How's Windows 7 these days?...Thinking of switching from OSX
How's Windows 7 these days?...Thinking of switching from OSX
Thinking of switching from OSX to Windows 7. I'm going to load up a copy on Bootcamp to test it out, but thought I'd ask you guys your experience with the OS so far.
Is it stable? Does it recognize all music plug-ins, USB drivers, etc. as well as OSX? Is it speedy, useable, etc.
Overall, I've been disappointed with my move to a Mac. For the price ($2300 for a macbook pro) I thought the machine would be a speed demon, stable, easy to use, etc. Other than the industrial design, and instant driver recognition, I cannot say it's performed enough to justify the price.
What's worse is now I'm considering upgrading to a desktop unit for the expansion (PCI slots, firewire, etc.), and processor capabilities. To stay on OSX I'd have to go Mac Pro and drop $3500 of money I don't have.
Thoughts overall?
Is it stable? Does it recognize all music plug-ins, USB drivers, etc. as well as OSX? Is it speedy, useable, etc.
Overall, I've been disappointed with my move to a Mac. For the price ($2300 for a macbook pro) I thought the machine would be a speed demon, stable, easy to use, etc. Other than the industrial design, and instant driver recognition, I cannot say it's performed enough to justify the price.
What's worse is now I'm considering upgrading to a desktop unit for the expansion (PCI slots, firewire, etc.), and processor capabilities. To stay on OSX I'd have to go Mac Pro and drop $3500 of money I don't have.
Thoughts overall?
Re: How's Windows 7 these days?...Thinking of switching from OSX
Been on win 7 64 ultimate since Dec 2009 . Runs great couple of minor windows issues but nothing substantial. Was a mac exclusive owner for 10 years ( still currently using one for various projects) but bought a core duo 2.16 ghz 17 inch laptop dell 4 years ago which i used up until just before xmas when i bought a an i7 920 6 gb ddr 2 tb sata drives for £550 uk. They equivalent mac which i was specing up was nearly £5000. With the money i spared i bought 2 new mixing desks and 2 new sets of refrence monitors
So yes win 7 is good.
I will though be buying a 27 inch i7 imac in the next few months as i,m starting some new mulimedia work that requires Logic and 7.1 mixing. But i am enjoying the pc.
So yes win 7 is good.
I will though be buying a 27 inch i7 imac in the next few months as i,m starting some new mulimedia work that requires Logic and 7.1 mixing. But i am enjoying the pc.
Re: How's Windows 7 these days?...Thinking of switching from OSX
My studio buddy has been running it for a while, and he says its good to go!m.nash wrote:Thoughts overall?
XP runs very well to me, so im not going to switch yet. Dont fix whats not broken, as they say. Id probably start using it on a net pc/second home pc first.
I have absolutely no problem with XP. As long as the music comp is a DAW only, it can be rock solid. But it requires maintaining the system with de-fragmenting, keeping the drives clean, and so on. It will make your life better anyway, forces you to be tidy.
Using a mac makes your digital life lazy and untidy IMHO
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Re: How's Windows 7 these days?...Thinking of switching from OSX
Hi, Using Win 7 at work and I recently bought a low end Compaq laptop for the wife to take away with her. I have been very impressed with its stability and am planning on doing some test runs with Live and Reason with a few plugs to see how it goes. I have been on macs for 4 years now, I like them, but when it comes to replacement time, bang for buck becomes a real reckoning if they both have stable OS. I don't actually care which one I work in as IMHO they are pretty much of a muchness as long as stability is ok.
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Re: How's Windows 7 these days?...Thinking of switching from OSX
Win 7 is also a lot more user friendly just like OSX. Xp always seemed kinda clunky and awkward for meJacqueslacouth wrote:Hi, Using Win 7 at work and I recently bought a low end Compaq laptop for the wife to take away with her. I have been very impressed with its stability and am planning on doing some test runs with Live and Reason with a few plugs to see how it goes. I have been on macs for 4 years now, I like them, but when it comes to replacement time, bang for buck becomes a real reckoning if they both have stable OS. I don't actually care which one I work in as IMHO they are pretty much of a muchness as long as stability is ok.
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Re: How's Windows 7 these days?...Thinking of switching from OSX
no problems here. instant driver recognition aswell.
Re: How's Windows 7 these days?...Thinking of switching from OSX
I've been seriously considering a pc/win 7 laptop myself. The price difference between equivalent spec'd pc/mac laptops is ridiculous.
