Finally Have Windows 7 Installed. Cleaned Out and Rearranged My PCs. Also, Some Gaming With Laynix.

Last Friday, I received my copy of Windows 7 and my Western Digital 1 TB Caviar Black hard drive. During the weekend (part of Saturday morning, and late Saturday night, until 3:00 A.M. this morning), I readied my PC and installed it. Once my PCs were up and running, Laynix and I got to playing some games.

Windows 7 has given me no problems at all. The install was surprisingly quicker than I expected. There is only one thing that has pissed me off quite a lot, and that is that Creative has yet to make drivers that are compatible with Windows 7. Funny enough, recently my Creative HD7600 mouse has been giving me problems too. I took a look on the website, and they have basically dropped support for mice, and there’s no driver solutions at all for the sound card. This pretty much ends my run with Creative and their products. I just ordered a budget sound card, the Asus Xonar DS. After shipping, it’s $70 (after express shipping cost), but there’s a $15 mail-in rebate, which I will take advantage of. I’ve ready some reviews, and it seems like it could be one of the best budget cards. I can’t deal with the RealTek on-board sound. It’s horrible, as I have now noticed.

Anyway, enough bitching about Creative. Windows 7 is very easy to install and works very well otherwise. I can finally take advantage of my DX 10 video card (since I was running Windows XP and not shitty Vista). I’m noticing the difference with the games that I have installed that support DX 10. I installed BioShock 2 finally, and it’s working well. More on BioShock 2 when I finally do play it. I’ll be playing through the original BioShock for the story (just quickly on easy) and then I’ll plow my way through 2.

Before installing Windows 7, I decided I would take apart and rearrange the components in both of my PCs. This was a bit time consuming, but I finished it all before and after my shift on Saturday. No problems here, other than my lack of space in my PC cases. I wish I had a bigger one, like Laynix’s. The system I am now running is getting a bit old, but is still a decent gaming system.

My system specs are as follows:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 2.33 GHz (overlocked to 3.4 GHz), Scythe Ninja Tower Heat Sink, Asus P5Q Pro Motherboard, 4 GB of Mushkin DDR2-1066 RAM, BFG nVidia 8800 GTX video card, running on-board sound until my Asus Xonar DS comes in, 2 x 500 GB Maxtor and 1 x 1 TB Western Digital HDD, a Corsair 650W PSU, and I am using my Samsung SyncMaster T240HD 24″ Monitor.

Laynix and I didn’t actually do any PC gaming, but I did bring my Playstation 3 over. Laynix borrowed his cousin’s copy of M.A.G. and let me use it so we could play online together. That game is definitely awesome, and I will purchase it at some point. It reminds me of Team Fortress Classic at the beginning, but a bit more…serious, and not cartoony. The controls are pretty easy to grasp, and it’s fast and fun gameplay. Your character gains experience for each kill and for healing comrades. Depending on how you kill an enemy, you’ll get varying amounts of experience. You level up your character and you can then unlock new skills or improve reload times, and whatnot. It’s a bit addictive, and I think Laynix would agree. I only reached level 5 and then decided I was too tired to continue. I was getting a bit cranky.

I finally tried out the Aliens vs. Predator 3 demo for the PC, and it’s definitely going to be good once the game releases. I also tried out Dante’s Inferno, and played through the content that was available in the demo. I tried using the promo code that came with Dante’s Inferno Divine Edition, but I guess the content isn’t available? The code didn’t work, but it has release dates for the content. Hopefully that means I will get it when it’s released. It’s a good game though, and will be playing through it. I still need to finished up Bayonetta (I am on Chapter 5 in that), and I want Hard Rain as well (tried the demo, and liked it). There is definitely not enough time for all of this.

That was my weekend. I’m hoping I can close up Bayonetta sometime soon, but I don’t know when. Aliens vs. Predator will take over my life this week, and I can’t wait. More on all of this to come soon. Anyone seeking more information on Aliens vs. Predator 3 should check out AvP Source.