... I do hear that it is faster as well, so that is good. It is just going to really stink that I forked over a chunk of cash for Vista last September, and will already be wanting to upgrade if the final product proves to actually be better. Oh well, I needed Vista in September to handle my new computer's amount of RAM not 16 GB mind you, but more than my old XP install could handle). Most likely it won't get upgraded until I get new hardware again, which will be a couple of years since I am not really even starting to tax the capabilities of my current machine....

Well this seems like the right place to ask: Do I get the HP Z400 (i7 Quad Core) or Dell T3500? Primary concern is 3D CAD, running on two 20" monitors. Either will have Nvidia Q 1800 with 728gig, and 12 MB Ram.

No doubt I could do "better" but what is need is budget conscious workhorse to do CAD (my first work on CAD), word processing, and occasional graphic art for a new start up company.

Your insight is most appreciated as I have found little press that I trust in terms of review. Although AutoCD certified both systems and speed tested them, with the Dell slightly ahead.

I have had all Dells for years, but frankly and done with the BS service via India (no offense, but never get service, just someone reading from the help file). Is HP any better, or am I just walking down the same trail.

HP's about the same in terms of service.

Perhaps it is better to go with the devil you know, I guess.

OTOH, I've had very, very good luck with Dell's server support. Not enough to make us go with them instead of HP, but it's much better support than HP's.

That reminds me of a friend's dad who is a college professor who spends about 3/4 of his time in war-torn African nations, loves to collect very current maps of hot zones around the world, and has diplomatic privileges when entering customs. I'm convinced he's CIA, although he is no James Bond.

Neo, you happen to collect maps on your "e-mail computer".

Never mind, the kind gentlemen outside my house in the black van with an H&K MP5 explained that Neo is a fan of email, and wants to read them real fast - nothing more to see here.

Wrong number...crank call, crank call.

I spend my spare time in Romania*.



Oh, and it's Neon the Noble, or Chris.



*See if that starts people wondering, and checking maps.

LOL

Sorry Chris, I got Neo stuck in my head - must be the computer references flashing me back to the Matrix.