T400 - XP64 or Windows 7?

I loathe Vista (Business 64 specifically) - I've reinstalled it 3x since I got my T400 last fall. With 4gb , I wanted to go back to XP64, but had issues with drivers when following this guide. I just checked the W7 thread and aside from setting the graphics to integrated in the BIOS and not being able to use any Lenovo apps, things seem to be pretty smooth.

Has anyone tried both? I'm willing to try a dualboot over the next week, in which case advice on what specific OS to try would be welcome.

 

I like windows 7 a'lot better than vista.
Try it, it's free!

 

Is it more efficient overall, or do I need to turn off eye-candy to free up resources? Right now, my Vista looks like Classic Windows.

 

I'm running Win7 RC 64-bit on the T400 in my profile, and it runs SLICK. Only things I've turned off (because I'm impatient) are the fade-in/fade-out for menus and tooltips, which I did on XP as well. Performance is excellent, better than Vista Business x64 SP2 (although that is much improved from Vista or Vista SP1). I've also had no compatibility issues with 32-bit apps.

I have it joined to a network domain just fine, and have already used the new Remote Server Administration Tools provided for it. It's currently my sole operating system on this machine, and it's also rock-solid stable.

 

I havent even played with 7 yet and Im about to preorder it, really upset that vendors dont offer OS discs anymore. Both my rigs in my sig have vista business on them, and even though my dell is older and slower it actually runs faster because dell gave me an OS disc with my purchase. Id pay a small fee for the option from the factory but apparently that is not possible with vendors these days.

Id say go for it.

 

All my dells came with the OS disc, my 1340 and mini 9.
They come with a driver disc and the OS disc.

 

I am running Windows 7 and I love it.

 

I am very happy with Win 7 on my X200s. Highly recommended! I am running x32 though, after some compatibility issues with x64.

EDIT: Clarification, my compatibility issues were with some crappy programs I have to use for work, everything else worked fine.

 

Im running 7 x64 on my T61p and I love it, I had no issues with drivers at all (thanks to nVidia providing beta drivers) and it runs so much faster than vista I was simply blown away. And the way it handles wireless network switching (absolutely seemless, connected to the internet before I even open my browser, so long as I have connected to the network at least once) is the way I think it should have always been.

 

Thats nice to know and I love dell for that. No if only other vendors would follow suit for those who like the option to customize.

 

I'm running a dual boot XP x86 and Windows 7 x64 RC1 with 4GB RAM on my x200s. I use XP for doing real work and Windows 7 for testing/playing games. Windows 7 is pretty responsive and stable, no driver issues or incompatibility here.

 

Just installed W7 on an older Dell (2ghz centrino, 2gb ram) and I'm shocked that W7 - with no performance tweaking or anything - is using ~490mb ram. Vista - tweaked - uses around 1.3gb! It's pretty snappy too - I believe that I will ditch Vista on my T400 as soon as I have some time. Maybe MS did learn something...

 

XP is dead. Windows 7 RTM on my machine screams—I can never go back to the legacy OS that is XP or the beta product known as Vista.

 

Did you need to optimize at all? Is there a major difference between RTM & RC?

 

No optimization needed—it’s fast out of the box. RC is the Release Candidate with RTM being the final version. They are both largely the same—with some minor issues being addressed in RTM—and I was quite impressed with the RC before I installed the RTM.

 

Cool - especially since our T400 config is identical except I have the larger battery. I have LOATHED these past near-year of Vista and the end is FINALLY in sight!

 

Pick 7 x64 over XP 64-bit any day. Manufacturer support for XP 64-bit was and still is very, very poor. Pathetically poor. Keep your sanity and get Windows 7.

 

I skipped XP64 due to the driver issues. The end of Vista is near!