So I installed the Windows 7 beta (build 7000) on my Shuttle XPC this weekend. It’s a box that used to be my media center PC, but due to frequent motherboard failures, I’ve pulled it and have been using it mainly as a retro emulation system running XP. (My main workstation is a Mac Pro running OS X.)
I took a video that shows me fiddling about with the system, just to give a taste of Windows 7 for those who haven’t had a chance to try it out.
To help with estimating performance with this video, the specs of the Shuttle:
- Shuttle XPC SB86i purchased November 2005
- Pentium 4 3.2GHz (Hyper Threading support)
- 1GB PC3200 DDR RAM
- GeForce 6600 GT on 16-lane PCI Express
I actually like the feel of Windows 7. XP feels pretty antiquated now and Vista, well, you can’t really run Vista, now can you? And performance on this system feels pretty snappy. We’ll see how it looks in the final release.
I, too, have been playing with Windows 7 build 7000. In my mind it is a LOT nicer than Vista and XP. It doesn’t seem to get in my way like Vista does, and actually the task bar looks a LOT more like OS X’s Dock than it ever did before. (Not sure about Vista’s task bar.)
They really screwed up with Vista, so it’s good to see that they seem to be redeeming themselves.
For whoever asked, the Shuttle XPC hardware seems pretty solid, well performing. I’ve enjoyed the Shuttle, in the capacity I’ve used it.