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My $295 screamer Windows 7 PC
Posted on March 5th, 2009 at 21:19 1 commentI hate to link to paid content, but in this case it’s my article in the latest issue of Windows Secrets Newsletter.
I talk about the changes in the Windows Experience Index, between Vista and Windows 7. In particular, I believe there are significant reasons why the Windows 7 disk component of the WEI is all wet. As best I can tell, the Windows 7 WEI disk component is still out to lunch in build 7048, so I have big-time doubts that Microsoft will fix it before Windows 7 ships. [UPDATE: I may be wrong. It's possible that Microsoft went back to the old metric, or something like it, in build 7048. I'm waiting for further confirmation. Part of the problem lies in the fact that the only version of build 7048 currently available on the newsgroups is 64-bit, and it isn't at all clear that WEIs run on 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 will be closely comparable.]
Anyway, if you understand the genesis of the pieces of the Windows Experience Index, you can concentrate on spending hardware bucks where it’ll make a difference.
Case in point: last week I bought an HP Pavilion for $225, slapped a $50 video card in it, added some memory – and the resulting machine rates very well indeed in the Windows 7 WEI benchmark.
If you subscribe to Windows Secrets Newsletter, check out my article. If you don’t subscribe to Windows Secrets Newsletter, I guarantee that one article will pay for a whole year’s subscription. (And remember that YOU get to choose how much to pay.)
One response to “My $295 screamer Windows 7 PC”
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I’d recommend extreme caution in trusting MS to rate a machine “able to run Win7″.
Please refer to several articles at The Register (dot co dot uk) regarding the ongoing class-action suits aimed at MS for their bogus labeling of weak machines as “Vista-capable” when in fact they were only capable of *barely* running the humblest of Vista’s versions with all the bells and whistles turned off.
In the world economic meltdown, with MS pushing hard to make Win7 seem affordable and palatable to consumers, I expect a LOT of half-truths and outright fibs from MicroScoffed’s advertising execs. Creating an artificially low list of hardware requirements isn’t beneath them.
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Woody, have you actually installed your Win7 beta copy on that “$295 machine”? Is it running well, or running like a rocking horse carrying a 300 pound jockey?And how’s the old irony alarm, when we realize that adding the cost of a legal non-beta copy of Win7 would double that $295?
Me, I’ll stick with WinXP on whatever desktop I’m using. Why use a 300 pound jockey when a 70 pound jockey is cheaper and faster?
When I finally can’t stay productive with WinXP, my next “windows” will be a consumer-friendly version of Linux, not the hideously anti-consumer bloatware/fragile/DRM-infested offerings of MS.
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Recommended reading on what’s wrong with Vista and Win7: Google for “windows vista cost analysis” for a fascinating article by Peter Gutmann.
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