Vista or XP

[markiemrboo]

Vista x64

[Timmy94]

If you have plenty of RAM, and a 64-bit edition of vista, then go for that.

[dling]

Go with Vista64, XP will lose support from Microsoft very soon.

Edited March 26, 2009 by dling

[Verran]

If you go Vista, you should absolutely get 64-Bit. We'll all slap you if you don't

 

But either way, you'll probably be fine. There's really not wrong answer here. If you had 4GB of ram, I'd say Vista for sure. But 2GB is a little iffy IMO. It'd probably be fine, but it could be a bit sluggish. If you turn off Aero and all that, Vista would be fine on 2GB, but most people want Vista mainly for Aero

 

I highly recommend a dual boot of XP 32 and Vista 64 these days. That's what I do. But if you don't already own XP, that's too much money I'd bet. Given the price of memory though, I'd say get Vista 64 and some more RAM

[abid]

vista x64 and a nice 4gb ram.....

[fire_storm]

I'd say vista 64 bit based on your system specs.

[ARandomOWL]

Who needs MS support anyway <_< Has anyone ever actually used them?

[Fogel]

XP

 

Especially if you already have the XP install disc. No point buying Vista only to upgrade to Windows 7 later. If don't already have XP but have a Vista install disc, than go Vista and buy 2GB more RAM. If you don't have either O/S than go XP-SP3.

 

 

And btw, you don't need Vista-64 to make use of 4GB... while XP may only show you with 3.2GB, it will use the rest if it needs it.

 

Only go Vista if you need things to look pretty. If you want something light and works great with awesome driver support, XP-SP3.

[Waco]

And btw, you don't need Vista-64 to make use of 4GB... while XP may only show you with 3.2GB, it will use the rest if it needs it.

Wrong wrong wrong! There is only so much address space available and all of the upper memory space is used for device addressing (like video cards). He would get at most 3 GB and probably less (since he has a 1 GB video card).

Edited March 26, 2009 by Waco

[Fogel]

Wrong wrong wrong! There is only so much address space available and all of the upper memory space is used for device addressing (like video cards). He would get at most 3 GB and probably less (since he has a 1 GB video card).

I did not look at his video card so neglected that fact.

A better way to state it is, Windows XP will recognize 4GB of RAM. (ram sticks + vid card)

 

XP can manage 4GB of memory despite the device addressing. It showing 3.2GB "available" is a misnomer.

 

In order to need 5GB though (he currently as 3GB) you really need to be running something memory instensive on XP to need to hit that need. And if your tasks are making you hit that, than you're better off going with 6GB in Vista-64. I seriously doubt he is hitting that need.

 

You can run Windows XP just fine with 4GB in RAM sticks and a 1GB video card and decide to upgrade to Windows 7 later. XP will just ignore that extra 1GB.

[Waco]

XP will just ignore that extra 1GB.

That's what I was saying. It can address the full memory space, it can't address all of the memory.

 

With my video card I'd have less than 2 GB available in XP 32 or Vista 32.

[IVIYTH0S]

Not out yet, still in beta, not permanent, etc. There's no reason to install it as a main OS.

I run as my main OS because although it's a beta it's way faster than Vista was, and still looks better. I even installed it on my laptop since both of my computers took a liking to it rather well (drivers worked great). I tried to put it on my friend's crappy gateway laptop and alot of the drivers didn't work so I just gave him Vista (which is brutal with 1 gb of memory).

 

Vista is great if you have 4gb, that's all it asks for. I vote Vista x64, unless you want to wait for windows 7 to be released, I'd recommend atleast giving the beta a try :thumbs-up: