Windows 7: Release Candidate 1 Preview
by Ryan Smith and Gary Key on May 5, 2009 11:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Systems
Power Consumption
We measured "platform" power consumption at the wall outlet using a Watts Up Pro power meter. We do not include the power numbers for a monitor or external speakers; however, we do install a set of headphones in the audio out jack. We also turn on all peripherals in the BIOS along with enabling all power saving features in the BIOS. We measured idle power consumption after 15 minutes of inactivity and the average power consumption while running the Canyon Flight benchmark in 3DMark06. Power management is set to "Balanced" mode and the prefetch folder is cleared for each test.
At idle, Windows XP Pro x64 has the lowest power usage in both single card and dual card operation. Under load, Windows 7 has a very slight advantage compared to the other operating systems. However, there are no real differences overall between Windows 7 and Vista.
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Ryan Smith - Thursday, May 7, 2009 - link
Actually, it has both of those features, although as the article was running long and I didn't consider them important I didn't mention them. It can defrag drives simultaneously. Scheduling has been in there since at least Vista.strikeback03 - Thursday, May 7, 2009 - link
I was able to schedule weekly defrags back in Win2000 on my old laptopleexgx - Wednesday, May 6, 2009 - link
it can if you use command line on win7 (emm i think it does loet you defrag more then one disk at the same time in the GUI, got no power for laptop so cant find out yet)Pirks - Wednesday, May 6, 2009 - link
http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00001675.h...">http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00001675.h...leexgx - Wednesday, May 6, 2009 - link
Hide extensions for known file types, yes every PC i am on i untick that option, its So unsafe its unrealwith windows 7 extensions should Not be hidden be it any verson of windows with vista pressing F2 or rename only selects the name now not all of the file name like XP and lower does so harder to lose the extension
Pirks - Wednesday, May 6, 2009 - link
Yeah, I agree that extensions should NOT be hidden BY DEFAULT. Unfortunately they are hidden. So, Win 7 is still a virus heaven _by default_!JarredWalton - Wednesday, May 6, 2009 - link
Hiding extensions doesn't make it a "virus heaven"; it just makes it possible for Trojan horses to trick stupid users a bit easier. How does that malware.txt.exe file get to the PC in the first place? By some user being stupid. If extensions are hidden, then why is that file called "malware.txt" rather than just "malware"? Oh yes: because it's trying to trick you by not doing the same thing as every other icon, so it's already a red flag (which admittedly most computer users are not smart enough to notice).For technical people, the extensions mean something - I know I always show them - but for most computer users the fact that an icon says "EXE", "SCR", "COM", "CMD", or anything else as the extension means very little. If you don't *know* what an icon is, you shouldn't click it. Simple! But sadly most computer users are not smart enough to know that.
B3an - Friday, May 8, 2009 - link
That comment was posted by Pirks. Possibly the biggest apple fanboy ever. I'm not sure i've seen a comment of his on DailyTech that hasn't been rated down. Dont feed the troll.leexgx - Wednesday, May 6, 2009 - link
network tests need to be done not the same as XPplease open winamp, WMP or teamspeak play something and then do the gigabit network test thay must of fixed the 10MB/s cap problem on Win7 when playing sound (have to mess with vista reg to remove the MMS limiter), none raid to none raid pcs shouuld be doing harddisk speeds acroess the network {70-90mb/s ish,}raid to raid or SSD should be 120MB/s about on the network
Ryan Smith - Thursday, May 7, 2009 - link
It's a time issue; we didn't have a chance to work that it. It has been noted, and I'll make sure that gets in the next W7 article.