Windows 7 or vista..?

[ostripper]

Win7 also seems to put a bit more of a workout on my hard drive.

That is strange , once booted , the only writes to C:\ are to the logs , and occasional reads of prefetch files. Must have something to do with the DRM ??
I don't use any media center , so have not encounted this "misbehavior" .
OS

[theAnonymous1]

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised it if was because of PlayReady. It's almost impossible to do other tasks with Media Center Live TV running in the background. Never had a problem like this with XP MCE.

[AR2]

So far I have such a good experience with W7 64 and 32 bit versions. On the discussion on memory, just get as much as you can and you will be in much better shape than running it on 1Gb of RAM. That is the very issue why Vista didn't work well, without extra memory. It is fact, modern systems and applications need extra RAM, so trying to hold on old standards it is not going to work. On my machine with 8 Gb of RAM W64 works like a champ.

From the hardware standpoint, I would strongly advice anyone - just buy Mac and run Windows off the boot camp. In many cases will work better than PC machine. Dedicate one hard drive to it, start from there and it is not simulation, or virtual machine, it is just like starting from any other PC. That will give you many benefits, in the first place you could experience what good system could do, (here I am talking about OSX ) and it gives value two in one - Mac and PC. Lastly it will give you a pleasure of using a fine designed piece of equipment.

Lastly I would say, Microsoft finally started clearly thinking. W7 is really well design, in many cases the look and functionality is very similar to OSX. Also they went the same rout that Apple did when they made drastic switch between OS9 and OSX. They provided back support for older apps for some time. The same feature exists in W7, through Virtual PC. Within Virtual PC you could instal complete XP set of apps and run them from there. I have been running W7 last 5 -6 months and I would say do not bother installing XP unless you really have to for some reason.

Maybe this will give you idea where things are going. In 2002 - 2003 Microsoft was aprox 800 x bigger in revenue than Apple. Now the ratio is 1.5 times. (one and a half!)

[defect9]

Considering that Macs are all intel hardware, it's smarter to just build an intel system and run windows off it. I don't mean "intel compatible" of course; actual intel motherboard should be used if you want the best stability (though, in the case of dual processors, it may be necessary to use a different company that makes dual-CPU capable boards, depending on your specific needs). This really does make a stable system. A little googling and you can find what was used in a mac, and get the appropriate equivalent parts. This can literally save you several THOUSAND dollars in a top end system and honestly get you the same stability. I do build systems. It's very easy to build a system just as stable (or moreso) than a mac, assuming you put in the research. Macs are there for people who either refuse to do the research and build their own, or don't know better (and that's okay). Great systems, but overpriced for what you get.

besides...

The stability of a Mac system is mostly in the OS, as it was written to be used only with specific parts, whereas in Windows-based systems everyone and their russian grandmother makes parts for it and has to be supported. And even if all the parts are supported, its way too easy to download browser helper objects and other crap on your system that screw things up (kids are great at this) because the user doesnt know any better. One system I helped restore had, I kid you not, 9700 infected files on it from more than 50 different unique viruses. In no way was this the hardware's fault. If the user had been using a mac with bootcamp, I'm willing to bet the problem would have still existed for this user.

having both OS on one machine is a plus though. Is it worth the price, though? That's for each buyer to consider, as it will be different for us all.

[human.bin]

perhaps you can buy an apple cinema dispaly (pc screens aren't as good as apple's), the apple wireless keybord, the multitouch mouse... than hide the computer somewhere and you will not notice it isn't a mac. but if you can't hide it the money on an imac 27 is worth every buck

also notice that audio wise you will have to search a bit for a fan so quiet like the one in the macs for the processor and the videocard

[defect9]

Originally Posted by human.bin

also notice that audio wise you will have to search a bit for a fan so quiet like the one in the macs for the processor and the videocard

no you won't. Scythe Gentle Typhoons, Skarkoon Golfballs, Yate loon's from Petra's Tech shop, Scythe Kaze-Jyuni's, Scythe S-Flex (and in some cases the Kama Flex), Nexus makes some great ones, and many others are just fine. get the 1000rpm versions, or downclock the faster ones with a fan controller, and set them to be thermally controlled from the bios. You can also use PWM fans (also not hard to find) and iirc you can clock them even lower, though you tend to lose performance quickly the farther you downclock.

Currently for cooling intel processors, the top heatsinks that take 120mm fans are Prolimatech Megahalems, ThermalRight HR-01 Plus, Xigmatek HDT-S1283 and ThermalRight Ultra 120 Extreme (also called the TRUE). Check out places like SPCR and Extremesystems for information on quiet computing and comparisons of performance versus noise (extremesystems will also show you all sorts of crazy crap, so, beforewarned that it's not all quiet computing. I linked direct to the latest fan test. It uses radiators, but just like a heatsink, it's still a slightly restricted airflow, and thus indicitive of performance).

[planet10]

Originally Posted by AR2

Maybe this will give you idea where things are going. In 2002 - 2003 Microsoft was aprox 800 x bigger in revenue than Apple. Now the ratio is 1.5 times. (one and a half!)

Wow, i knew Apple was closing in, but didn't realize it had gotten so close.

I did read yesterday that Apple commands 46% of the retail $$ share for desktops last month in US retail stores.

dave

[jleaman]

Originally Posted by planet10

Wow, i knew Apple was closing in, but didn't realize it had gotten so close.

I did read yesterday that Apple commands 46% of the retail $$ share for desktops last month in US retail stores.

dave

It's a good thing, know lots of tech that buy macbooks and dual boot for work then run x at home

[nigelwright7557]

Originally Posted by jleaman

It's a good thing, know lots of tech that buy macbooks and dual boot for work then run x at home

For some of us Windows is the only choice.
I develop software for the Windows PC which is a massive market.

macbooks and netbook PC's frighten me to death as they threaten my software market. I write software for designing PCB's and that needs a fairly powerfull WIndows based PC.
Thank goodness for the games market as that also requires powerful Windows based PC's.

[jleaman]

Originally Posted by nigelwright7557

For some of us Windows is the only choice.
I develop software for the Windows PC which is a massive market.

macbooks and netbook PC's frighten me to death as they threaten my software market. I write software for designing PCB's and that needs a fairly powerfull WIndows based PC.
Thank goodness for the games market as that also requires powerful Windows based PC's.

You can still write your software, just write it so it works on mac and pc, now a days a macbook/ pro/ or not is bascially a pc any ways with the white logo on it.