Worth it to upgrade from XP to 8?

[Sonikku]

I've been kicking around XP for years now and have used it for a couple builds now. I'm picking up an Intel g620/4gb DDR3 ram/radeon 7770 soon for my XP system that all now have XP driver support but are limited to DX9 to games. I'm wondering if it's worth while to take Microsoft up on the $15 upgrade deal. Now, my tight budget doesn't really have room for a $100 windows 7 upgrade to take full advantage of DX11 in my games. But would it be better to get Win8 for $15 than to kick around XP for a while longer? I hear absolutely nothing but bad, bad things about the OS.

 

[lxskllr]

I'm not a big fan of Win8, but I'd definitely take that over XP. XP's done, and it's been done for years now. There's some new stuff to learn, but you're gonna have to learn it some time. $15 is a bargain for trade up from an antique.

 

[Dominato3r]

Depends on who you listen to. Windows 8 performance wise is better than 7, and for $15/$40 you can't go wrong.

Going from xp to 8 is going to be a very steep learning curve though. I suggest you try the 90day trial and see how you feel about.

 

[ViRGE]

Isn't the $15 upgrade offer specifically for major OEM computers sold between now and October? I don't think you'd have access to that offer. You'd need to buy a full upgrade (which is itself on sale for $40 until 2013).

Anyhow, I generally agree with lxskllr. Just about anything is better than XP at this point.

 

[Nothinman]

I've been kicking around XP for years now and have used it for a couple builds now. I'm picking up an Intel g620/4gb DDR3 ram/radeon 7770 soon for my XP system that all now have XP driver support but are limited to DX9 to games. I'm wondering if it's worth while to take Microsoft up on the $15 upgrade deal. Now, my tight budget doesn't really have room for a $100 windows 7 upgrade to take full advantage of DX11 in my games. But would it be better to get Win8 for $15 than to kick around XP for a while longer? I hear absolutely nothing but bad, bad things about the OS.

So you can afford new memory and a video card but didn't budget in the software to use it properly? At this point it's worth it to upgrade even to Vista, although Win7 would be the smarter choice.

 

[gmaster456]

Yes, it is well worth it. There are some new things you have to learn, but it is faarrrrr better than XP.

 

[MontyAC]

The $15 upgrade is for recently purchased systems with Win 7, you'll have to pay the $40 upgrade route.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/261170/windows_8_15_upgrade_offer_faqs_for_recent_pc_buyers.html

 

[hhhd1]

Try it.
MS is offering a 3 month free trial.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/jj554510.aspx

defiantly worth a try first, you have until january to decide on whether to upgrade or not.

the crap that is metro is subjective,
for some people, it come in the way of what you usually do in your daily pc usage, for others, they can easily get over it after a while and adjust.

for people that use their pc of mainly facebook and similar, there shouldn't be major issues, although they will have a learning curve that most of those users might not like.

 

[cl-scott]

I would definitely say it is worth it over XP, and I haven't even used Win 8. I'm thinking purely in terms of the fact that XP is on life support, that life support is set to be cut off in the very near future, whereas Windows 8 will be supported for some time to come.

 

[JackMDS]

Well, you can save money by downgrading to FreeDOS. -:whiste: - :hmm: - ()

http://www.freedos.org/download/

 

[MontyAC]

Well, you can save money by downgrading to FreeDOS. -:whiste: - :hmm: - ()

http://www.freedos.org/download/

:wub:

 

[Maximilian]

Uh... i dunno i would try and get windows 7 tbh... wouldn't touch 8 with a bargepole, the core of the OS is fine but the UI is garbage.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

If you get used to the interface, sure.. definitely think it's worth upgrading. XP is kind of ancient now.

 

[lxskllr]

XP is kind of ancient now.

Ya think? Hey guys, I just bought a new Dodge Charger. I don't want to spend more money, so should I put my old 8Track in it, or get a head unit that works with my mp3 player?

 

[Sonikku]

So you can afford new memory and a video card but didn't budget in the software to use it properly? At this point it's worth it to upgrade even to Vista, although Win7 would be the smarter choice.

It's one or the other, as far as the OS or newer parts are concerned. Not really enough for both. Coming from an Athlon 64 3400+ (single core)/1gb of ddr ram/X800XT AIOW so I'm not sure if my present hardware would even be sufficient for Windows 8 if I did not have the parts to back it up, hence the quandary.

 

[JackMDS]

I run well Win 8 Ent. trial on a Athlon 3000+, old Abit 939 Mobo, 2GB memory, and nVidia 6600.

I think that the x800 and the 6600 are same class old Video.

 

[nemesismk2]

Well, you can save money by downgrading to FreeDOS. -:whiste: - :hmm: - ()

http://www.freedos.org/download/

Wish I had known about FreeDOS before i started using Windows 7 lol

 

[Red Squirrel]

Just upgrade to 7. No reason at all to go 8 on a desktop PC. In fact if XP serves your purposes there's not really any reason to upgrade unless something you are trying to run wont run on XP or if you want more than 4GB of ram.

 

[Nothinman]

It's one or the other, as far as the OS or newer parts are concerned. Not really enough for both. Coming from an Athlon 64 3400+ (single core)/1gb of ddr ram/X800XT AIOW so I'm not sure if my present hardware would even be sufficient for Windows 8 if I did not have the parts to back it up, hence the quandary.

I don't know about Win8, but Win7 ran as well, if not better, than XP did for me on the same hardware. The laptop in question had 2G of memory so I don't know how well it would do with 1G though.

 

[Dessert Tears]

Now, my tight budget doesn't really have room for a $100 windows 7 upgrade to take full advantage of DX11 in my games. But would it be better to get Win8 for $15 than to kick around XP for a while longer?

I would wait for the release, see wider reviews, and make a decision before the $40 upgrade goes away. I think you should get off of XP, but going to 8 has pluses and minuses.

I upgraded from XP to 7 two months ago, but I had the budget and needed it to go with hardware upgrades: 64-bit (6 GB of RAM) and TRIM for my new SSD.

 

[nemesismk2]

Windows XP has always run my games better than Windows 7 (some of my games refuse to run at all with Windows 7) on my computer which is why I left one of my computers with Windows XP and the other with Windows 7. I have seen that Windows 8 does perform better with games then Windows 7 so will have to wait for more reviews to confirm this.

 

[88keys]

The only reason to Run XP at this point is if you have older hardware that can't handle 7/Vista.XP is scheduled will no longer be updated in by June 2014 so you'll have to upgrade soon whether you like it or not.

As for Upgrading to 8, I'd wait on that. I havent tried it myself, but I haven't heard alot of good things about it. M$ seems to have a consistient track record o f having every other OS being crappy..
Windows 98 was good, ME sucked, XP was good, Vista Sucked, 7 was good, and we'll see about Windows 8.

W2K wasn't included in the list because that was supposed to be a replacement for WNT.

Personally, I usually like to stay just behind the cutting edge of technology. I'll let everyone else pay the premium prices and deal with the issues of new tech while I lag behind on whats tried and true.

 

[FMX]

8 is trying to be something that its not IMO. Windows 7 is a worthy upgrade although your experience won't change drastically.

 

[DigDog]

oh for crying out loud just get W7 and be done with it