R. I. P.'s guide to Windows 7
R. I. P.'s guide to Windows 7
I completely avoided Windows Vista to save time until my gaming setup arrived. I began with Windows 3.1 in 1990, then moved to Windows 95 around 1997, followed by Windows 98 SE in 2000. In the 2000s, we secured discounts from DELL on their Dimension 3000 models running Windows XP 32-bit. Unfortunately, it only came with 256 MB of RAM. I didn’t upgrade until late 2006, when I boosted it to 2 GB and invested in older PCI video cards just to play a few titles. My first choice was the PNY Nvidia GeForce FX 5500, which had 256 MB of RAM. I later added two more PCI graphics cards—BFG Tech 6200 OC and BFG Tech 8400 GS. By then, my DELL Dimension 3000 kept crashing with BSODs due to faulty capacitors. So I waited until 2010 to switch to Windows 7, after hearing mixed reviews about Vista. I found a decent deal on an iBuyPowerPC Gamer Power WA500D3 system. It featured a powerful AMD Athlon II x2 250 at 3.0GHz, 64-bit dual-core processor, 4GB DDR3 memory, 500GB SATA storage, and a dedicated ATI Radeon HD 5450 graphics card. I also had an integrated Ethernet audio card, a Gigabit power supply, and wireless keyboard/mouse. Operating on Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, I faced issues around 2012—mainly RAM failures that prevented me from posting both sticks. Eventually, I returned the motherboard via RMA after it stopped working. After a few months without a PC, I replaced the RAM, CPU, and GPU. As hardware aged, I hesitated about upgrading to Windows 10, so I went with AMD Phenom II x4 945, Corsair XMS DDR3, and a Radeon 6570. The motherboard was replaced, and my system ran smoothly until my Radeon needed an upgrade. When it arrived, I received a RMA for the GPU after a Windows 7 update, which sparked the RAM socket again. It failed shortly after, forcing another RMA with just two days of use. Eventually, I bought new components—CPU, RAM, and GPU—to keep up with newer hardware. By 2018, Ryzen was available, and I decided against rebuilding my PC, knowing Windows 10 would soon end support in 2020. I upgraded to a Ryzen 5 1600 system and finally got Windows 10 Pro. Now I miss Windows 7. I still have one old Windows 7 laptop, which I won’t change to Linux or Windows 10. The hardware limitations of that machine—a single-core CPU and DDR2 RAM—made it unsuitable for modern games, especially those needing more memory and processing power. The price of DDR2 chips on eBay has skyrocketed, making even basic MMORPGs a challenge. Avast confirmed they’d support Windows 7 for another two years, which is bittersweet given how quickly Windows 8/10 arrived.
I continue using my cable TV through Win7 Windows Media Center, which is one of the top software options Microsoft developed. I remain committed to this approach since Windows 10 isn't compatible with it.