OS choice

MERC767

Baseband Member
Messages
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I am interested in buying a new gaming PC i found one on CyberPowerPC.com but i had one question i want it to come with an Operating System. I was thinking of getting Windows 7 Ultimate. And i ask, how is it better? Is it worth it? Or should i just get a more basic Windows 7 OS or maybe just get Linux instead I would appreciate your guys' input thank you!
 
best thing would be to go to Microsoft and read up on the different 7's. I have Ultimate, but I'll never use all the features it offers.
You also need to consider if you want 32bit or 64 bit.
 
They only offer them in 64-Bit on the website but if the only difference is features then i might get premium i thought Ultimate runs faster.
 
I can tell you most of the feature differences in 7 i think, someone correct me if im wrong.

Starter and home basic are the bare minimum OSes, no Aero (although i dunno if starter has aero) and minimal features. Home Premium has aero and all of the features of professional, except it cannot be joined to a domain. Professional is virtually the same as Ultimate other than BitLocker, BranchCache, Applocker and a few others. Enterprise is only available for businesses, but it's identical to Ultimate.

If you see yourself needing a local WAN cache or drive encryption anytime soon, go with Ultimate. Ive been using Win7 Pro x64 for a while now and im happy with it.

and since you mentioned Gaming, i'd just disregard linux entirely. Its not impossible to game on linux, but it's more hassle than its worth.



EDIT: and on the subject of x86 Vs. x64, ive used x64 OS since i have used x64 processors, and i havent ever come across a program incompatibility issue. For me its alwyas just been faster to use x64, and it seems a waste not to use that x64 capability.

unless you use alot of Bespoke or unusual software i cant see why x64 would present any problems.
 
It's a GUI setting. Transparent windows edges, window animations, fading menus, etc.
 
I have to agree with Darkseeker, if you aren't going to need or ever use encryption then Ultimate is a waste of money. Linux would also be a waste of time as you will be yelling at your computer before you have anything working.
 
Ubuntu 10.10 works perfectly on my laptop after changing some irritating brightness settings. That said, it can be a crap shoot sometimes. With Linux Mint 10 I can't get the Fn key or the media/brightness buttons to work.

It's not an OS a gamer should choose if that's going to be his only operating system on the computer.
 
Starter and home basic are the bare minimum OSes, no Aero (although i dunno if starter has aero) and minimal features. Home Premium has aero and all of the features of professional, except it cannot be joined to a domain. Professional is virtually the same as Ultimate other than BitLocker, BranchCache, Applocker and a few others. Enterprise is only available for businesses, but it's identical to Ultimate.

and since you mentioned Gaming, i'd just disregard linux entirely. Its not impossible to game on linux, but it's more hassle than its worth.

It's not an OS a gamer should choose if that's going to be his only operating system on the computer.

+1. While Linux is a great free solution to an Operating System, you're not going to find much support for games out there. There are TONS of free games available through the Ubuntu Software Center, and Wine makes some of the Windows based games available through Linux, but having Windows as your native OS would be a better choice for a gamer. As for the edition, Darkseeker was just about spot on with the exception of the difference between Home Premium and Professional. The only other key feature you miss with Home Premium is the Dynamic Disk function.

To view a complete list of features, I always refer to this Wikipedia article: Windows 7 editions - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

My recommendation would be to go with Home Premium if cost is a factor and Ultimate if it's not.

Even without the native support of Dynamic Disks or diskmgt.msc (if you go Home Premium), there are good free software solutions to partitioning your drive out and you can even do it through the install process of Windows.
 
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