New Build with Sage7 - Win7 or no? 64bit or 32bit?

[ThePaladinTech]

Well something made my Sage server go katty wompus last week. And I am now home where I can work on it. I have a question for everyone-
As I am reloading is there any real reason to go with Windows 7 Home (as it would be the best I could afford) versus my existing Windows XP Pro ??
And while at it I could go 64bit if I was buying 7 ... my thoughts on that are that I outta stick with 32bit for driver support.
note: I do not use my sage server for viewing
in the server setup I am using: haupauge media HD PVR, MCE500, Silicon Dust HD HR.

Thoughts? and thanks in advance. Kinda bizzare my server flaked out... it WANTED beta software loaded

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by enzominator

Well something made my Sage server go katty wompus last week. And I am now home where I can work on it. I have a question for everyone-
As I am reloading is there any real reason to go with Windows 7 Home (as it would be the best I could afford) versus my existing Windows XP Pro ??
And while at it I could go 64bit if I was buying 7 ... my thoughts on that are that I outta stick with 32bit for driver support.
note: I do not use my sage server for viewing
in the server setup I am using: haupauge media HD PVR, MCE500, Silicon Dust HD HR.

Thoughts? and thanks in advance. Kinda bizzare my server flaked out... it WANTED beta software loaded

Are you going to be using it at all besides sage?

It is hard for me to recomend xp to anyone these days Windows 7 offers so much and as well I always recomend 64 bit why not go with the future the compatabilitie issues with 64 bit are becoming less and less every day.

[fac13]

If all you want is an o/s to run Sage then I'd say stay with XP. This despite the fact that I run 64 bit Windows 7.

Sage will run just as well on XP, particularly as you don't want to use the server for viewing. If you change your mind on that, and want HD on that machine, then the bundled H.264 stuff in Win7 might tip the balance.

Next time you change o/s I personally recommend you go 64 bit; most hardware has drivers now and more memory is going to be a good thing in the longer term. Lots of people will tell you otherwise though ...

[ThePaladinTech]

Plucky- I do not use it for a thing beyond SageTV - To clarify:
SageTV, Stuckless BMT, JReichen's WEb Server, Phoenix Fanart, ShowAnalyzer, Plucky's Movie Wall, Razrsharpe's TV Explorer, Evil Penqiuins Hulu netfilx, Dyndns updater... I think that is it. as long as it 'works' it just sits. but it's doing a lot.

And yeah, I've got 8g in this box - mostly wasted due to 32bit os. guess maybe it is time to make the switch.

[sic0048]

Unless you see a need for firewire channel changing (which only works on 32bit), I'd recommend Windows 7 64bit.

No need to stick with XP - it's at the end of it's life and Windows 7 is so much better.

[ThePaladinTech]

Thank you all for your quick responses and insight! I've already installed sage7 beta on my laptop and wow... (had to see it, and lappy is a multimedia model)

So one last question - what about home server? can I do EVERYTHING with it? it might make even more sense as I do not use the machine for anything other then ALL my sage duties??

HHmmmm think I answered my own question - WHS is only 32bit. so it can't address the memory either. new whs coming out sometime 2010...

[sic0048]

I use WHS for my Sage setup because it allows me to only run one machine 24/7. However, the biggest issue with using WHS is the fact that you are unable to backup the WHS server itself. This is being fixed in the new WHS V2 - called Vail. But if you use WHS v1, then you either won't have the Sage system backed up, or you have to find another method to back it up "manually".

SageTV works just fine on a WHS system however for recording purposes. Since WHS is not designed for media playback, there might be something missing if you hope to use it as a SageTV client. I use extenders exclusively to access my media, so I have no need to use WHS as a client. It works great in my situation.