Doowah
New member
How? The upgrades from Vista to Windows 7 cost around $200. Am I missing something?
Windows OS question
- Thread starter Doowah
- Start date
How? The upgrades from Vista to Windows 7 cost around $200. Am I missing something?
Doowah
New member
To the OP: You say you read the manual and has a good understanding. very cool. Everyone else who comes here refuses to find the answers for themselves, you haven't even bought it yet and you've got the manual read.
I'm the kind of guy that reads technical manuals for fun...
Doowah
New member
XP versus Vista
So, back to the original topic...
It appears that Windows XP is the clear choice over Vista! Not really surprising, I guess. XP is (finally) very stable and there are good drivers available for most hardware. Vista, however, seemed to be half-baked from the get-go and never seemed to fully recover, plus drivers were slow to come at first and are still scarce in some cases.
I guess that I'll be installing XP on the home studio PC! My only concern would be what happens when Microsoft pulls the plug on support for XP, and Windows 7 matures. Logically, most hardware manufacturers and software vendors will abandon XP and follow the money to Windows 7. That's my guess, anyway. What are your opinions?
So, back to the original topic...
It appears that Windows XP is the clear choice over Vista! Not really surprising, I guess. XP is (finally) very stable and there are good drivers available for most hardware. Vista, however, seemed to be half-baked from the get-go and never seemed to fully recover, plus drivers were slow to come at first and are still scarce in some cases.
I guess that I'll be installing XP on the home studio PC! My only concern would be what happens when Microsoft pulls the plug on support for XP, and Windows 7 matures. Logically, most hardware manufacturers and software vendors will abandon XP and follow the money to Windows 7. That's my guess, anyway. What are your opinions?
Jeff_D
New member
I think you've got a little time before that's a *big* issue. You can get a fully legit copy of Windows XP home from Newegg for $90 today, or if you buy an off the shelf PC I'm sure you can get XP preloaded.
And you're right, XP is mature, stable and EVERYONE has solid drivers for it. But, Vista *does* look cool.
. I think Vista is almost poised to have the same fate as Windows ME. Move on and forget it happened. 
I'd be hesitant to jump right on the bandwagon for Windows 7 too, just because I think you'll find there aren't going to be drivers for some stuff immediately available. So..... if you want to get a computer today, my vote is XP. If you want to wait a year + and see how 7 shakes out and drivers become available, then maybe you can make do with the machine you have now. FYI, my recording computer is a 6 year old AMD system running XP and it runs fine up to 30+ tracks.
Doowah
New member
I think you've got a little time before that's a *big* issue. You can get a fully legit copy of Windows XP home from Newegg for $90 today, or if you buy an off the shelf PC I'm sure you can get XP preloaded.
And you're right, XP is mature, stable and EVERYONE has solid drivers for it. But, Vista *does* look cool.
So..... if you want to get a computer today, my vote is XP. If you want to wait a year + and see how 7 shakes out and drivers become available, then maybe you can make do with the machine you have now. FYI, my recording computer is a 6 year old AMD system running XP and it runs fine up to 30+ tracks.
All good points. I barely remember Windows ME, BTW. It came preinstalled on my 80486 Compaq laptop and boy was it a piece of crap! In fact, I formatted the HD and installed my old Win98 on it, like within 30 days of purchase. You're right, totally forgettable!
For the new machine, XP it is...
legionserial
New member
XP for music definitely. I'm still undecided between Vista and XP for gaming.
RawDepth
New member
If you use Windows XP, you can (and should) tweak it to perform better with audio software. Much of the background work that XP does is wasted cpu cycles. Look for sites that give tips on boosting performance and making it more stable.
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep06/articles/pcmusician_0906.htm
http://www.pc-music.com/content/tweaking-windows-xp-audio
http://www.tweakguides.com/TGTC.html
Another thing to consider is your power supply. Many machine crashes are caused by cheap ones. For years I blamed my crashes on the cpu overheating, until I started using better quality power supplies. Now my machines are waaaaayyyyy more stable. A little research here goes a long way. Find out which brands are more stable. As a general rule of thumb...your cheaper power supplies are very light weight. Your better quality ones are very heavy.
Also, there is nothing wrong with using PCI hardware interfaces. Your earlier experience/problems with latency most likely came from the fact that your interface was USB. Unlike other hardware I/O, all USB functions are controlled by and go through the cpu 100%. This usually causes latency in slower machines.
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep06/articles/pcmusician_0906.htm
http://www.pc-music.com/content/tweaking-windows-xp-audio
http://www.tweakguides.com/TGTC.html
Another thing to consider is your power supply. Many machine crashes are caused by cheap ones. For years I blamed my crashes on the cpu overheating, until I started using better quality power supplies. Now my machines are waaaaayyyyy more stable. A little research here goes a long way. Find out which brands are more stable. As a general rule of thumb...your cheaper power supplies are very light weight. Your better quality ones are very heavy.
Also, there is nothing wrong with using PCI hardware interfaces. Your earlier experience/problems with latency most likely came from the fact that your interface was USB. Unlike other hardware I/O, all USB functions are controlled by and go through the cpu 100%. This usually causes latency in slower machines.
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Jeff_D
New member
ME was awful! Seems to me you can tell how well an operating system is doing by how soon they release a replacement. Windows XP has been out for like 8 years now (what, almost 6 year run before its "replacement" Vista came out!). Vista has been out for a little over 2 years and Windows 7 is already on its way- to me that says something
. I dont think ME was out for a full year before they started to phase than out and replace it with XP. I was *lucky* enough to buy a computer in that small window of time where ME was coming pre-loaded. What a piece of shit! Regular blue-screens... until I got rid of ME. lol I still have that computer on the shelf somewhere- Pentium III, still runs.
