New
#1
Potential Windows 7 Build Information
Hi all. I am new to this site, as I am looking to build a new system from scratch. I have built quite a few systems in the past, and all have performed flawlessly (using Windows XP). Recently, my 5 year old system motherboard crashed (no hope to salvage it), so I decided to build myself a new system from scratch. I have ordered all the pieces, and will be receiving them this week to physically build my system (which is easy enough in general), but the real question is "What operating system should I use with this new system". My new system specs will be as follows:
*Case – Rosewill Blackbone
*PSU – Rosewill RFA-120 700W (was combo deal with case)
*Mobo - ASUS M4A79XTD EVO 790X
*CPU - AMD Phenom II X4 955 3.2G
*Heat Sink - CoolerMaster N520-GP
*RAM - Kingston 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333
*Graphics - PNY - GeForce 210 1GB DDR2 PCIe 2 (wont be doing any gaming or heavy graphics)
*HDD 1 – WD 500GB SATA2 7200 (OS Drive) – This is a brand new drive, never used
*HDD 2 – Seagate 500GB SATA 7200 (Backup)
*HDD 3 – Maxtor 250 GB SATA 7200 (Old WinXP OS Drive)
*Optical - LG 24x DVD-RW SATA (x2)
*2x120mm Case fans for intake (front) & exhaust (rear), 1x80mm side fan (intake)
The system will certainly support a 64-bit OS, but I am concerned with the programs not working in 64-bit. (I did read that 32 bit programs will run on a 64 bit system; is this correct?). If I were going to use 7, it would be the 64-bit Ultimate edition..
Also, not sure if I want to finally upgrade to Windows 7 or stick with WinXP. My laptop and my wife’s PC still have Win XP (not upgrading those anytime soon), and I currently have it set up for home networking, so I am not sure how well all the machines will play with each other. Is this an issue for one machine that runs 7 and other that run XP?
I am interested in the speed of the system/programs and overall stability. 4GB RAM in a WinXP system with a Quad-Core processor will go very fast (compared to my older Single-Core, 2GB RAM system), but Win7 is obviously much beefier and takes a lot more to run it fast. Is the hardware above enough to really make it purr? I will not be doing anything too hardcore with it. No gaming, no heavy graphics work. Basically, its for browsing, Office, and some music and movie burning and a few other minor things, so nothing too intense..
Please let me know if these specs sound like they will really be enough, or if i should possibly upgrade to 8GB RAM (only another $50).
Thanks in advance for any advice..