2014 Alienware 17 what os for desktop suage and gaming

So whats everyone running now, win 7 or 8 for gaming and why??

 

I personally use Windows 8. Boot to desktop in less than 10 secs (with an SSD) and actually like the new interface...

As far as gaming goes, I don't think either OS will net you a better performance so just go with the OS that suits you best!

 

Games released this Fall (and later on) will run better with DirectX 11.2 support. As Windows 7 does not support this, Windows 8 or 8.1 would be best suited for gamers starting at the end of 2014 and beyond.

 

Basically I think it comes down to personal preference right now aside from the Direct X differences as J.Dre has pointed out. I have had them both and I keep leading back towards 7. My desktop hates 8....I always end up getting Blue Screen endless loading errors within a few days that I think are stemming from a hardware conflict somewhere. It works ok on my laptop, gaming performance is pretty much the same in my experience with the exception of 1 or 2 FPS here and there. Eventually you may see 8.1 pull ahead but with Windows 9 on the horizon I wouldn't be surprised to see 8.1 skipped over like Vista was in favour of something else. I stil run into some web sites that don't like 8 on my laptop, stuff that just refuses to load that loads just fine on 7.

The UI changes are minor IMO with 8 and don't take long to get used to although they do move some options around. Finding the shut down option if you have never used 8 can be fun . Fast boot can make booting and shut down stupid fast and is nice but some people are reporting issues fast boot if I remember correctly, I have never had any issues.

Either way your laptop should run just fine with either.

 

Windows 7 all the way for me, 8 is just too locked down and restrictive for my liking. For example if you remove the hard drive of a windows 8 system and load some information onto it using another machine when you put it back in the 8 system the data will have vanished. That never happens with 7.

 

I think it's also worth mentioning that next generation graphics will be compatible with DirectX 12, which is expected to be launched in 2015. So, yeah, definitely next year, you're going to want to upgrade to Windows 8.1 or whatever version is out at that time. Right now it doesn't make much of a difference.

 

I used Windows 7, which came with the laptop and bought Windows 8 Pro for <£15.00 when I had a chance. Now using Windows 8.1 with all the updates (which is pretty important as you get shut down menu straight on start menu and some other cosmetic changes). The main reasons are: a lot faster boot time, a lot better task manager, OS feels a bit snappier and last but not least it's more future-proof (new directX version coming etc as mentioned by J.Dre). Windows 8 might be a bit better with multiple screen management as well. I like the way Windows 8 has system shortcuts on right click on the start button (or Win+x), which is what I miss when I have to use Windows 7 laptop at work. Other than that they are more or less the same OS. Gaming performance is pretty much the same in 7 and 8 in my experience.

 

I am leaving my old M17x R3 on Windows 7 for full driver functionality as much possible. Although every thing else I prefer to run Windows 8.1 as I actually like 8.1 over 7. However with Windows 9 not so far away, I am expecting Microsoft to drop putting resources into 8.1 big time and brush it aside like Vista. With market share being on the low side for 8, bring me to wonder how much support will come from game developers compared to windows 7, if it actually matters at all, they both seem to run pretty much everything the same anyway, although I have had a bit of trouble getting certain (mainly older) games to run on 8 at times.