is windows 7 64-bit any good?

[3za]

so im looking to buy a new pc's and most of the one's i've been looking at have windows 7 64-bit. o i got some question;

just want to know if any one has used or, is using windows 7 64-bit to make music and what software and, hardware you use?
do you have any problems with software or hardware?
is windows 7 32-bit better for music production or, even vista or, is xp still the best when it comes to music production on a pc?

i know most hardware and software now works ok with vista but, there are some problems with the 64- bit version still. when i look on some companies websites they don't mention compatability with windows 7 or the 64-bit version.

thanks in advance.
peace 3za.

[dreadheaded]

in a word yes

I have run windows 7 64-bit for about 6 months now and have very few issues with it, its much quicker then vista, and generally more stable

i do have a bit of an issue with USB drivers, where sometimes the drivers dont seem to load properly and some things plugged into the USB dont work, but that is pretty much the only issue i have had with it

also you can run vista and xp drivers if you need to

[Bipolar]

Got it aswell, its the dogs bollox imo.

One of the things its specialy designed to do is run multiple programes/windows at once, ive never been in a situation where i had to close something becuase it started to slow down, and i got this comp around when w7 first came out for only £350.

Never had problems with sound card either.

I use reason, never had to many devices open, often with 5 youtube videos, 2 porn downloads, 5 different tracks open, skype, MSN, whatever thef you want etc etc all running the same time and i see no issues yet. atall.

Interface is spot on aswell.

[DZA]

Hate it, the amount of shit it runs in the background is unreal

[jsills]

its solid. just make sure all your drivers are compatiable beforehand. and ive also had a problem with a usb drive not being recognized but my usb interface and midi have worked fine.

[3za]

also you can run vista and xp drivers if you need to

does this mean that all my software and, hardware that work on xp/vista will work no problem?

[Bipolar]

Hate it, the amount of shit it runs in the background is unreal

yeah but it can handle it, infact i swear one of them is a programme that lets it run more programmes at once

[DZA]

Hate it, the amount of shit it runs in the background is unreal

yeah but it can handle it, infact i swear one of them is a programme that lets it run more programmes at once

Mine cant for shit
ram 61% and cpu 58% on standstill

[Bipolar]

Hate it, the amount of shit it runs in the background is unreal

yeah but it can handle it, infact i swear one of them is a programme that lets it run more programmes at once

Mine cant for shit
ram 61% and cpu 58% on standstill

Ouch, prehaps i got a better bargain for my buck then i thought, but im not too wise when it comes to the technical side to this stuff. As far as i know i got a good cpu and RAM... but my grafics card is a PoS.. prehaps thats why i got it so cheap. I guess ill have to see if windows7 will stand the test of time...

[deadly_habit]

the only issue i've seen is the 64 bit installs of daws and wrappers for 32 bit plugins being incompatible at times
like any windows os you need to optimize it for audiom but the ram support = <3

[NRHc]

OSx snow leopard for the win

[deadly_habit]

OSx snow leopard for the win

if you want a nix based os use slackware
it's prolly the most stable once you tweek it and get past the command prompt side of it
it can be a user friendly gui like most os's

[SunkLo]

Got it aswell, its the dogs bollox imo.
I use reason, never had to many devices open, often with 5 youtube videos, 2 porn downloads, 5 different tracks open, skype, MSN, whatever thef you want etc etc all running the same time and i see no issues yet.

Today I had 30 something tabs in Firefox, iTunes, several downloads in uTorrent, MSN and random bullshit programs, Reaper with about 3 gigs of samples loaded into memory, and Mass Effect 2 open. Plus it had been up for about a week or so... Bitch finally started to slow down

I think it's a pretty awesome OS but that could just be my hardware. It manages the goods well if you got em. If you're buying a new pc grab a decent amount of ram and go with x64 for sure.
I haven't run into any compatibility issues yet. Like I said, running Reaper, also FL studio and I've got a lot of plugins and they all run fine. I don't have much hardware other than a Boss Gt Pro (which just got updated drivers finally) and a nanoKontrol. My little poopy M-Audio Fast Track USB works fine too (actually better than it did in XP if I'm not mistaken) Win7 is the proper successor to XP, you'll see a lot of devs that have support for 7 but sometimes not Vista. Plus the compatibility mode is great at resolving any issues that do come up. Can't say for complete certain it'll work for 100% of your apps or drivers but chances are it will. As always, research any conflicts between hardware you already own and the new OS/computer before buying.

