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Windows 7 vs. XP64: Better in the short run? The long run?

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TOK:

I think Windows 7 is the real deal. I've been running the 64 bit release candidate for a few months and I love it.
I was always hesitant to jump to 64 bit XP because when it was new the driver support was sketchy. This seemed to be fixed with Vista, but that was such a kludge I didn't want to use it.



Triangel7D:

I'm pretty convinced now that *someday* I'll have to upgrade to Win 7. Thank you all. I guess I'll be keeping that Windows 7 upgrade I bought during the July 1/2 price sale. But I'm still wondering...

1) Is the upgrade from XP64 to Windows 7 a straightforward upgrade, or a "clean" one like XP32 to Vista64 (where the hard drive has to be wiped)?

2) Is there a recognizable speed increase in MAME going from XP64 to Win 7?



Silas (son of Silas):

I've only installed 7 as a clean build, so can't help with Q1.

Regarding speed, what exactly are you hoping will speed up in MAME? the games should run as close to the original game speed that you hardware will allow. If you have games that run below original speed you need to identify what is slowing it down and try to erradicate it. Usually the limiting factor is is your CPU, and from my experience, 7 doesn't magically free up some spare CPU cycles, although as an OS is is definitely nicer to use on a daily basis than Vista (maybe XP too...?).

Thats one of the reasons my MAME machine runs Ubuntu Linux with SDLMAME and WAH!CADE rather than windows. I built it to do a limited set of tasks. These being: a file server for my HUGE movie collection (it feeds all the TVs in my house), a Jukebox, a torrent downloader, an arcade machine and a DVD ripper.

It does all of those perfectly. Not a single cpu cycle or byte of memory is wasted on antivirus software (before any windows users jump on me for not running antivirus software, read THIS ), anti malware, desktop widgets, automated online backup software etc etc and all that gubbins that windows seems to accumulate over time, just doing nothing.

Triangel7D:

How is that a "limited" number of tasks  ;) ?

I thought I had read somewhere on the Forum that Vista gives a MAME speed increase over XP64, but I guess I was mis-remembering. I have to keep reminding myself that eventually all this PC will be doing is sitting in a cabinet running games and nothing else. I wish I had the skill to jump to Linux, but I'm already making a lot of "jumps" with this new hobby (I'm a Mac guy that just built his 1st PC and is about to try overclocking!).

Silas (son of Silas):

Interesting evolution, Mac to PC! Usually its the other way around.

I started as a PC/DOS/Windows guy, moved to Macs, then Linux then on a professional basis learned some Unix, VMS and TACL.

I stick with Linux at home, and when Karmic Koala is released in Beta tomorrow, the Vista laptop I am typing this on will become a duel boot Ubuntu and Vista machine. The only things I use windows for by choice are Google Sketchup and my Apple Airport Extreme base station software.

Linux isn't the leap into the dark it used to be. Especially distros like Ubuntu, with features like WUBI that allow you to try the whole OS as an application under windows, before commiting to actually install it. As an emulation based gamer, Linux can be really worth the leap, but unless you can really identify a reason to make the leap, its probably not worth it for a machine that will just sit in the corner playing Galaga on a Friday night.

 

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