Some hardware and software help need with windows 7

[Xenon]

Alright its time for the transition from XP to Win7 64bit since I skipped Vista.

Present rig after upgrading from a 6 year old pc.

Proccy : AMD Athlon II X4 620 (2.6Ghz)
Mobo : ASUS M4A785STD-V EVO
Memory : Transcend DDR3-1333 2x2GB RAM
Storage : WD Caviar Blue 500GB X 3 + WD Caviar Green 500GB X 1
VGA : ati onboard HD 4200 GPU (128MB Sideport memory + 128 shared memory from RAM)
Display : Ancient CRT 17" monitor carried over due to lack of funds
PSU : Coolermaster Real Power Pro (80+ bronze cert.) 460W

Hardware questions
While the windows 7 upgrade advisor says im all ready to go, I doubt how much can the onboard graphics handle the aero interface. While the 785G chipset has one of the best onboard graphics, will it be able to handle the win 7 interface while also running other programs which would make use of the GPU ?

Im not gaming right now and I have a plan to buy a GPU within $150 range sometime in two months. Occasionally play warcraft as of now, that's all.

Also how much space should I allot to the C: drive for windows 7 ? One of the WD 500GB Blue is still in RAW state so ill do the partitioning and formatting on it for the first time and dump win 7 there. I plan to remove XP since its on the WD green drive which is quite slow,

Software questions
Important software for me are the following, while Im sure that Adobe CS3 stuff will work on the 64bit win 7, im not sure of the rest.

Photoshop CS3 ,
Dreamweaver CS3,
Total video converter,
Microsoft Visual studio 2005
MySQL (Currently on version 6, planning to move onto 7)

and Borland C++ compiler. The borland C++ is really ancient (for 16bit pcs) and im wondering which C++ complier would work flawlessly on win7 ?

Also regarding security, ill be using my existing norton internet security 2010 + Comodo firewall for 64bit win 7. I am not aware of issues arising of usage of NIS 2010 on 64bit win7. If there are any please notify.

EDIT:-
Any other preinstallation stuff I need to do ? The BIOS has been updated to the most recent april release. Any settings need to be altered on the BIOS setting screen ?

Thank you,
Xen

 

[Thrax]

Your hardware is more than capable of handling Windows 7, including Aero.

I recommend a 25GB Windows 7 partition, provided you're good at keeping programs/data off C: (which you should be anyhow, as it'll save reformat time later).

Photoshop CS3 will work. Dreamweaver CS3 will work. Total video converter will probably work. I can't say about VS 2005 or SQL 6. Finally, you can run your Borland compiler in Windows XP mode if you purchased Windows 7 Pro.

If you have a router, I recommend you dump both Norton Internet Security and Comodo. Hardware routers have the most effective inbound firewall possible, rendering the programs completely redundant. For antivirus purposes, switch to AVIRA or AVAST (free), both of which have superior detection rates than Symantec's producs.

 

[Xenon]

Thank you for the reply !

I usually install programs in (D drive and data like photos,videos,music are on another partition as well. Only install some critical programs like antivirus / firewall etc in C: drive.

My router is a UT-Starcom WA3002G4 (ADSL 2+), it does have a firewall but its a bit tedious to configure it =\

I've never tried Avira. Where do i get a proper, fully functional trial ?
I used to run avast(free) an year ago but it didn't quite do the job well. It detected viruses but most of the time unable to clean them.

 

[andsome]

Download and run this first. It will check your computer and advise if any updates are needed to run Windows 7,

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...90-7659-4bd9-9e51-2497c146af15&displaylang=en

 

[Xenon]

The installation went perfectly well and all programs are running properly. 32-Bit programs are happy in the x86 Program files. Only will have to see whether Borland C++ installs or not.

w7 is definitely much faster and uses the resources it has in a better way.