Windows 7 or 8 or 8.1

[Steve Burke]

I'm about to buy a new business computer but don't know which version of Windows to go for. In case it makes any difference I'll also be buying a new Windows phone.

 

Peggy's running 8.1 on her laptop and is already at home with it, so could help me if I get stuck.

 

If I go for Windows 7 Pro now can I easily upgrade and if so what will it cost? Does it make any difference if the computer comes with a Windows 8 license?

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Newt]

Most new computers will have Windows 8 loaded so since Peggy is used to it, I'd go for that. You can update to 8.1 online without any problems.

[Steve Burke]

Unfortunately the machine I'm most interested in has Windows 7 Pro pre-istalled. It seems as though Windows 8 is only standard on consumer machines here?

 

For £30 extra I can get a slighter faster processor plus a Windows 8 license. However I've no idea what the cost is (if any) to upgrade from 7 to 8 without the license.

[kirisute]

Upgrade to windows 8 is round about £70

windiws 8 wasn't business helpful before 8.1 and still doesn't work perfectly with proxy servers etc in 8.1 so isn't being picked up by business readily at all.

It is superbly stable and quick though on a new machine and if your not integrating into old servers (2003 etc) it does play nicely in most cases.

It's a jump from standard windows (XP,vista or 7) and does take some getting used to...but once you know your way about there are some really cool features.

£30 for a CPU upgrade and windows 8 ( be sure it's the Pro version) is a bargain!

BTW I dunno what CPU your looking at but personally I would only recommend Intel! And go 64 bit with OS!

Edited January 6, 2014 by kirisute

[Steve Burke]

Cheers, Kiri.

 

These are the machines I'm looking at: http://www.dell.com/uk/business/p/latitude-e5540-laptop/fs

[Andy_1984]

go with windows 7.

 

windows 8 will be like learning all over again.

[Adam247]

I would personally say 7 as is a lot easier to go through if familiar with previous versions , 8 is more designed towards touch screen computers

[kirisute]

Both Andy and Adam are right to an extent: in 8.1 you can boot direct to desktop....so it's almost exactly like win 7: just a change in location of accessing control panel etc

The learning curve isn't great at all for a proficient windows user.

As for touch screen dominant....not at all. Mouse integration in the apps menu is fluid and quick once you get used to it. On a laptop with a crappy touchpad it can be a bugger, but with a mouse it's a doddle.

If you find yourself needing an old style start menu then software is out there to do that also. Something like Start8.

Honestly if your not running old servers or a proxy then win 8 has no obvious reason not to be chosen.

 

Looking at those laptops don't touch an i3! The i3 mobile chipset is awful! Slow and clunky! So go i5!

Don't be tempted by hybrid drives...in real tests in the office we didn't notice any improvement in boot times or access...though program opening did improve a tad. And if the flash section fails you lose everything and they don't seem as stable as pure ssd or pure standard drives.

Go pure Ssd if you can! And then use a portable terabyte drive or whatever.

It's a shame the first option can't be customised to an i5 because that's the one I'd choose!

The latitude 3540 hits a good sweet spot:

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=ca003l35408wer&m_6=AMDP&m_8=500S3Y&m_11=783523&m_16=DVDRW&m_146=0XXTX&m_760=15WLED&model_id=latitude-3540-laptop&c=uk&l=en&s=bsd&cs=ukbsdt1

Edited January 6, 2014 by kirisute

[Steve Burke]

Sorry for being so thick, but is the SSD drive on the Dell5540 a hybrid one then?

 

Doing a bit of research the 5500 series are built to a higher spec than the 3500 series, although both are business machines so should be at least as tough as consumer models.

 

It may be a good idea to say what I propose to use the machine for. It'll be mainly business use including basic word processing, basic speadsheets, internet etc. I don't use the computer for music or gaming. Nor do I do anything other than very basic photo-editing (usually just comparing fish for ID purposes), and no video-editing. In fact I don't expect to do anything high-powered at all.

 

However I do tend to have a lot of applications open at once as loading them can take time. That was why I was leaning towards an SSD drive.

 

For many years I've had 4mb of RAM, and I'm often using most of it. Would increasing the amount of RAM beyond 4mb help (I'm aware I can't access it all on my current 32bit machine)?

