Yes, i have internet connection on my Win8.1 workstation as well and I DON'T NEED A MS ACCOUNT. I'm sorry, but can you read and understand it now? Just leading people on wrong paths? My O.S. has no MS account and it never asked me for it unless i wanted to get something from METRO STORE.

From your perspective, of course is not going to occur.

If it's not going to work for you, it doesn't mean it's not going to work for anyone else.
Just read the first sentences of his topic, quote:
Ricren: Hi guys,

I'm beginning to build a new machine.

What can't you understand? What legacy stuff do you see in this?

Wow, can you believe it? That's so much stuff that Win7 can do. That's a revelation right there (sarcasm).
My Win8.1 and a lot of Windows 8 users here can confirm you that our latest version O.S.es are as "amazing latency performance/never crashes/runs every single piece of software or hardware and have full control" just as your Windows7. There's absolutely no downfall in the audio department. I haven't faced any problems and i made a living from the stuff i do on this Win8.1 workstation. Why can i get the job done on Win8.1 and you couldn't?

You just simply state some "features" of Win7 and make it sound like Win8 would lack them. which doesn't sound objective at all.

Do you think the OP have the same studio hardware that you have?
If his workflow is based on the newer type of equippment, then there's no reason why he shouldn't go for the latest Windows version. Windows 8 and 8.1 are no longer something just as new as it was 8 months ago. Almost all the developers adapted their software/hardware's support to it. You act like you just met Windows 8.1 yesterday.

No polemics though, i respect you but i have to point out my thoughts if i know i'm right. If i'm not right, then i apologize and i accept the situation. But if you let
the existent Win8/8.1 chime in, you'll see i'm not the only one who never got problems with those latest OSes. we're talking about workstations here.

 

No need, found it and brought it back to make it easier on you:

 

Quoted from Forbes's article "5 Reasons To Get Over The Hype And Start Loving Windows 8.1":

Make sure you check the performance test between Win8 vs Win7 and you'll see that Win8 is slightly faster, even in gaming, not only in Audio/Video transcode.
This test was made back in August 15, 2012 when there was barely any updates for Win8. Now it passed almost 8 months (or more) since Win8.1 came out.






Another [gaming related] test:











As you can see, regardless if it's Nvidia or ATI, there's a better performance on Windows 8.1. Also the avarage waveform in the graph looks more stable on Win8.1

I know "gaming" is a different subject, but it still a "resources hog" task and as you can see, on both Nvidia and AMD, Win8.1 were more stable.

 

I respect both your opinions because they're valuable in helping the op get things sorted. That way he can have all the information and can make an informed decision. So thanks to you guys for your valuable input.

 

Man, i already apologized in my previous post. Why you have put so much importance in my "If i know i'm right part" without actually adding the next part of "If i'm not right, then i apologize and i accept the situation." which was an essential part of the context.
You read my words, i'm not even an English native speaker so the way i express might sound offending sometimes, but remember, you just read my words, without actually seeing my gesticulation and understand exactly the way i meant it.
The same way you say i'm disrespectful to you, that's the same way you might be disrespectful to me or to original O.P., leading him on a possible wrong road with misleading intel. (regarding his actual needs and workflow)
Anyway, again, i'm sorry and i apologize for my attitude and for the fact that i made you feel offended.

Have a great day!

 

Ok, I'll help you out here with your COPY LARGE FILES ON WIN7 problem. I own about 20 external Hard Drives that I use for backing up "EVERYTHING"!!!!! I'm almost OCD with it while backing up twice.

Anyway, using WINDOWS native copy method is NOT a good idea when copying a.) 10's of thousands of MIDI files, PRESET files, *.WAV files, etc..., or b.) Copying a huge amount of *.ISO/*.BIN files that are, for example, 4 GB +.

So.....I use the following utility, SUPERCOPIER 2.2b, as a WINDOWS file copy replacement : Supercopier 2.2b

They do have a new version of this program, but I like version 2.2b. I think the new program is called ULTRACOPIER.

This program will allow you to resume copy, set up rules to copy over files that are bigger in size, or that have a different date, and a few other cool tricks. I like it better than any other file copy utility, even TERACOPY.

But, the best features about this program are that you can tell it to put files that did not copy due to errors, at the bottom of the copy list. It also has an error tab so you can see which files did not copy. When the copy process if finished, I make sure that everything copied by dragging the files into the target location once more, and SUPERCOPIER quickley verifies that the files are all there without writing over the already copied files.

This has saved me HUGE amounts of headaches!!!!!!!

On a side note, another helpful utility that goes hand-in-hand is EXTRACTNOW......

When I have a directory full of folders that have *.RAR & *.ZIP files in them, I don't unrar or unzip each one by hand. Instead, I use this program called EXTRACTNOW to extract e.g. 100 rar files in different folders, before I back everything up onto an external hard drive : ExtractNow

For example......If FOLDER 'A' (on my desktop) has 50 folders within it, and those folders have rar and zip files in it, I can just drag FOLDER 'A' into EXTRACTNOW program and press go.

There are rules to set up as well. Which files not to extract, like *.ISO, *.DMG, *.JAR, etc... I also tell it to delete the *.rar and zip files after the extraction is complete.


Lemme know if this helps or if you have any questions. I've got this process down to a science because sample packs accumulate quickly and are a nightmare to manage.

 

Thanks for the data. Isn't W10 announced to appear on mid 2015? I know there're beta version around.

 

Thank you guys for such detailed data. As a result of your suggestions, as soon as I have the time I'll install both and run some tests with the software i usually run.


In a side note, regarding copying the OS from Hd to HD, I'd like to contribute to this thread bringing to your attention this little program: "Paragon Migrate OS to SSD". It's really useful and very easy to use in case you need to migrate/change/ backup/set new machines. It says "SSD" on the name but works for HD to HD transfers also. A lot of other packages are supposed to do the same but this little gem did not let me down ever. A very handy tool.

 

Thanks mate!

 

Here is what Rain Computers has to say about the difference between win 7 and win 8 when it comes to DAWs and audio in General

DAW Tests on win 7 and win 8

 

Windows 8.1 but make sure everything you need to work with it is compatiable with it.