Hi guys,

I'm beginning to build a new machine.Right now we are using Win7x64 and we are very satisfied with the stability and almost everything else.
However I noticed that many users of this Forum use W8 so I thought that you could guide me on this issue: How do you like 8.1 against w7? Any advantage on choosing W8?
The machine I'm building is going to be used only for music/sound production, no Graphics, games or Video Editing chores. Which one you'd choose: W7 or 8.1?
Thanks!

 

I work on Win8.1 since June and it never failed me, so you should do great with either you choose.

Let the Win7 fanatic warriors chime in and tell you how instable and unprepared for audio work Win8 is compared to Win7(yeah, sarcasm a lil bit). Don't listen to that. I'm sure i'm not the only Win8/8.1 user around here and none of us died because we used the newer versions. I noticed Win8/8.1 to work slightly better than Win7 performance-wise.
If you wanna go with 8, just pick 8.1 instead, because they fixed a few things which haters didn't liked about 8 and also make sure you fill your "Metro" start only with your programs's icons. Get rid of anything else.
This is how my Win 8.1 looks like(yeah, it's a theme):



Goodluck mate.

 

Windows 8 is certainly better for audio and because they rewrote the audio stack you're less likely to have a crash that will force a restart when producing. Better yet wait a little because you can have the best of both worlds since Windows 10 is coming soon.

 

win8.1 is fine for a new build, not for upgrading a pc that is a few years old, the latest hardware's drivers will have been built around win8. As Evorax says, you need to tweak it visually and is certainly a good idea to check out different gui templates and themes.

 

Or you wait a little and go directly on version 10 and get pretty cheap upgrade to version 10(at least that i heard, altough upgrade from w8 should be free, but you need it first). That way you will lose less money and time overal with your situation. Of course all i said have value only if you have legal copy. And don't listen and choose on performance basis and if some new functions don't make difference for you, because they are all so close in performance that you must be real genius if difference between windows versions actually make difference for you

 

He is actually asking about performance and stability and there Windows 8 shines. Aero is omitted so already you get a nice performance boost, rewritten audio stack, etc. Keep in mind that a few warez packages might not work on 8 but for me it's not a deal breaker because it's such a tiny percentage. Also keep in mind that Windows 8 is a little different in terms of interacting with the OS. However if you miss the start menu you can always get Start8 by Stardock which costs $4.99. I highly recommend going with 8 because they say that an upgrade to 10 will be free for Windows 8 users. That still hasn't been verified though. I would tell you the benefits in detail but I'm on my phone. There is a thread around here where I list a ton of stuff off the top of my head but some might not apply to you since you're using it exclusively for production.

 

All fine with Win8.1 - I like it better than Win7.
Using it with 'Classic Shell' which brings back the start menu for free.

 

I'd wholeheartedly suggest you to take an afternoon off and install and test both with your favourite DAW and favourite plugins. Make a really simple, but hefty, taxing project. Try to use some really CPU consuming plugins that make use of multiple cores like u-he Diva. Also, use the lowest ASIO latency you like to use with it. Make a test project with lots of plugins and then decide. Only then you can be sure you've made the right decision.

It is not a bad idea to make a copy of the first OS you install, so you don't have to do it again. Just copy the whole OS partition into a compressed image with a program like Clonezilla [ http://clonezilla.org/ ] or DriveImage XML [ https://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm ]. Here's also a great bootable CD [ you can make a bootable USB stick: http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd-on-usb-disk ] full of various tools and bootable OSes that could help you with all this: http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/ If you're using just one hard disk, don't forget to make two primary partitions on it before installing anything so you can copy the first partition into an image on the second. Use of compression when making an image is highly recommended.

If you're not interested in knowing which one gives you, on your particular configuration, best performance and/or stability, then just go with whatever rocks your boat, or somebody recommends in the forums. Either Windows will work, just like real windows do. *yes*

Cheers !

 

I have 8.1 on my laptop and 7 on my desktop, a lot of software and hardware are not compatible with 8.1 and also with usb 3 (in particular novation controller and virus snow desktop) otherwise they both work well, I only have this issue with 8.1 as i use a lot of old hardware etc...but i use 7 as my main studio work because of the old stuff...

