Windows 7: Release Candidate 1 Preview
by Ryan Smith and Gary Key on May 5, 2009 11:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Systems
Test Setup
We selected the ASUS ENGTX260 Matrix/HTDI/896MD3 video card for GPU duties. It is a non-reference design that offers improved thermals, overclocking, and acoustics over the standard GTX 260 216 cards. We utilized the latest beta 185.81 driver from NVIDIA to ensure consistency across the operating systems. Unlike the first Vista driver releases from NVIDIA, they pretty much nailed their first full driver set for Windows 7 with all features working. We still ran into a couple of problems with dialog screens not fully completed and having to reload the driver set when running SLI. However, performance was rock solid and the compatibility/stability aspects of the driver far exceeded our expectations.
We loaded the operating systems on the superb OCZ Vertex 120GB SSD drive and utilized the WD Caviar Green 2TB for general storage purposes. This combination is something we think will become more common as SSD products make their way into the desktop market. LG’s GGC-H20L and Sony’s BDUX10S Blu-ray playback capable drives fill in for optical duties. We purchased the Corsair DDR3-1600 6GB kit that operates at DDR3-1600 7-8-7-20 on the Intel DX58SO motherboard at 1.64V. Vigor Gaming provided their Monsoon III LT CPU cooler that offers mounting kits for sockets 1366, 775, and AM2+ processors. ABS provided their Canyon 695 case and it has proved to be exemplary during testing.
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Adul - Wednesday, May 6, 2009 - link
MS cash reserves are actually around $26.3 billionsnookie - Wednesday, May 6, 2009 - link
Apple's stock is dramatically higher and they have much more cash in reserve. Xbox sure in hell was designed to be profitable on both hardware and games and neither is. Microsoft knew they would lose money the 1st few years but nothing like this. It's been a total disaster for them financially.Investors are bullish on Microsoft? Well a lot of them aren't. Microsoft lost half its value in 2008. Half.
Q9 has not been dismal for Apple. Biggest 2nd quarter ever in the middle of a recession. i guess that must be because of their commercials though....new iPhone coming up in June which will sell as fast as they can make them and Microsoft can't even get that blind, crippled, and dumb Windows Mobile out the door. This is a company in dire need of new leadership and middle management. Instead their answer is to rant and rave and piecemeal out development to whichever country is cheaper this week? Sound like a long term formula to success to you?
chewietobbacca - Thursday, May 7, 2009 - link
You're kidding right? Apple's stock is higher but their market cap is worth $60 billion less because share prices don't mean sh!t. Apple has fewer shares out there hence each one is worth more, but MSFT is still worth 60billion more than AAPL, and if MSFT goes up to $24 a share again, it'll be worth even more.Patrick Wolf - Wednesday, May 6, 2009 - link
Psycho...Jjoshua2 - Wednesday, May 6, 2009 - link
That's good to see its performance is good in general, and its gaming is consistently higher as well. Posting from Windows 7 on my Wind Netbook FTW :)Any pricing news? I hope there's a great student rate.
griffhamlin - Wednesday, July 15, 2009 - link
"gaming perfs constistently higher" ???are you kidding ? the song remain the same ...
samspqr - Wednesday, May 6, 2009 - link
the main reason I hate vista is because it's not XP: everything looks different, I can never find what I'm looking for, so getting used to it would require an effort that doesn't seem to have any compensating advantages (I don't like fancy UIs -I still use the W2K look- and I don't really play games anymore)then, about windows7, I still feel it's just a re-spun new SP for vista, with a UI revision, and the only reason it's getting better reviews than the original vista is that some time has passed, so there are better drivers, and you're testing it on much more powerful hardware
now, that Wind comment makes me wonder...
may even I fall on this one?
we'll see
cyriene - Wednesday, May 6, 2009 - link
I never understood how XP users say they "can never find anything in Vista."I'm not Windows expert, but after using my new laptop with Vista for 3 hours I knew where over 95% of the things and setting are located. And mos tof them are in the same place as XP for that matter. Control panel is the same... Start menu slightly different, but similar enough to figure out in 5 seconds. Plus if there is something you're looking for, the Vista help search actually ...HELPED me find it! I was actually suprised how well the help works. Also, if that failed a quick Google search is all it takes.
I don't feel MS should make ever OS exactly the same with everything in the same place. It makes sense for some things to move, and it isn't hard to find them if you take 5 seconds to do that.
dmpk - Saturday, May 30, 2009 - link
I agree. I think it is easy to find stuff on Vista with a little bit of playing. The transition is same as that from Windows 98 to Windows XP...piroroadkill - Thursday, May 7, 2009 - link
I completely agree. If you can't find something in Vista and you're used to XP, it's either so unused that it was removed, or you're just not trying, at all.