Jump to content

Windows 8 --> Worth Updating?


Duna Unha

Recommended Posts

To be honest, at first I didnt think that Win8 would work for me either.

I changed my mind because of 2 main reasons:

First, it seems to run faster than Win7, has extremely low boot times and just generally runs nicer.

Second, At first I didnt want to have the new Modern UI but then it went from being an annoyance to an oversized start menu and now I feel comfortable using it, as it is just a full-screen start-menu redesign for me now.

99% of the real action still happens on the desktop. (Where Aero is gone, kind of a bummer but I can live without it).

Also, the new Windows 8 Bluescreen is really pretty compared to 7's one :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For the positives, the file transfer dialog and the task manager have been quite improved. (However, if you want a Task Manager replacement for Win7 take a look at the Process Explorer.) I think it also loads a little faster than Win7 (I can't say since I didn't have it on SSD, but on a regular hard drive). IIRC (correct me if I am wrong please) this is because the OS kernel doesn't actually load from the scratch but sort of hibernates, speeding up the boot.

Negatives? Don't even get me started here. :D Everything else... lol. The interface isn't good if you need to do some actual work since you have to keep switching between desktop app and the new metro GUI. I also don't like the desktop GUI since Aero is gone and imho looks a lot uglier with flat colors.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The new UI is total crap to me. got it pre-installed on my new laptop and couldn't stand it after 5 mins. Granted it might be faster etc but if I wanted that interface I would stick with android over that mega start menu ugly what ever they call it. On a tablet or touch screen I can see that being good but a normal laptop NO thanks. Plus I didn't want to spend hours cleaning off all the crap they put on it to start with. It also didn't look like having 3-5 open apps at once was going to be as easy.

oh an I HATE the cloud. and it asking me to sign into an account to use my computer NO freaking way. Security risks there are beyond what MS can handle.

just looked at a full review with screen shots an all I can say is a bullet in the head would be preferred over windows 8.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

It look interesting. As far as the touch "Don't call it Metro, Metro" start menu goes, you can get programs to disable it. I'm interested in it for its speed, but I won't put it on my M14x. I wouldn't mind it on a new system that was designed for it though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have been using windows 8 for about 4 months now on both my laptop, and desktop.

I do miss my windows 7, but the transition was relatively painless. you can also get all the utilities you miss from windows 7.

I would recommend it. You can get it for 15 dollars doing this Windows Upgrade Offer - Landing Page Just tell it you got your PC a month ago. Does not ask for anything else!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From my experience, upgrading to win8pro 64bit has made my computing and gaming experience a lot smoother and more responsive in general. It might just be a placebo effect but I've also noticed a slight performance improvement in many games after making the upgrade, however this may also be due to the fact that I upgraded the geforce gt650m video drivers to 310.70 as soon as I transitioned to win8.

My biggest pet-peeve however is that I've noticed a universal CPU temperature increase, while I don't know why this is happening, maximum cpu temperatures with turbo boost on (i7 3610QM) have hit almost 85c in farcry3 from about 80c in windows 7. My fan also seems to be running a lot more frequently and vigorously. As I said, this phenomenon remains a mystery to me and I would be grateful if someone could care to offer a possible explanation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Personally, I have another laptop running windows 8 and i dislike it in general. the navigation and the UI is junk. Also, I made ths mistake and bought a windows surface... we all know how well that is working. But possibly debating researching the surface pro to see if its worth it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've been using win8 since release on my old laptop & I had my new m14x pre-installed, all I can recommend is that you stick at it for a little while. The new UI and navigation is difficult at first but once you get the hang of it I think its great.

Anyone going for the factory pre-installed version should also think about wiping and re-installing using the disk I've seen a big performance increase and fixed a lot of niggles with the m14 since doing my own install, mostly related to the gt650m & the killer N

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

I installed Windows 8 when I received my M14x R2, and loved the performance of Windows 8. I ran into driver problems with Windows 8 and the non-dell Killer Wireless drivers causing me to revert back to Windows 7 to correct the issues. I'm keeping Windows 7 for a week or so to see if I run into anymore issues with the card and then I'll be moving back to Windows 8. I actually enjoy the new UI as well as the performance increase.

After 3 weeks of using Windows 8 I found myself navigating my reinstall of Windows 7 as if it were 8. That of course didn't work but goes to show of fast you pick up new ways to use OS's if you're interested in doing so.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm using the Resource CD driver's except for my Nvidia drivers. I'll not update any until after the upgrade this time. If there are no problems I'll probably just leave them as is unless there are some major improvements in a new driver release for a device I have. I'm hoping my current wireless drivers function fine and require no updating. I'm a little OCD with my drivers and that sometimes get's me into the kind of trouble I encountered the first time around.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Has anyone managed to make note of like for like comparisons in benchmarks and game performance between Window 7 and Windows 8, FPS, load times etc. I have heard from a lot of people that their gaming performance is impaired after updating to Windows 8. How true is this statement on the M14x R1 with the GT555M graphics?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I recently upgraded to Windows 8. The first thing I did was disable UAC and change the default desktop to "classic shell". Thus far I have not noticed any major performance hits while gaming, FPS in SWTOR/SCII are pretty much the same as what I got with Windows 7.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.