I'm at that stage of needing to upgrade my main workstation for more performance by replacing some of the primary/working drives with solid state drives. Having to reinstall Win 7 in the process I'm contemplating if I should just put Win 8 instead for the longhaul - I can work around the change in interface but my main concern is how well the system works on multi-screen setups. I have 4 screens powered by 2 graphics cards - ATI 4850x2 and Nvidia 570gtx cards working together on the same system.
For those who has made the update and using multiscreen setups what has your experiences been so far with reliability and usability?
John M Hoyt
Posts: 284
Greenville, South Carolina, US
I sell and service computers for my actual living. Primarily business computers.
Windows 8 has a very high user satisfaction rate... But no more so than 7.
We have people running 4, and as many as 16 monitors on either OS without issues.
Win 8 does tend to give the impression to our customers that it is faster, but I'm not totally convinced that the same machine with win 7 wouldn't appear as fast to them.
Having both Nvidia and ATI on the same machine I think I had to install drivers in that order to make them work properly together else the system would go into BSOD mode trying to startup. Not sure if that will be the same case but with handling multiple monitors and color management has it been improved further with Win 8 or is it exactly the same as Win 7?
In win 7 the shell/explorer/IE were not color managed apps so on high gamut screens like the Dell 30" the images & thumbnails always looked over-saturated while the image itself is fine once opened.
I predict Windows 8 will go down in history as the biggest mistake (dare I say disaster) Microsoft ever made. Windows 7 has been the most solid release of Windows yet. I suggest reinstalling Win 7, or if you need to buy it, OEM disk of Windows 7 for $99+ on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_ … +windows+7
Wow...
I did a double-take when I saw this!
Can you explain a bit how you use this setup? I assume it's a home setup.
I use my PC primarily for editing photos and have just decided that 2 monitors is too many and will probably sell off my secondary (or more likely thrown in dumpster).
Incidentally I think that with PC sales collapsing (Dell reports it was down 13% last year) how long before computers get too expensive to build these extravagant setups.
Veit Photo
Posts: 563
London, England, United Kingdom
Chris David Photography wrote: In win 7 the shell/explorer/IE were not color managed apps so on high gamut screens like the Dell 30" the images & thumbnails always looked over-saturated while the image itself is fine once opened.
I get this too. Jpgs look different in virtually every ap in Win7. Thumbnails and previews can differ a lot in the same window. It's a bit crazy.
Sekkides
Posts: 69
London, England, United Kingdom
I used to use multi monitor, but now I'm down to a single 24inch and it's so much less cluttered.
I also have a 37inch TV as a second screen, and Win8 is quicker at chucking the display to that screen.. you also get a taskbar on all the screens with is a plus I guess.
I upgraded to Win8 two weeks ago because my boot drive failed and needed to buy a fresh one anyway. So far so good.. it's definitely faster. Especially when transferring files.
The start screen is nicer than that silly little start menu, and as long as you just pin desktop apps and don't try to mix the modern ones with desktop mode then it's like running 7 with a nicer launcher.
The ONE niggle I had was that the file explorer and 'computer' shortcuts were the same and I wanted them seperate. But a quick google solved this.
Veit Photo
Posts: 563
London, England, United Kingdom
Creative Concept Studio wrote:
There are really only 4 monitors. I took a picture of this setup - well - because I could.
The iPad was only a test and not used at all.
I use the Samsung 37" TV for occasionally watching TV - I do use it when I fool around with tethered macro shots - makes it easier to focus.
The remaining 4 monitors are used at different times for different reasons. Primarily when photo editing.
Monitor 1 is primary with PS CS6.
Monitor 3 is the open directory of images I'm working with in an editing session and Pandora control.
Monitor 2 is where I place the PS panels for quick access without cluttering up the main PS screen.
Monitor 4 is where I keep to browser open whatever.
Is it overkill - yup. Is it cool - yup.
Is it spooky - sometimes....
Ray
In that case I have to wonder about the ergonomics of this setup. I got rid of my secondary display because having a second display meant I would freeze my neck in a left or right position for long periods of time and this started to hurt. Having one display straight on and set up at the optimal angle means I get far fewer phantom headaches.
You seem to have monitors so high that without higher alternative seating you are probably doing yourself damage.
So is it cool? Probably not
Veit Photo wrote: In that case I have to wonder about the ergonomics of this setup. I got rid of my secondary display because having a second display meant I would freeze my neck in a left or right position for long periods of time and this started to hurt. Having one display straight on and set up at the optimal angle means I get far fewer phantom headaches.
You seem to have monitors so high that without higher alternative seating you are probably doing yourself damage.
So is it cool? Probably not
Only the upper right monitor is above optimal viewing height. If I need to do anything but glance at it I drag the application to the lower center monitor. Like to reply to your post.
The three 'main' monitors are not an issue, and usually only require eye movement while I select the image or process I need to use in the main window.
Yup, I think it's not only cool but the setup fits my work style pretty well or I wouldn't be doing it this way.
You adjusted your setup to fit your needs, so did I.
Ray
[edit] My 'niggle' is that I sometime loose the mouse pointer --- "Where the hell is it now?"
Veit Photo
Posts: 563
London, England, United Kingdom
Creative Concept Studio wrote: Only the upper right monitor is above optimal viewing height. If I need to do anything but glance at it I drag the application to the lower center monitor. Like to reply to your post.
The three 'main' monitors are not an issue, and usually only require eye movement while I select the image or process I need to use in the main window.
