Windows 7 Experiment
I recently completed building my latest creation – The Crystal – a scratchbuilt desktop with an acrylic case having the following specs:
CPU: Intel Q6600 (currently running at stock speed)
Motherboard: Gigabyte EP45-UD3L
RAM: Corsair 2×2gb
GPU: Radeon 4870 512mb
HD: Hitachi 1tb
Since the completion coincided with the release of Windows 7 RC1 to the public, I’ve loaded that OS. Installing Windows 7 was actually the easiest install of an operating system that I can recall. You simply answer a few questions, enter the product key, and less than 1/2 hour later your PC is ready to go.
I’m currently loading drivers. ATI already released a Windows 7 one, but the ethernet driver isn’t playing nice. If I try loading the Vista version it says “This driver cannot be installed under Windows XP” and if I download and try installing the XP version of the driver I get the error “This driver cannot be installed under Vista.” Oh well there had to be some trouble somewhere – otherwise people would trust computers and the professionals that shepherd them.
Chad:
Wow, I didn’t have to install any drivers for anything. Video, webcam, AIO printer, PCI wireless-N card, everything. Windows Update did pull down an nvidia video driver though. What NIC do you have?
8 May 2009, 12:20 pmScott Kirwin:
Just the onboard NIC. Windows 7 operated fine without it but I normally d/l and load everything from scratch.
The ATI driver was cool; it’s specifically for Win7.
So far I’m impressed.
8 May 2009, 1:27 pm