 

I don't have a lot of pics/videos stored on the computer. All data and photos are backed up daily to an external hard drive, plus continuously in the cloud via Carbonyte.

 

The idea is to use the laptop at home, plus get access to all my files when I'm working round the lakes at Wingham via the Windows phone I'm about to buy.

 

Finally, Peggy assures me that, even thick as I am, I should have no problems learning Windows 8.1. If it's better than Windows 7 I'd think I'd prefer to get the change from Vista over with, rather than have to learn 2 new operating systems over a period of time.

 

But which version of 8.1 do I need?

 

And how do I get it? For instance the configuration I was looking at says "Windows 7 Professional (64Bit Windows 8 License, Media)". What does this mean?

[kirisute]

ok:

the drive you looked a specifies an SSD Hyrbid drive: which is basically an SSD partition bolted together with a larger standard HDD unit. It feasibly gives faster boot times and access times whilst offering decent amounts of storage at a cheaper cost than a large SSD drive.

however in our tests in the office here we didn't notice any significant boosts in speed and I have a seen a number of the units failing for one reason or another.

a full SSD drive..though expensive for their size offers shockingly fast boot times and access to programs installed on it...but is limited to size. A 250 gig will set you back about £150...but I can boot into Windows 8.1 desktop in 15 seconds!!

an SSD wont help at all with having multiple programs open all at once: that's pure system memory and cpu power that will handle that.

an SSD will ONLY increase load times for software and data access and boot times when you turn your system on. it will help games run smoother if they are loading huge textures etc as well because of the speed at which data from the SSD can be read and accessed.

 

however your limited on your system build option by going laptop....

 

if your not photo editing or video editing etc then a standard video card chipset will suffice...so you don't need to look at the higher priced option with ATI cards or Nvidia cards..the core I GPU in an i5 cpu will suffice for what you do.

 

windows 8 is pi$$ easy to learn" seriously if you use Windows Vista then you can use windows 8! its just a question of learning a couple of different ways of accessing key features and the jobs done..everything else is almost unchanged in desktop mode!!

Stick with 64bit OS for sure...4 gig of ram will probably suffice with an i5 cpu because of the extra processing power you have with that cpu. however if you want to go 6 or 8 and its cheap enough then do so. Vista was a HUGE memory hog and Windows 7 or 8 don't use half as much for general running of software etc anyway....

 

which version of windows 8 if your choice...if your doing serious networking or want full security and domain usage etc etc then Pro version. standard edition will suffice if you just want to use your laptop like any "normal" pc if your not overly worried about networking to servers and suchlike. Don't go for Enterprise.

 

as for how you get it....I don't understand how Dell are offering that licence for windows 7 inc windows 8..unless it gives you access to download the Windows 8 upgrade through the "anytime upgrade" system; which basically means you goto the anytime upgrade website; type in your windows code and then download the Windows 8 version your eligible for.

The 3500 I posted has windows 8 as a specified install...so you wont have the hassle of having to install the OS yourself over the top of windows 7.

reading the smallprint at the bottom of the page it does say the system you looked at come with a windows 8 resource cd (64 bit); but as to whether irs pre installed or its an upgrade you have to perform yourself once you have the system is anyones guess...maybe a call to dell will sort that out for you.

 

is windows 8 better than 7? its personal choice really....its a shocking change if your used to windows 7 but 8 does have some really helpful features over Windows 7 and it does benchmark faster on modern hardware. Plus MS are looking to integrate Windows phone and Windows OS far more closely with the release of Windows 8.2...which considering your wish to have a windows phone, might be a choice you need to look at.

within a week of using windows 8 you will be more than happy with using its features and how to access what you need. the knee jerk reaction of most people to it is simply the loss of the start menu and the way it used to boot direct to the metro interface. but with 8.1 you can boot direct to desktop (which looks exactly like windows 7 pretty much) and if you really really need a start menu like windows 7 there is freeware out there to create it as ive said. to be honest I have been using Windows 8 since BETA and since release of original and 8.1 and ive never found the need to return to a standard start menu system.

Edited January 7, 2014 by kirisute