Vista 64, 32 or XP?

[K10]

i'm building a new intel Q6600 system with 4 gb ram and i can't decide on which OS to use: vista 64, 32 or plain ol' XP?

what criteria should i use to decide?

[wopsang]

Since you have 4 gigs of ram you need to consider that any 32 bit OS can only address 3.5 gigs of ram in total, which does not include your video card... so even less after your video card memory. (basically a wasted gig of ram)

So I would say Vista 64.

[DeaconFrost]

That's a system built for Vista x64. Unless you have some unique hardware that doesn't work with Vista, that's what I'd go with. If you need to run any old legacy apps in Xp, that's what Virtual PC 2007 is for. Also, I agree with the above. If you're going with 4 GB of system memory, don't waste it by running a x86 OS.

[zacdl]

That's a system built for Vista x64. Unless you have some unique hardware that doesn't work with Vista, that's what I'd go with. If you need to run any old legacy apps in Xp, that's what Virtual PC 2007 is for. Also, I agree with the above. If you're going with 4 GB of system memory, don't waste it by running a x86 OS.

Agree.
First step is establishing you want to use the RAM you bought: Requires 64 bit.
Vista 64 bit has MUCH better support than XP 64 bit.

Going Vista 64 is a no-brainer.

[K10]

thanks for the advice everyone. the only old app. i run is canon zoombrowser. as for hardware, everything is new except for my d-link wda-1320 wifi card, and i think there are vista 64 drivers for it.

vista 64 it is!

[l3ender]

Vista x64 no doubt. One, you wouldn't even want to consider running a 32-bit OS, and two, with newer hardware you should have no problems with compatibility. Vista x64 is great.

[Jordan1]

Vista 64! So far only problems for me are just printing to a shared printer on a XP machine.

[Catweazle]

According to the Canon website its 'ZoomBrowser' software is Vista-compatible from version 5.8 onwards. Be sure you have the updated version ;)

[heatlesssun]

Though you won't get the full 4GB out of you RAM, right now, I'd actually go with 32-bit Vista. It's going to have fewer compatibility problems for now. But that's just me, there are a couple of things that still don't quite work for me in 64bit, so I'm sticking to 32bit for now, at least till I build a rig >4GB RAM.

[mjz_5]

a friend has 64 bit vista, he likes it. I like it as well, if they fixed the stupid networking problems.. K sorry, i'm very sour about it..

[DeaconFrost]

But that's just me, there are a couple of things that still don't quite work for me in 64bit, so I'm sticking to 32bit for now, at least till I build a rig >4GB RAM.
What are those things that don't work in x64? Some of us may know of workarounds.

[heatlesssun]

My 64bit issues were fairly esoteric, dealing with .NET and remote debugging, though to be honest, the issues may very well be resolved. I've not check into recently.

I'm not saying that 64bit is a bad way to go. It's simply that 32bit will for a little while longer will have fewer compatibility/functionality issues, though by next year I would imagine that may no longer be true.

The Vista rig that I plan to build next year will be 6t4bit however. I just wanted a little more bake time before I went that route with my main rig.