Anyone using i7 with Windows 7?
Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 11:29 pm
I've recently upped my rig and gone on to an i7 860 Intel job, running Windows 7, 64bit. I picked the Asus P7P55D motherboard and 8Gb of ram.
Adobe CS4 seems to run fine and dandy (Photoshop 64bit flies!), though after some fighting with stability of the rig.
The biggest thing that I've done extra and made a decent difference is to ditch the standard Intel cooler on the i7 chip - it simply doesn't do much in keeping the chip cool. For instance, running a heavy stability testing app, Prime95 in blend mode, the chip was running at 78c. After I swapped out the cooler for a better air cooler, the Prime95 test runs at about 50c - and the idle temps are nearly as good - 32c versus 19c with the better cooler.
Windows 7 looks far better than Vista to me, and it can look even prettier if that's your thing - there are loads of cool themes and background pictures to add free from Microsoft's Windows 7 site.
Biggest negative about Windows 7 is that I've had splash out (£40) for Nero 9 Reloaded, to burn disks, rip audio CD's etc. But it's a good app and comes with a free backup app for documents (and recently completed movies) etc.
Adobe CS4 seems to run fine and dandy (Photoshop 64bit flies!), though after some fighting with stability of the rig.
The biggest thing that I've done extra and made a decent difference is to ditch the standard Intel cooler on the i7 chip - it simply doesn't do much in keeping the chip cool. For instance, running a heavy stability testing app, Prime95 in blend mode, the chip was running at 78c. After I swapped out the cooler for a better air cooler, the Prime95 test runs at about 50c - and the idle temps are nearly as good - 32c versus 19c with the better cooler.
Windows 7 looks far better than Vista to me, and it can look even prettier if that's your thing - there are loads of cool themes and background pictures to add free from Microsoft's Windows 7 site.
Biggest negative about Windows 7 is that I've had splash out (£40) for Nero 9 Reloaded, to burn disks, rip audio CD's etc. But it's a good app and comes with a free backup app for documents (and recently completed movies) etc.