CuppaManga

Ironically, I ordered that one because it's the most similar chipsets/design to what Apple uses at a decent price (Gigabyte is closer but costs twice as much). Since I know the Mac I have works so well, it made sense to build a PC with similar specs.

I tested it specifically because I have a free upgrade of Windows 7 coming after release, and I wanted to know what to expect. I'm not willing to fight with the release candidate for a couple months only to have it expire so I have to start it all over again.

I'll give it another shot when I get my final release copy.

All of those possibilities were covered and tested during the CoH Mac Beta. It fortunately doesn't present any issues.

It was shipped by Newegg in an official blue Microsoft folio. I meant official as opposed to downloading it from a Torrent site or something.

As I said above, I was using the 185.85 drivers, and I started the Windows 7 install with a clean format (booted from the disc and formatted the partition). I also mentioned that every piece of hardware I have was supported by Windows 7 - I didn't need to download any drivers. I downloaded the nVidia one, though, because nVidia's official drivers are usually better.

This is the motherboard I have: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813136055

I should also say the problems I had weren't critical failures. I had a decent system for working around the patching problems (which obviously aren't related to the nVidia drivers), the crashes weren't exactly daily, and I could have probably waited out the nVidia problems until they released better drivers.

But, I realized a few things, which led me to make the declaration that Windows 7 isn't quite ready:

1. First, it's a pre-release right now, and when it is released, nearly all of us are going to have to go through another complete re-install, both to get a clean system and because the pre-release is "Ultimate", and most people are going to effectively downgrade to "Home Basic" or "Home Premium".

2. Microsoft could still make some substantial changes before it hits release.

3. The average CoH player is more likely to install pretty much the same way I did, only probably less cleanly (they may upgrade directly from Vista, XP, etc). If I had problems doing that on all supported hardware, multiply that times a few hundred at least the day Windows 7 ships.

4. It's quite possible that even though I took precautions to make sure the install would be good, I still could have had a bad install. Windows can be unpredictable that way, especially with a pre-release. But then you have to refer to (3) above again.

In summary, I probably could have got it working - maybe - if I tried reinstalling Windows 7 and everything *again*. Or it's possible I even have to get into upgrading BIOS, video card firmware, etc. But then we get into territory where a normal person who doesn't know that stuff would be unable to do an install like this successfully, and the only answer they'll get here is likely LOL BUY A NEW PC.

My post wasn't to say Windows 7 sucks, just that it's not quite ready unless you're the adventurous type. The final release will probably be different, and I'll re-test it then.

Some of it might be, but that doesn't account for either the patches failing or the background application instability - a few times a week CoH will still be running but the taskbar/desktop will be unreachable until I do a reset.

I'm on a few, but nearly everyone I know in the game is from Triumph.

Like I said, each time I started over from scratch. Clean format, downloaded new Windows 7 drivers, etc. Supposedly Windows 7 should behave at least as well as Vista, since the hardware was the same and the generation of drivers was the same.


I didn't say "don't use Windows 7", just that it's not ready yet.


With the exception of the nVidia drivers, everything else I used came with Windows 7. I used the same rule I did with Vista: Only replace a driver if the included one doesn't work (that usually leaves you with the best tested driver).

Pretty much everything on this PC is supported by both Vista and Windows 7 except the Realtek driver in Vista is terrible, so I replaced it there. The Win 7 Realtek driver works great so I left that alone. So nothing too unusual hardware-wise.

Otherwise, the two installs were functionally identical.

It's a setup that worked great with Vista, so comparatively it should work great with Windows 7 too. Both in the case of the Vista install and the Windows 7 install I started with a clean format.

Nvidia 9800 GT (185.85 official nvidia drivers), Intel Core2Duo 2.8 ghz, 4 gigs of RAM.

The Windows 7 RC disc I got came as an extra with an OEM version of Vista Home Premium, so it was legit - not some version downloaded off the internet. I also fully patched it until there were nothing but languages left in Windows Update.

The point, though, is that if I managed to have problems with a by-the-book install (thankfully I was able to *play* CoH at least) on a computer designed to run Vista, there will be a hundred times as many at the Windows 7 launch.