My shit laptop still has XP since I rarely use it, so I can't speak on how well it does on lesser hardware but any modern pc should work well with it. In terms of design too it's a million times better than vista. None of that annoying popup bullshit, bending over ass backwards to do what you want.

Has anyone tried that ReadyBoost thing? I'm pretty good for ram but if I can start plugging sticks in the back and get decent performance scaling out of it I'd be down. Was kinda suspicious because of usb limitations maybe. Come to think of it, my swap would be on my C drive which is an SSD so that's kinda the same thing

[dreadheaded]

also you can run vista and xp drivers if you need to

does this mean that all my software and, hardware that work on xp/vista will work no problem?

in theory, i have yet to find anything that doesnt work on it (sometimes you need to do a little playing with it), but i do imagine there are a few obscure things that are not compatible


i have ultimate so i dont know if all versions are like this but i can choose which architecture i want when i install it, i have installed both 64 and 32 bit off the same DVD, so if you find you have issues you can always switch to 32


one thing i would say is it does have quite alot running all of the time, but if you have a decent CPU and at least 2 gb of ram itll run fine (better then vista)

[ResetTheAtari]

Got it installed on this dell laptop I just got a month ago. Runs like a dream, very low footprint. Not had any crashes with Ableton or anything actually yet... *touches wood*

[EBR]

so im looking to buy a new pc's and most of the one's i've been looking at have windows 7 64-bit. o i got some question;

just want to know if any one has used or, is using windows 7 64-bit to make music and what software and, hardware you use?
do you have any problems with software or hardware?
is windows 7 32-bit better for music production or, even vista or, is xp still the best when it comes to music production on a pc?

i know most hardware and software now works ok with vista but, there are some problems with the 64- bit version still. when i look on some companies websites they don't mention compatability with windows 7 or the 64-bit version.

thanks in advance.
peace 3za.

I switched from XP to Windows 7 and i love it. Windows 7 FTW. No problems. Just make sure you've got a dual core or something better as a processor. Also ITs a good idea to have 4 gb of RAM of more. Get ready to fly

[tripaddict]

yes windows 7 is reliable & fast.

but i would recommend at least 1gb of ram per core

pointless running 4 cores with 2gb or less

[3za]

thanks guys for all your help so far. i just got a few more questions;

1. akai mpk 49, i've read that these have problems with windows 7 is this true? and if this is true could i use midi as a work around?

2. komplete 5, i've read that all the komplete vst's work with windows 7 64 bit, apart from reaktor which needs a 32 bit enviroment or some thing is their a work around for this ?

all my other software/hardware seems to be ok.

think of getting about 4-6 cores and about 4-8 gb ram.

peace,
3za.

[mks]

thanks guys for all your help so far. i just got a few more questions;

1. akai mpk 49, i've read that these have problems with windows 7 is this true? and if this is true could i use midi as a work around?

2. komplete 5, i've read that all the komplete vst's work with windows 7 64 bit, apart from reaktor which needs a 32 bit enviroment or some thing is their a work around for this ?

all my other software/hardware seems to be ok.

think of getting about 4-6 cores and about 4-8 gb ram.

peace,
3za.

Damn, I sure hope not. That is part of my studio right there, an MPK49 and Reaktor. I'm getting a quad core Win7 machine built at this very moment.

[SunkLo]

I'm quite sure that Reaktor works fine. You can still run 32 bit plugins, you just have the option of 64 bit plugins too.