 

On Win8.1 you can have a shutdown button straight on your desktop. It's just a matter of how you customize it. Also the documents opening with metro apps can be simply fixed with some settings which will avoid the involvment of Metro apps. Nobody forces you to use your OS just the way you installed it. You're free to customize it however you want, which is great.

"Performance, Workflow & Stability" i have them all on my Win 8.1. The "backward compatibility" you talk about (in case you mean about older plugins and programs) you can still use them in Win8.1 as well. Even Hypersonic 2 which is a 10 years old software still works on Win.8.1. Also Oxford Plugins as well so... i'm just really curious what do you mean by "backward compatibility".
The actual "backward compatibility" of windows7 it's just a matter of time which will not last for too long. If he wants something future-proof, he should stick to the newer versions. In the future, developers will focus more on the newer versions, just like they always did. (look at OSX for example)

 

7 for me, 8 or 8.1 are too much tabletish in my opinion

 

W8.1 is da bomb.......period!

 

Always the latest Windows version. In terms of stability it was always an improvement (except Vista).

 

Somebody suggested trying both with main daw and plugins installed. I subscribe to this method. In my experience it really depends on the machine. Stability is everything.

 

wow!!!.. I had no idea about that... I have a bunch of stuff I put on an Ext. HDD for move to MAc (tongue), but I've been lucky so far, in terms of finding any corruptions.

 

I would take that file corruption bug with a grain of salt because transferring files depends on many things that can corrupt them, like non-ECC memory, SATA drivers, hard disk firmware bug, chipset bug, chipset drivers... you know - lots of stuff you can blame for file corruption, so it could be something particular to Rasputin's PC configuration that caused it. But in my experience it's usually hard disk going bad. I would recommend checking SMART data, especially "reallocated sectors", "seek error rate" and "read error rate" parameters. Lots of these could mean an unreliable hard disk, even though SMART still says it's OK.

 

The bad workarounds you mean about Win8/8.1 you face them only in the beginning, not in your whole Win8 user time. If you're lazy and want everything out the box, then yea', Win7 is the choice, but less cooler.

That's not true. I never made a ms account (which they ask for). You need it ONLY if you wanna go in the Metro Store.(just like the Apple's App Store or Google Store). You don't need to register at all. What if you don't have any internet connection though? Does Win8 don't let you operate it anymore because you couldn't connect to your ms account? That would've been silly.
On win8 the updates and everything else doesn't EVER require any microsoft accout. I'm sure many other Win8/8.1 users didn't made an user account unless they needed to buy crapware from Metro Store.

Exactly, you expressed your opinion by what would work best for you. You said "I would build towards the now and not the future", but you know that Installing Win7 now without tweaking anything and installing Windows 10 in the future which requires tweaking is just the same as time consuming as installing Win8 now WITH tweaking and then upgrading to Win10 with no extra tweaking (keeping the preferences from 8.1). See? No matter which one you pick, on the long road, you spend just as much time. But as long as he wanna build a new machine, the newer choices are better if he don't mind to spend an hour on personalizing and setting it up to work just the way he wants.

If he use hardware synths or compressors/eqs(outboard gear) then that will work regardless the O.S. you have, because it goes straight through your soundcard's in's and outs and it has nothing to do with your O.S. Also, what about a Virus synth which has its own software, Wouldn't it work?

Prove me that Virus TI Desktop/Snow, Moog Little Phaty or Waldorf Blofeld (analog synths which feature a software editor) don't work on Win8/8.1 and i'll drop my O.S. to the trash can. Other than that, if you mean about old crappy soundcards such as E-MU 404 or discontinued M-audio ProFire soundcards, then yeah, i don't think there's a driver for WIn8/8.1 for those soundcards, but other than that, you can use all the old high-end synths or outboard gear on Windows 8/8.1, even a big part of the oldest plugins works as well.

 

Could you kindly paste a link to that thread, or the search terms to look for ?
Thanks.

 

yep w8.1 x64 here since february, without a glitch. apps run smoother, very solid. luv/recommend it !

make sure you tweak it w/ccleaner, windows 8 manager, and do the usual audio production pc tweaks(google)

good luck with ur new pc

k