Win7 Beta & Whitebook Performance

I noticed there weren't any threads regarding the new OS that Micro$oft has provided us.. Welcome, Win7 Beta! Hopefully this link still works, but Win7 Beta Customer Preview can be downloaded here directly from Microsoft. I've had the pleasure of testing both the 32bit version, as well as 64bit version of the build 7000 release. The download offered is the "Ultimate version", which has been extremely stable on my OCZ. One of the bonuses is that the Vista 32/64-bit programs port to the Win7 setup very nicely.

Win7 offers(thus far), better stability..less memory usage.. and much faster load times. There's quite a few built-in features which are, for lack of a better word, neat. You can set backgrounds in slideshow format, UAC (user account control) can be tailored for your desired level of security, Defender is much more friendly, and the nice thing about the OCZ compatability.. It is compatible! 100% There were a few items which Device Manager flagged and needed me to install(just like Vista clean installs). I had to update the Intel Chipset which can be found here. No need to use the have disk method.. however, another nice utility of the Win7 interface, if you right click the setup.exe inside of the downloaded zip, you can choose to install via "Compatability mode". Just choose Vista as the previous compatible version, and *voila it installs perfectly. Also, I updated the Storage Controller (used for flash cards) and that file can be found on OCZ's website, here is 64-bit and here is 32-bit. I didn't even fool with the fingerprint reader, but you can find the other compatible drivers on OCZ's tech support site for this rig here.

I'm extremely impressed with the overall feel of Win7, everything is smoothe.. they seem to have incorporated some of the Mac OS features, like the mini-view popup windows of items in your taskbar.. and of course, my fav, the slideshow wallpapers. I'm not doing a fullout review..but I'm just letting you know that this OS is gonna be the new hotness. I suggest you all check it out, and please; post any finds here, offer insight, and let's tap this fountain before someone else does!


Oh, side note..my 2nd best 3dmark score was provided by Win7 - it inspired me to push Vista a bit harder. Here's my Win7 score - which I know will surpass Vista if I *really* try 16,394 3dMark06 Points.. nice eh? My boasting aside.. let's see what you guys think!

 

Well now.. just what I was looking for (since I could not create a thread).

My results with a stock dual core system.

Also, I had to install the ATI Beta driver before Crossfire was recognized and activated, which can be found here: http://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&questionID=39069

I am running 64-bit Win 7, have not tested 32-bit yet. I found all of the 64-bit Vista drivers from our site to work fine. The installers would not run sometimes (Not for this version of Windows error). However, if you unzipped the download, put them in a folder then went into device manager and "updated" the driver, you can point to the folder on your hard drive and it worked just fine.

 

New ATI driver? Gonna check that out downloading now.. it's not the same as the one on the Windows Update I am assuming? by driver # it looks like 8.12.. oh, but it specifically supports the Mobility 3000 series GPU

 

yep testing it out now. looks pretty good so far

 

CCC wouldnt load properly on Vista..gonna see if I can port it. Otherwise, will try in Win7 tomorrow. Even with CCC not working properly, looks decent in Vista. It's 8.12 in cognito - Anyhow.. I'm outtie.

Nice find Ryder +rep

 

CCC is working for me in Win7. Most/all of what I am used to is there, even though the link I gave shows "limited features".

You can adjust the MipMap level, Catalyst AI disable/standard/advanced, AA, AF, etc.

Score was a bit worse than in Vista.. I had 120xx in Vista compared with 119xx here in Win7. Everything else has been smooth as silk though.

I will see if Everest runs on Win7 and run some of the other benchmarks, also 3D Vantage and PCMark.

 

I had a visit over at the OCZ forum from someone with some issues installing Win 7. He had the same 3 items with no driver that I did after install. So enroute to typing out a reply to him, I also resolved the 1 remaining driver issue that I had, plus resolved an issue that I did not know I had, until he brought it up.

Now my suggestions for installing drivers (since the installer package is really what gives you the error, not the driver itself) is to create a folder called Drivers. Either at the root of C or on the desktop, does not matter.

Once that is done, copy any drivers you download, to that folder (create subfolders if you like) and unzip them. Once they are unzipped, that is all you need to do.
Now, go to Device Manager, right click the device with no driver and choose "Update Driver Software" then select "Browse my computer for driver software" and point it at the Drivers folder and make sure the "include subfolders" box is checked. Windows will search the folder and all subfolders and find the drivers and install them.. simple.

So, the only drivers you really need once Win 7 is installed are the Finger Print Sensor, the SMBus, and the Wired Ethernet. For the Finger Print and the SMBus you can just use the drivers off the OCZ site: (hope this doesn't get edited for linking back to "My" site.. but it is the offical download page for the OCZ whitebooks)
http://www.ocztechnology.com/drivers/OCZ_17_inch_DIY_Gaming_Notebook__OCZDIY17A2/

With a little Google foo (since the driver for it is included with Vista and I did not look (D'oh!) before blowing it away) I found the correct device ID and thus the driver for the Wired Ethernet: http://www.marvell.com/drivers/driverDisplay.do?driverId=154 (you have to accept the agreement to download)

The issue that the other customer discovered is that when you plug headphones in, sound still comes out the speakers on the laptop
I found out that while the driver in Win 7 works, it does not work completely correctly. So you need to get the Realtek audio driver as well.
Once you download the driver from the above link, then go to Device manager and under "Sound Video and Game Controllers" you should have 2 x "High Definition Audio Device" entries. Right click on the first and do the same as the above, then do the second. 1 will say "the best drivers is already installed" and the other will install the Realtek driver for the other part of the audio. That should solve the headphone issue.

I did also find it best (if you want full control) to download and use the same procedure for the Touchpad (Synaptics) driver instead of using the built in Win 7 driver.

Hope that helps more with Win 7 on these systems.

EDIT: I will include a shot of Device Manager just for the heck of it:

 

Any luck with these Beta Win 7 drivers in Vista?

Have not tried to install them myself yet. Too many other irons in the fire.