Been building systems for near 10 years. Have run two with XP Pro 32 bit and two with XP Pro x64. I was reluctant to change from Win98SE to XP, but did so. Never entirely trusted MS either, but had to in order to play Civ.
Recently, I purchased Civ5. Loaded it onto my gaming rig with XP Pro x64 bit and it crashed, and crashed, and crashed. Couldn't get it to work. Finally, in frustration, got a copy of Win7 Ultimate (at a great price). Reloaded my system and, viola, Civ5 ran without so much as a hiccup. Have been very please with Win7 thus far and have no issues with any software compatibility with my older games. Not sure why you have had issues with crashes, but Win7 has been rock solid for me no matter what I have thrown at it.
As with the others, I recommend trying to figure out why Win7 will not work. My guess, from years of working with systems, is that it is a driver issue.
Whatever you decide, wish you good luck with your system.
I've been building since about '94....enjoyed a Boot subscription which morphed into
a Maximum PC one
still a decent rag of sorts, it just gave CIV 5 a pretty good review
I had no bangs in this system when I had Win7 64 pro on it
and with WHQL certified drivers, I doubt it was a driver issue
I stayed away from a hardware upgrade that was so new I'd have issues
been there done that
I went with a bulletproof, tried and tested approach
Asus M3A78 pro mobo which the previous poster thinks is ancient
and who obviously ran a beta version of Win 7 unless he forgot when it actually came on the market
I bought my 5 copies of Win7 64 pro in Dec after it hit the market commercially
ran it on 5 new upgrade builds...one for me and 4 for clients
and then went through 3 weeks of hell......didn't have a single driver issue on any of them
recycled the mice and keyboards and a couple of the sound cards
otherwise, everything else was new including oversized solid dependable powersupplies
all of them passed the burn in with flying colors
Stayed away from the solid state drives....the issues there are not completely resolved
dropped doing a raid array and went with a simple and separate main and backup drive
Loaded the OS on 5 of them and thought ok this is cool...drivers were picked up
and installed tickety boo....
For a brief time....I was estatic...thought the OS rocked....
burned them all in....and then started loading their various softwares and mine
and that's when it went to crap starting with the anti-virus
It was like Jesus K-rist! will nothing work on this stinking OS?
It was like marrying your worst nightmare of a woman....
a Jekyl and Hyde she monster
and then moving around in it while working to problem solve
by the end of that 3 weeks, I hated it.
Just when it looked like I had the bugs worked out
something that previously worked ...wouldn't
only one had a hardware issue and that was a WD hd that suddenly failed
It had passed the burn in....but puked after a week
replaced it and that was resolved...
With XP64pro the only bang I had was the ACPI\ATK0110 one and that's been fixed
Win 7 64 bit OS's have issues running some 32 bit programs and still does...
and is unsupported by various software makers.
This is a fact that the kool aid drinkers won't accept
The CIA & the FBI won't use a Win 7 64 bit OS because some of their forensic software completely crashes the system
XP had a decent 10 yr run.....I replace/rebuild about every 3 yrs on average
though some clients have been stubborn because of cost
but once they get a new system and it's always blazing compared to the old
they're happy...
Some are on Win 7 32 bit & for them it's a love hate relationship
Some had me take them back to XP 32 bit with SP3 and they're happy again
95, 98, 98SE, Millenium, XP.....there were always a few issues, but always resolved them
Never had issues like I ran into with Win 7 64 pro that I couldn't resolve
even when going through the whiz bang period where everyone wanted the biggest and fastest
and 30 days later....it wouldn't be the fastest anymore....
and that was after you'd just get everything running smooth and not have any drivers issues
with that previous latest & fastest video card they just had to have
Vista...good god...what a mess....and one I passed on
too many software compatibility issues
one that was easily fixed by sticking with a XP system
I had hoped by Win7 they had the bugs worked out
and moved forward only to end up hating it
Keep trying to get away from building systems since have only done it to keep
some of my small business clients happy....succeeded for a short while when Vista
hit the scene, had a good company that would build to spec and deliver
and every client either stayed with XP or went back to it
A lot of people that are 40-60 that were happy with a XP system
they hate Win 7....
these are people that have $ to spend & MS has ticked them off
they're tired of constant upgrades between hardware, OS's, and software
A lot finally became happy with XP....Vista ticked them off
Win 7 hasn't earned their trust either
I'm not looking forward to seeing 128-256-512-1024 bit processors and the subsequent OS's
My guess is when we make those particular hardware advances
We'll probably see a new OS rise up and dethrone Microsoft since MS is obviously on the wrong track
Bill Gates moved on because he saw the writing on the wall
and the new CEO is on the wrong track, imo
PC games once helped drive the PC revolution
Hardware advances are what's going to drive us to a new OS
People want things to be simple....Chrome's success is an example
but what the heck....according to some....all my computer needs to do
is give good service thru Dec 2012
because then the world is going to end and Win 7 won't matter
I pretty much work on the Fool me once, Shame on you,
Fool me twice, shame on me principle
So I went backwards to XP64 pro since that's what a lot of others who had a similar experience with Win 7 64 bit os did.....
and XP 32 pro with SP 3 for those who were happy with it
I'm sure we'll all be fine for the next 2 or so years when it'll be time for a hardware upgrade again
we may have to pass on a PC game or two
but it's a lot more fun to sit back in your lazy boy and play a game with say a PS3
on a 50+" Plasma or LCD tv with a remote controller
than to sit at a desk with a PC game
I'll probably just do CIV 3 & 4 for now
something to do in between compiling data and other work
I might get a bug up my arse and build a new unit with 4 processors and multiple vid cards and enough ram to stagger even my imagination and put a giant LCD on the wall for fun when I move to my new office
and see how Win 7 Ultimate does with it just for fun
but it's more likely I'll get a barrel & bolt kit for my Windrunner in .416 Barrett and set up to reload for it
I'm kinda over farting around with PCs
thanks for the decent reply though