Yup, I think it's not only cool but the setup fits my work style pretty well or I wouldn't be doing it this way.
You adjusted your setup to fit your needs, so did I.
Ray
[edit] My 'niggle' is that I sometime loose the mouse pointer --- "Where the hell is it now?"
Yes, although to some extent we have the same needs. Or you could say we are both human and it's our bodies that dictate what is a healthy setup, not our needs.
Whatever. Have a look at ergonomic recommendations for monitor placement. Whoever is in charge of health and safety in your country should have a good website about it. Apart from your top tier you're looking pretty good (I'm assuming you don't actually work under those lighting conditions!), but there are still a few things you could do that would help you work longer and extend your working life.
Randall_Oelerich wrote: I predict Windows 8 will go down in history as the biggest mistake (dare I say disaster) Microsoft ever made. Windows 7 has been the most solid release of Windows yet. I suggest reinstalling Win 7, or if you need to buy it, OEM disk of Windows 7 for $99+ on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_ … +windows+7
I dont recall the OP asking for this opinion so please quit with the trolling and let the OP get some answers to their question? we don't want this thread locked. For future reference, if you are going to provide an answer please also provide a reason why you are making such a prediction. Nobody cares what you think unless you have something reasonable in the way of facts to back it up.
I' still waiting on making the move so tricks like driver install order are going in my book for future reference.
I' still waiting on making the move so tricks like driver install order are going in my book for future reference.
Ya know there were no tricks with Win8. I had the two nVidia GTX 470s and just plugged in the monitors with DVI cables - HDMI does not work as digital. Win8 picked up everything just fine. i adjusted the display location in the 'Display Resolution' box and was off and running.
Win8 also natively allows for using a different images on each monitor.
Veit Photo wrote: In that case I have to wonder about the ergonomics of this setup. I got rid of my secondary display because having a second display meant I would freeze my neck in a left or right position for long periods of time and this started to hurt. Having one display straight on and set up at the optimal angle means I get far fewer phantom headaches.
You seem to have monitors so high that without higher alternative seating you are probably doing yourself damage.
So is it cool? Probably not
I have two monitors*, my main one is basically straight in front and my secondary is rotated vertically off to the right side of it. Works fine in 8, just like previous versions. I'm still using my Spyder 3 Pro to calibrate both and it's worked fine in 8. Win 8 also has native support for more background options and more intelligent taskbar behavior (like location sensitive icons, etc). I no longer use Ultramon on my multimonitor setup.
To other people talking about it being faster: I don't know if 8 is faster than 7 because I went from a Core 2 Quad Q9450 (OC'd to 3.2GHz) with 8GB of RAM on a 300GB velociraptor to a i7-3770k, 32GB RAM and an SSD when I built my new workstation and put 8 on it (the only internal component that carried over was my video card). Obviously it is far from a fair comparison.
I can say 8 is every bit as stable and pleasant to use as 7. There are some great new shortcuts and the new taskmanager and ribbon interface in Windows Explorer are surprisingly nice to use. I haven't bothered to install a start menu replacement because the start menu has largely become just a big search box for me with recent versions of Windows anyway. My biggest complaint so far is how 8 separates search results in the "metro screen" in to categories and you have to open each category where as in Vista or 7 they were all out in the open.
*Technically three because I have a 15 foot HDMI cable hooking my computer up to my home theater if I want to watch any videos or listen to music on my computer from my couch rather than my computer chair.
I moved from Win7 and Win8 on both my home machine and work laptop using 2 monitors on each, and have never ran into any issues. Is it worth the $$ for the upgrade? I paid $40, and ya, its worth it for what I need and use. Would I pony up the $100 or more? Probably not.
Michael Pandolfo wrote: Windows 8 can nibble on my left testi.
Why do people always suggest the left one?
I'm passing on 8 as well. I have the free upgrade, but ... meh. Every review I've ever read says that if you turn off all the extra app-based BS, you basically have a copy of Windows 7 that takes up more space. In other words, don't bother to upgrade until they stop supporting 7.
I actually think that 8 will end up being a great thing for Microsoft. If you think about what is really does, is it allows users to navigate using a similar, simple interface like they do with their phones or tablets; but unlike those other devices, it's connected to a much more powerful machine. Since your average computer user is concerned primarily with ease of use, it's basically all benefit for them. And while it doesn't make any improvements for higher-end users, it doesn't hamper them any either, aside from taking up a bit more space.
Oh, and don't sweat the sRGB, non-colour-managed space that Windows 7 uses. It sucks, but that's the default for just about everything. I don't think PowerMacs use the same space (I believe it's a proprietary Apple space that is larger than sRGB), but nothing that I'm aware of uses AdobeRGB as an OS default, unless you've got some way to hack it to do that. So your photos will always look different in your browser and PS, at least for the foreseeable future. It's a downer, but since you can't really fix it without some serious programming skills, I wouldn't lose sleep over it.
AVD AlphaDuctions wrote: I dont recall the OP asking for this opinion so please quit with the trolling and let the OP get some answers to their question? ...
Calling me a troll is pretty strong language. The OP did in fact bring up the concern over installing Win 7 versus Win 8 (OP: "Having to reinstall Win 7 in the process I'm contemplating if I should just put Win 8 instead...", which I addressed by pointing out how horrible Windows 8 is (google 'Windows 8 is a disaster'),
https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl= … 20disaster almost all the Tech pundits are blasting Win 8 as exactly what I pointed out), helping the OP perhaps think about sticking to his notion of reinstalling Win 7 over making a move to Win 8.
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