Doowah
New member
Thanks for the links. I've bookmarked them to refer back to when I get around to installing (and tweaking) XP. Good stuff...
I am very familiar with the effect that an under-powered or inefficient power supply can have on your PC. From personal experience, I know that a weak power supply can cause all sorts of strange symptoms and problems that can be very difficult to diagnose. Sometimes it isn't a very intuitive leap of logic to recognize that a BSOD that references a driver by name, or a specific piece of hardware, is REALLY being caused by a faulty or weak power supply. Although I have that issue covered in my own dedicated home recording machine, thanks for reminding me and all the other readers that the power supply is frequently the culprit when you're having PC troubles.
From my own experience, I won't even be looking at USB interfaces. Firewire seems to be acceptable, but I'm still sold on PCI-based solutions. Anyone seeking the same approach, however, should be certain that their motherboard has PCI slots available, since they are being phased out in some instances and are non-existent on some of the newer mobos.
Doowah
New member
ME was awful! Seems to me you can tell how well an operating system is doing by how soon they release a replacement. Windows XP has been out for like 8 years now (what, almost 6 year run before its "replacement" Vista came out!). Vista has been out for a little over 2 years and Windows 7 is already on its way- to me that says something
You're right, pure sh*t. I was one of the "lucky" ones, too! Thank goodness that formatting the puny hard drive in my new 486 laptop and installing Win98 was a quick and simple fix.
You kmow, I have always thought that Microsoft KNEW that Windows ME was a piece of crap before they published it. They didn't advertise it real hard in advance, and there was no way that they could have developed XP so quickly. I think that ME was something that was a side project sitting on the shelf in the lab and they launched it just to grab a few extra sales while getting XP ready. It was never advertised as a replacement for Win98 (as I can recall), and it was mostly situated as a pre-installed OS on new PCs.
I still have an ME installation disk, if anyone is interested in buying it.
To Whom it may Concern, With all this $$ u spent on Sonar, Radar & ram & 2 diff. Windows and so on & so forth---you could have done what I did--Buy a Tascam 2488 neo & rock & roll & forget latencey &n all that bullshit. Enjoy 24 tracks & NO freakin crashes ! knobs you can feel not strain your eyes on a monitor.
Just my 2 cents--I', happy w/ my TASCAM & to think in 1980 I spent $820 for a Teac144, then traded a Leslie925 for a 244; then in 1990 pd. $2,400 for drm roll..8 track--all of which i still own. BUT now the Teac 2488 is my DREAM MACHINE--CAUSE IT WORKS FOR ME. excuse the caps, I'm going blind & after 2 beers--I feelin' great especially knowing I donlt have the crap that guy has to deal with with Win(expletives)dows !
Dasvadania, Ciao, Cheers, Don
Just my 2 cents--I', happy w/ my TASCAM & to think in 1980 I spent $820 for a Teac144, then traded a Leslie925 for a 244; then in 1990 pd. $2,400 for drm roll..8 track--all of which i still own. BUT now the Teac 2488 is my DREAM MACHINE--CAUSE IT WORKS FOR ME. excuse the caps, I'm going blind & after 2 beers--I feelin' great especially knowing I donlt have the crap that guy has to deal with with Win(expletives)dows !
Dasvadania, Ciao, Cheers, Don
RawDepth
New member
Good for you if that machine works for you. But it would not be enough for me. I need the ability to do more advanced edits to waveforms. With a PC I can choose and install hundreds of plugins (software add-ons) which expand the functionality of the base software.
For example: A friend recently brought tracks to my studio that he had recorded in his own studio. When I loaded them up I saw that they were badly peaked and clipped throughout. I used some restoration software (a plugin) which lowered the level and then calculated and rebuilt the original waveform contours. The repaired tracks sounded so good we could not tell they were ever damaged.
Another example: Watch this video. How I removed stage feedback from my live tracks.
Can your machine do those kinds of things? (I ask that genuinely, I don't know if it can.)
TeyshaBlue
It's the smell..
Another vote for XP. I'm running Sonar 8.31 which runs on a much smaller footprint than Sonar 7 did.
I bought a new laptop with Vista installed on it. It was a nightmare...hell, the OS would use almost a gig of ram at idle.
After a bit of optimization, I reduced that RAM footprint to about 500mb. Not great, but close to XP. Vista drivers were a huge issue for me. I finally got Sonar to play nice with Vista then bought a ZOOM R16 USB interface. The Vista drivers for it were utter shit. I had to use the ASIO4ALL hack to get it to behave. Now, after all the twiddling and tweaking, my machine runs very stable and I'm not experiencing any latency issues with that interface on projects of 14+ tracks so far.
I have hopes that 7 will be as stable as XP. I'll likely move to it after some reliable drivers have been developed.
I bought a new laptop with Vista installed on it. It was a nightmare...hell, the OS would use almost a gig of ram at idle.
After a bit of optimization, I reduced that RAM footprint to about 500mb. Not great, but close to XP. Vista drivers were a huge issue for me. I finally got Sonar to play nice with Vista then bought a ZOOM R16 USB interface. The Vista drivers for it were utter shit. I had to use the ASIO4ALL hack to get it to behave. Now, after all the twiddling and tweaking, my machine runs very stable and I'm not experiencing any latency issues with that interface on projects of 14+ tracks so far.I have hopes that 7 will be as stable as XP. I'll likely move to it after some reliable drivers have been developed.