The Mother Board

[goodguy]

Hello and thank you for taking the time to read this post.

A friend of mine recently moved over to windows 7 after being a die-hard xp supporter for many years and i noticed that has soundcard sounded better, graphics card looked even better, but i don't know why this should be. Now i am ready to take the plunge but am unsure which version of win 7 to go for as there are so many out there, ofcourse i want the best so " ultimate " was my first choice but is has been pointed out that it may not be of much use to me as a home user.

I use my pc mostly as a home theater system, can anyone recommend a version of win 7 which would be best for me in this case. I am interested in 1. Audio quality 2. picture / graphics quality 3. speed.

My thinking is that whatever this " thing " is in windows 7 (sorry i know thing is not a very technical term) that is causing an improvement in audio and picture quality ove xp, then windows ultimate should have the highest perfomance and refined version of this " thing " (apologies again)

Can anyone please clarify or provide information on this " thing "

Many thanks. John.

[Karlsweldt]

You can choose your version from comparing Windows 7 editions at the MS site. It may pay to get the 'upgrade' Windows 7 Home Premium edition, if your system is reliable and does not have an "ancient" BIOS type. Might save some big bucks. As long as you have a valid XP COA, it would be worth while.
There would be no reason why Win 7 should produce better graphics and audio quality over what was originally installed on Win XP or other versions. The video resolution and refresh rate should be adjusted to suit the monitor and ambient conditions, plus the latest driver set from the provider. With audio systems, there also may be updated drivers.. and extended control panels for mixers/inputs.
The only viable reason for a notable difference would be that there are excessive background programs hogging the CPU cycles and memory, causing lackluster performance on the older setup. Minimally, 2 GB of system memory is required for most modern computer setups. Any motherboard about 5 years old or so should have no problems with Windows 7, but a BIOS update may be needed to comply with the WHQL requirements as to power controls and other features.
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F@H.. to solve mankind's maladies.. in our lifetimes!

[goodguy]

Hi Karlsweldt. Many thanks for the post.

Yes there is a definite improvement in audio and graphics quality, why this should be i am not sure but a quick search concerning the audio revealed that win 7 uses wasapi to form a direct link between the media player and graphics card, whereas xp has asio which most people indicate is not quite as good in performance. From that i feel there are new features in win 7 which is giving rise to the increased audio clarity, perhaps there is better driver support or tweaks in the media centre as well, as i say i am not sure.

Does anyone know if the ultimate edition has a higher perfomance media centre, wasapi etc or are all these new features the same throughout the entire win 7 range.

[Mr T]