Win8 or Win7?

Hey hows it goin. 
 
I'm no expert but I toss you my experience for what it's worth. 
 
My son gives me all his hand me down computers, He's pretty good at building and as a musician himself builds for audio. But the bugger uses  none registered copies of Windows. 
So the first thing I do is install my registered versions. Well I ended up with one more computer than I had Windows copies and went to order W7,  but windows 8.1 was half the price? 
So I ordered that. Here's my thoughts. 
 
Cheaper, Loads way faster,  works the same once you discover it actually has a normal desktop that can be populated with shortcuts just like before. In the end no real big difference in using it that a techo head can't grasp in an hour of poking around. Most of the control panel, device and systems controls are the same. All my software installed without issues, even things like DVDshrink. Photoshop CS. VCL, Win Amp. 
 
What I didn't like is that once installed it asked me for my Windows account to register? I was lucky I actually understood this was my original Hotmail-etc account and I knew the password to log on. Now that password is the password for the computer?
What I'm seeing here is more invasive integration of my computer with Micro soft, Office Outlook,  my shopping habits etc. I hate that stuff!  
I cost me $40 in bandwidth to do all the updates, Why the heck can't a brand new copy include service packs etc.? 
Overall I didn't notice any difference in running Sonar on windows 8. I have my old Tascam interface set up.  We watch movies and play music. It's also a  back up studio computer just in case.  As predicted, Windows 8 tells me I don't have the correct drivers installed. It's on a list of issues that W8 pops up in the task bar tray.  But the Tascam works fine, shows in Sonar normally, it's my only audio device for the computer all else is disabled. The Tascam GUI works. I write it off as one reason I no longer use the Tascam. Hope Craig is right about the in house drivers they will soon be writing. 
The other thing was the DPCLAT test doesn't work it will show a steady 1,000 ms. I need to download the other latency checker.
  
I'm just waiting for my case and I'm going to build from scratch.. so I'm not sure which way I'll go either as I guess I'll have to buy a new copy of Windows 8 as it's now ingrained in my office PC forever.. My Windows 7 copy is good for 2 computers so I can de activate my old DAW and just leave it as a back up system. 
But if you are faced with purchasing a new copy of Windows, You might as well save the approx $70 and buy W8. I think they are doing this on purpose to get every one away from W7 as quick as possible..marketing strategy. I cannot list any reasons that would imply that Windows 7 is better. But I don't understand anything beyond the surface when it come to this stuff, any how good luck.. 
 
 

yes, I wasn't perfectly clear - I already have a copy of win7x64 on my machine and can load that onto the new OS drive without spending any more money.  My question really is:  should I spend money on win8 or just use the win7 I already have.
 
Johnny - thanks for the details of your experience!

sounds good to me.

Windows 8.1 all the way.
Best MS system i ever had for Audio. still needs user to do some tune up but it is basic stuff.

Beagle
I just bought a new hard drive that I intend to use as a replacement for my OS drive.  The current drive is the same age and model as a data drive that just went out on me, so I'm replacing both of them.
 
I considered upgrading my motherboard and processor, but it seems that the processing world has stagnated and there aren't really any better options for me than what I currently have at a price I think would be reasonable to upgrade to.
 
so anyway, since I'm reinstalling the OS and all programs anyway, I wondered if I should stick to win7x64 or if I should upgrade to win8? 
 
this is a desktop and I do not have a touchscreen
this is a multipurpose machine, I run Sonar, Sony Vegas, Office, email, IE, and it really is just one machine that handles everything I don't do on my tablet.
 
I'm not sure that win8 would really buy me anything would it?  I'm leaning toward sticking with win7, but wanted some expert opinions.

If you're not into touch specific features, Win8x64 wouldn't buy you any additional performance.
On the flip side, you wouldn't lose a significant amount of performance going with Win8x64.  

CakeAlexS
Actually it will buy you performance increases across the board if you look at the benchmarks. I do notice it. Whether they are significant enough to upgrade is the debate...

Don't need to read benchmarks...   
I've compared performance on exact hardware configurations.
Load a (substantial) finished project on the exact same hardware (one load of Win7x64 and the other of Win8.1x64).
What you'll find is that the CPU use is slightly higher under Win8.1x64.
On current generation hardware, the performance difference is minimal.

Jim Roseberry

Don't need to read benchmarks...   
I've compared performance on exact hardware configurations.
Load a (substantial) finished project on the exact same hardware (one load of Win7x64 and the other of Win8.1x64).
What you'll find is that the CPU use is slightly higher under Win8.1x64.
On current generation hardware, the performance difference is minimal.

Well I could go on forever but that is not my experience or most benchmarks. I don't think running a project is particularly accurate either as third party code and caching comes into play (inc drivers), a more rounded test a number of projects from simple to complex several times. One thing is that Win 8.1 does need some optimization esp stopping services and processes that are unneeded in a DAW environment (and latest updates). Same as 7. We probably agree both however there isn't that much difference.

thanks for the input everyone

CakeAlexS
Well I could go on forever but that is not my experience or most benchmarks. I don't think running a project is particularly accurate either as third party code and caching comes into play (inc drivers), a more rounded test a number of projects from simple to complex several times. One thing is that Win 8.1 does need some optimization esp stopping services and processes that are unneeded in a DAW environment (and latest updates). Same as 7. We probably agree both however there isn't that much difference.

Alex, I think you know my background.
I've been building DAWs professionally for the better part of 20 years.  
My testing isn't limited to a single machine/project.
There's no set of benchmarks that better portray DAW performance than running actual audio projects.
 
If anyone buys Win8.1x64 expecting major performance gains (over running Win7x64 on the exact same hardware), they will be disappointed.
 
Want some easy to test proof?

• Setup a current generation build with both Win7x64 and Win8.1x64.
• Bring each OS up-to-the-minute with updates.
• Optimize each OS for maximum DAW performance.
• Make sure to use the exact same audio interface.
• Load Sonar X3.  
• For easy comparison with other folks, load some of the (finished) demo projects that were included with Sonar over the last several years.
• Start each project and monitor CPU use via Task Manager.

 
That said, Win8.1x64 is a fine OS.  I've been running it for a long time.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with Win8.1x64 as a DAW platform.
 

I recalled vaguely the blog post in #3 of this thread, but then it occurred to me that the benchmarks done were with X1.
 
FWIW, I wouldn't go toe-to-toe with Jim about system performance, is best to just sit back and read his posts. 

For what its worth (I is an old guy), my "experience" with Win 8.1 was beyond frustrating!
I own it, it sits on a WD Black 500gb drive that I use alternately as a doorstop or coaster!
(You think I'm kidding right? NO, I am not kidding!)
You own (actually, read the EULA, you are "renting" Win 7) that's where I would stay!
And why, oh why, would anyone "argue" performance with Jim???
Do we think he pulls these things out of his arse?
Just sayin'...
T
 
 

lol, well, I decided not to upgrade  and I've started building the system on win7 again.
 
not gotten very far - but I've made the decision to stick with win7 for now!