Hi guys, my new pc parts will be arriving monday/tuesday (E6750, 2 gig Twinx PC6400 DDR2, 8800GTS) and im really not up to date on the whole vista scene.

Ive heard of driver problems and bad performance in games and as im a gamer this obviously presents problems. Has Vista been sorted to an acceptable level?

I have all 4 operating systems to choose from, that is Windowx XP Pro 32 and 64 bit editions and Vista business 32 bit with the 64bit version arriving in the post sometime soon (Yay for being a student and academic alliance giving me free microsoft products).

So the question is simple, with said setup what would you guys recommend i should install?

Vista Home Premium 64 / XP 32 dual boot

Deffo go with 64bit Vista in case you decide to add 2gb more and the 64bit version of XP is sposed to be cack?

Ive no idea on xp 64, part of the reason im asking as my knowledge of operating systems is dire. The vista's i have are business editions not home premium, not sure what difference that makes (they are the versions available to me through my unis academic alliance). I had to go onto the microsoft site and ask to upgrade it to a 64bit version, which having given my product key just costs delivery (7 quid) but it said to give atleast 28 days for delivery and i cant really wait that long

I guess install XP 32bit and then install vista 64 when it arrives? (unless it causes problems installing xp first?), Also orderd a 2 gig corsair USB stick for when i do have vista.

Apart from the obvious DX10 aspect of vista, is there really any other reason to use it over XP?

Not really, I now sorta like it after getting used to it over several months. There's several things that really annoy me with it though.

It's much smoother than XP for work, especially while you have a USB stick in as cache, but games do run a bit slower.

What about the dual booting mani? does it matter which you install first? ive done a little reading and it seems abit faffy to get it working aswell. is it really worth having vista installed at all for me? MY pc is basically for games, internet browsing and chatting and doing assignments.

it's not that faffy. And if you have it, why not?

Basically just partition your disk before you install XP and lave a free one for Vista, then you can choose to install it later

how much space should i leave for vista? will have a 500gb SATAII WD Cavier in it.

Cheers for the help btw

O and this obviously means i cant duck out of PC reviews now, darn it

150gb should be plenty if you want to install loads of software

I'm on a dual boot Vista/XP 32 too. Easily the best option, best of both worlds. To be honest, I only ever use Vista for office stuff anyway - the difference is cosmetic as much as anything.

Getting it on a dual boot wasn't too tricky - there are loads of tutorials knocking about on the net, but it's all pretty straightforward. Go for it.

Quote: poog
. The vista's i have are business editions not home premium, not sure what difference that makes (they are the versions available to me through my unis academic alliance).

I have the 64 bit Buisness version, it supports more Ram (home is only 8gb, buissness 128GB) there are also more networking options and less entertainment stuff.

and so far no probs duel booting with XP (i installed xp first)

Cheers for the heads up fellas. Reo did you get yours from the "institute" aswell via academic alliance? if so did you have to apply for a 64bit one to be deliverd from the site? as thats what i did.






p.s. the "institute" is the place in grimsby we both study at

No I got mine with hard case (aka £50 from over clockers )