Win 7 for HW use? Which one? Home or Prof. edition

Hi, plan to upgrade to Win 7 shortly, does it make any difference which edition to get? Can anyone in the know tell me?
Using Win xp prof. on a 80Gb Sata HDD at the present but do not have the disk.
I also have a 200GB SATA HDD waiting to be used on HW on which I can install Win XP Home first than upgrade.
Thanks
Gerrit

You will need to be mindful of drivers for your sound card. I use an external E-MU 0404 USB and Windows 7 will not accept the Vista driver. Therefore I have no intention to go to Windows 7 if my hardware also has to be replaced.
Keith

[mdyde]

Hello Gerrit,

We don't officially support Windows 7 yet, but we hope to have Hauptwerk v3.30 released in a few days time, which will add support for Windows 7:

http://forum.hauptwerk.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=5573

Here's the excerpt from the v3.30 prerequisites section of the user guide covering the differences between the various Windows 7 editions, in case it helps in the meantime:

Effective memory limits for use with Hauptwerk are as follows:
• 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium Edition: 16 GB.
• 64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate Edition: 192 GB.
• 64-bit Windows 7 Professional Edition: 192 GB.
• 64-bit Windows Vista Home Basic Edition: 8 GB.
• 64-bit Windows Vista Home Premium Edition: 16 GB.
• 64-bit Windows Ultimate Edition: 128+ GB.
• 64-bit Windows Business Edition: 128+ GB.
• 64-bit Windows XP Professional x64 Edition: 128+ GB.
• 32-bit versions of Windows 7, Vista and XP: about 2.7 GB, following modification to the Windows boot parameters, otherwise 2 GB (2).

All editions of Windows 7, Vista and XP support multi-core processors. However, support for two separate physical processors is only included in Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate, Vista Business and Vista Ultimate editions and XP Professional editions.

[micdev]

I'm not sure what processor you have Gerrit, but since you have a system with 80GB, I guess that it is probably a CoreDuo or maybe an even less powerful processor, so be careful, because you might get less performances with W7.

To make sure, run Windows 7's upgrade advisor: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/window ... visor.aspx

All editions of Windows 7, Vista and XP support multi-core processors. However, support for two separate physical processors is only included in Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate, Vista Business and Vista Ultimate editions and XP Professional editions.

I've found conflicting information about this (some saying Home Premium will support two physical processors, some saying only Ultimate will), but I haven't found where Microsoft itself documents these constraints. Anybody know where Microsoft has stuffed this kind of information?

Thanks!
Mark

[mdyde]

I've found conflicting information about this (some saying Home Premium will support two physical processors, some saying only Ultimate will), but I haven't found where Microsoft itself documents these constraints. Anybody know where Microsoft has stuffed this kind of information?

I can't remember for certain where I found that information, although I do remember that it was very difficult to find! I think it was from a Microsoft website source, but I can't be certain.

Here's a feature comparison table (which includes the maximum number of physical CPUs) from a third-party (non-Microsoft) source:

http://www.bit-tech.net/bits/software/2009/10/22/microsoft-windows-7-review/1

This Microsoft article covers memory limits for the various Windows 7 editions:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa366778%28VS.85%29.aspx#physical_memory_limits_windows_7