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Re: How's Windows 7 these days?...Thinking of switching from OSX
Anyone using RME fireface 800 on a PC laptop? What kind of latencies do you work on?
Re: How's Windows 7 these days?...Thinking of switching from OSX
Yeah, I've come close to pulling the trigger on a MacBook Pro at least half a dozen times in the last few years, but have always looked at the final price in the shopping cart with a "you've got to be fucking kidding me" face and decided to do something else with the money.William wrote:I've been seriously considering a pc/win 7 laptop myself. The price difference between equivalent spec'd pc/mac laptops is ridiculous.
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MFOS Mini-Controller Build Log [FINISHED!]: http://www.electro-music.com/forum/view ... hp?t=42968
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Re: How's Windows 7 these days?...Thinking of switching from OSX
At work ive been running windows 7 full tilt for a couple months now, on an 27" imac. It's been top-notch. No troubles whatsoever. Windows 7 is stable and quick, and we priced it out: the 27" imac is the best deal on the market we could find for a windows box i7 processor and a quality monitor. Just don't get your ram from apple ;]
i drop on the lokeymassive
Re: How's Windows 7 these days?...Thinking of switching from OSX
if desktop then you may consider to make a hackintosh also known as osx86.
very cheap.
10.6.3 running fine here just like a mac
i dont recommend it for laptops especially for music apps
very cheap.
10.6.3 running fine here just like a mac
i dont recommend it for laptops especially for music apps
*-*
Re: How's Windows 7 these days?...Thinking of switching from OSX
Even 64bit Win7 works fine with everything I've tried and CPU usage even seems to be lower than in Vista. Of course I don't know why anyone would go with the 32bit version these days anyway.
One tip relating Win7 and Vista is to never install VSTs in C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files(x86) like they want to by default. You will save yourself allot of trouble with VSTs when they're installed outside of a protected folder.
I make a folder called C:\VstPlugins and install everything there.
Also, make sure there are modern Win7 drivers for any hardware you want to use. Even my old-ish Mia MIDI has Win7 support.
One tip relating Win7 and Vista is to never install VSTs in C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files(x86) like they want to by default. You will save yourself allot of trouble with VSTs when they're installed outside of a protected folder.
I make a folder called C:\VstPlugins and install everything there.
Also, make sure there are modern Win7 drivers for any hardware you want to use. Even my old-ish Mia MIDI has Win7 support.
Re: How's Windows 7 these days?...Thinking of switching from OSX
awesome tips guys. D-Track whats you experiences been with OSX86? I have the usual cold feet about it. Does the software update as it would on any other system? Like what are the trade-offs other than piecing together the system and a somewhat tricky install?
Thanks again everyone,
J
Thanks again everyone,
J
Last edited by m.nash on Mon Apr 05, 2010 2:59 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: How's Windows 7 these days?...Thinking of switching from OSX
No issues with Ableton Suite 8:
- Windows 7 Professional x64
- Lenovo ThinkPad T61p
- 4GB RAM
Re: How's Windows 7 these days?...Thinking of switching from OSX
maybe I'm doing something wrong? I have a new Gateway NV59 with an i5 processor, 4gb ram. came with win 7 64 but i installed 32 cause I was getting issues with Ableton (suite 8.1.1)- a friend suggested it cause he thought Ableton might perform better on a 32bit platform but I'm still getting issues. Maybe its my interface? E-MU 0404 usb - they haven't released win 7 drivers, they said the most up to date one they have works fine in 7.
I'm recording my drummer and I with one input - using a condenser mic. My guitar is running into the other input, both outputs are being used to send different audio to different amps - I'm using up to four loopers on different tracks. Quite often ableton will freeze - audio will continue but the screen will freeze. And Ableton will crash often: "A serious error has occurred"
I'm seriously thinking of switching to Mac cause I hear its just better for this kind of shit. I've had enough. Too many problems.
I'm recording my drummer and I with one input - using a condenser mic. My guitar is running into the other input, both outputs are being used to send different audio to different amps - I'm using up to four loopers on different tracks. Quite often ableton will freeze - audio will continue but the screen will freeze. And Ableton will crash often: "A serious error has occurred"
I'm seriously thinking of switching to Mac cause I hear its just better for this kind of shit. I've had enough. Too many problems.