Just got an AMD Phenom II X4 955 (3.2 ghz)
With 8gb ddr3 and on-board ATI - Radeon Graphics.

It came with Windows 7 home premium.

Do I need Professional?  What's the dif?

Thanks.

Attached Link: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/compare/default.aspx

personally, I'd stick with Home. you can do all but domain login's with various free and shareware much better (eg : if you need XP mode (rare) then you can use Virtualbox or there's a tutorial on how to get it running on Home anyway....)

this is my opinion tho.... but in the time I've been running Win7 home, 99.9% of programs just run no problems (not needing XP mode), I've not even noticed the other features in Pro / Ultimate being missing at all.

Awesome, thanks! 

Did they give you the 32bit or 64bit version?

I'm thinking WTB has 64 bit because of the amount of ram on the computer. I think 32 bit will only see up to 4 gigs of ram. I think...lol. Since it's an 8 gig box, I'm thinking 64 bit ;o).

I just got a real nice new netbook that has 64 bit Win 7 Home full-version on it. So far, no problems running anything I've put on it.

Laurie

That's what I was thinking too but you never know with some of these companies, they sell you a mega machine that's fully capable of running 64bit software but slip in the 32bit version of Windows to bump up their profit margin.

That's true; 32-bit processors only have so many address lines, so the largest amount of memory they can see is 4G (Poser...I think...can only see 3, and that with some extra typing...;)
So if it has more than 4, it's likely a 64 bit.

You can go into the Control Panel and find out what sort of chip you have (usually if you see a sticker on the computer with '64' in it, you're good), but I'm not sure where it is in Win 7.

It's 64!  (yay) (I think)

It's all a bit confusing...I have two program files folders...what the heck does "86" signify? And egads, Windows 7 sure is hard to tweak.  Ideally, I'd like to make it look just like xp...I hate all the flowery crap they change every time.

What a nightmare, by the way. 

On board video is not twin dvi, one vga one dvi...ug.

On board sound blows, so I've got my x-fi platinum card installed.  Now get this..there's no audio out on the dvd rw drive they gave me.  It's a sata drive...I guess the audio out is going through the sata cable?  Either way, the xfi card needs the old-school audio in cable...so I had to tear out the new drive and put in my old sony.

The power supply, soon to be changed, is 300 w and the cords are arranged in such a way as to make hooking up anything impossible (let alone the impossibility of inserting my old drives into the machine, due to the processor blocking any sane pathway.

This was my first venture into buying a pre-fab computer.  It's a ZT Affinity.  The innards seem to be made of good stuff, but the arrangement/case/supply is terrible. 

I think next time I'll go back to building my own.

This was a pretty good deal though...699 for the box.  

Quote - It's 64!  (yay) (I think)

It's all a bit confusing...I have two program files folders...what the heck does "86" signify? And egads, Windows 7 sure is hard to tweak.  Ideally, I'd like to make it look just like xp...I hate all the flowery crap they change every time.

Ah, it must be 64 bit. "86" is for 32 bit proggies :o). If that folder is there, you have a 64 bit OS.

Laurie

I also just upgraded (from an old P4 to a corei7) with windows 7 pro, and everything works very well including Poser8 which didnt in xp, the only thing that doesnt run in windows 7 is UVMapper Pro, so will have to try that virtual box thingy otherwise i will have to use that rubbish UVMapper Pro...booo

well UVM runs.. it just has some issues... (moving the 3D view blanks the 2D view until you release and the dragbox smears over the selection.... not a driver issue (does it on Nvidia or ATI graphics.) changing the compatibility mode has no effect (and I tried reducing the acceleration.. but my drivers don't have that anymore!)

shedofjoy:

If you can acquire max, check out unwrella...OMG...usable map in seconds, practically a "make art" button!

Okay, got PoserPro10 Beta up and running for my first 64 bit render with a quad and 8 tons of memory.

HFS!  I went and spoke a word or two to the Mrs and came back, and it was done...Indirect lighting and all.  Watching four processors in action rendering the image was super cool (from the little I caught) and I can only imagine that once again I can actually create scenes without putting a fist through the wall like I was doing with P8 on xp.

I was really nervous about going 64 but except for the rubbishy nonsense, Windows 7 is a delight and everything I have seems to work great.

Now if they would just release a tweakUI app for it so I can strip it down...

Attached Link: http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/05/29/7-free-windows-7-tweaking-utilities/

Laurie

There are several differences between Windows 7 "Home", "Professional" and "Ultimate". The biggest factors between Home and the others are two VERY important facts:

1. Pro and Ultimate can support more than one CPU. Home can NOT, it only supports one.

2. Home only supports up to 16GB RAM. Pro and Ultimate up to 192GB.

For me that matters a LOT because I use a lot of very high-end 3D software that takes advantage of multi-CPUs and as much RAM as you have available. If you plan to do very complex scenes or get into a lot of 3D art with programs like Vue, Modo, C4D, etc. I would highly recommend Pro or Ultimate and as much RAM as you can afford.

Attached Link: http://sourceforge.net/projects/classicshell/files/

My favorite single tweak utility for Win7 is Classic Shell - it adds some missing features to Windows 7 and Vista like a classic start menu, toolbar for Explorer and others  ClassicShellSetup.exe   http://sourceforge.net/projects/classicshell/files/
I installed it, and suddenly the interface seems 500% more usable to me.

"1. Pro and Ultimate can support more than one CPU. Home can NOT, it only supports one."

Pro and Ultimate can support 2 Physical CPUs
but! thats not Cores. thats Physical CPUs. so a CPU with 4 or 8 cores will work just fine on home.

(home = 1 CPU, unlimited Cores. Pro/Ultimate= 2 CPU, Unlimited Cores)

Quote - That's true; 32-bit processors only have so many address lines, so the largest amount of memory they can see is 4G (Poser...I think...can only see 3, and that with some extra typing...;)
So if it has more than 4, it's likely a 64 bit.

The funny thing is that old 32 bit CPUs are able to address up to 36GB since long time ago, the problem was Windows didn't it.

Laurie and LeatherGuy, thanks for the tip...the shell thing sound like exactly what I'm looking for.