Vista 64 bit or XP?

C

CousinVin

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 11, 2009
Messages
393
I'm almost done with my first build (ordering parts still) and I need some advice. A TON of my friends keep telling me to just go with XP, but its going to be a gaming computer, and since they are making some games specifically for Vista now, thats where I'm leaning. Also, its bound to happen that Vista will just overtake XP once the kinks are worked out. Is there any reason to go with XP instead of Vista?

This is going to be the build:

AMD Phenom II X4 940
OCZ HPC Reaper 4gb (2x2gb sticks) 1066 Ram
Corsair TX750W PSU
1TB Seagate hdd
ASUS M3A78-T motherboard
 
Go with Vista x64, it's a great OS, you'll enjoy it. And stop listening to people who don't know what they're talking about.
 
I like Vista64 but if I was looking for a new OS today and didn't already have Vista64 I would just use the free Win7 64bit beta and then buy that when it is released. Why buy Vista now when soon it will be superseded by the better Win7?
 
CousinVin said:
Also, its bound to happen that Vista will just overtake XP once the kinks are worked out.
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The kinks have been world out for over a year now, at least. Vista has been equal to, or in some cases, better for gaming than XP. Add-in the other benefits of Vista, and it is a no-brainer. In the future, you might want to ignore your friends advice, considering they seem to be about a year or so stale with their info.
 
If somebody already owns Windows XP and doesn't want to pay the money to upgrade, that's one thing. But to go out and purchase another Windows XP license, when Windows Vista is now on the market, and Windows 7 is looming on the horizon, well, that's just dumb.

Both Vista and Windows 7 are a lot faster than XP, from what I've seen so far, and I see no reason to use XP in this day and age.
 
I was happy to see this thread because I was also curious about 32 vs. 64. I remember the initial concerns about hardware drivers and was wondering if the transition to supporting 64 bit has been made by most of the major manufacturers. Are there issues running 32 bit apps?

Most of what I've found on the web is either old or just uninformative. I would be willing to go to 64 bit for my new system but I don't want to curse myself if I wind up with a system that won't run most of my software or hates all the hardware I throw at it. :D
 
Even if the info you read is a little old, that doesn't change the fact that Vista x64 has been a perfectly good OS for quite some time now. Only in very unique situations have the drivers been missing or not stable, and it would always be for some hardware that can be easily replaced. You wouldn't be cursing yourself at all. I do want to point out though, if you are asking if 32 bit apps will run on it, you haven't done much, if any, reading on the subject. I'll save you the time....they'll run just fine, aside from some system utilities that will require x64 versions.
 
rbanzai said:
I was happy to see this thread because I was also curious about 32 vs. 64. I remember the initial concerns about hardware drivers and was wondering if the transition to supporting 64 bit has been made by most of the major manufacturers. Are there issues running 32 bit apps?
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64-Bit Vista runs 32-bit apps just as fast as 32-bit Vista can thanks to the WoW64 subsystem (Windows on Windows 64). There is no performance loss and 32-bit applications run as if they were running on a regular 32-bit OS.

Like DeaconFrost said, some utilities like virus scanners and disk defragmenters have to be designed for a 64-bit OS since they tie so heavily into the system, but most games and applications will run flawlessly on 64-bit Vista.
As for hardware, Microsoft requires hardware manufacturers to make 32 and 64-bit Vista drivers if they want to say their hardware is Vista compatible, thus 64-bit Vista hardware support is almost identical to 32-bit Vista.
 
AbJ32 said:
If somebody already owns Windows XP and doesn't want to pay the money to upgrade, that's one thing. But to go out and purchase another Windows XP license, when Windows Vista is now on the market, and Windows 7 is looming on the horizon, well, that's just dumb.

Both Vista and Windows 7 are a lot faster than XP, from what I've seen so far, and I see no reason to use XP in this day and age.
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Exactly. In any case, Vista 64 all the way.
 
Thanks for the info. I need to do a bit of reading to see if my utilities have 64 bit versions. That's the only thing I can imagine holding me back since everything else appears to be taken care of.
 
just out of curiosity, where would I find the Windows 7 beta?

EDIT: WOW I'm dumb.... I just google it and found it on the microsoft site... Do you guys think its worth using Windows 7 as a temporary OS? I don't want to lose anything when the license expires.
 
CousinVin said:
Do you guys think its worth using Windows 7 as a temporary OS? I don't want to lose anything when the license expires.
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If you don't have a copy of Vista then sure, otherwise I would just stick with Vista for now.

Keep in mind that it is a beta and it will have bugs. While data loss is unlikely it is possible (there was already a bug where 7 was corrupting MP3 files). Make sure you keep good backups. If you don't already have an external hard drive or something this would be a good time to get one. The beta will expire on August 1, 2009, so you'll need to get all your important stuff off the machine before then.
 
DeathFromBelow said:
If you don't have a copy of Vista then sure, otherwise I would just stick with Vista for now.

Keep in mind that it is a beta and it will have bugs. While data loss is unlikely it is possible (there was already a bug where 7 was corrupting MP3 files). Make sure you keep good backups. If you don't already have an external hard drive or something this would be a good time to get one. The beta will expire on August 1, 2009, so you'll need to get all your important stuff off the machine before then.
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Will there be an upgrade path from the RC to the RTM version? I don't remember what happened with Vista RC2.
 
Forget vista, just stick with xp until windows 7. No reason to go to vista if windows 7 is coming out sometime this year. Just get more ram or another hard drive. I wouldn't really trust deathfrombelows benchmarks all the way either when a majority of other benchmarks show that windows xp x64 is faster in a lot of stuff also. Either way it levels out and both are pretty much the same but once you go in dx10 territory it starts to change a little. Even then though i wouldn't waste money on vista when theres another OS is just around the corner thats faster and slimmer in every way.
 
Conker said:
I wouldn't really trust deathfrombelows benchmarks all the way either when a majority of other benchmarks show that windows xp x64 is faster in a lot of stuff also.
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Oh please. Not you again. :rolleyes:

How about you spend a weekend benchmarking and get back to us before you start attacking my credibility.
 
rampantandroid said:
Will there be an upgrade path from the RC to the RTM version? I don't remember what happened with Vista RC2.
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I may be wrong, but I don't recall any ways of doing so. I also couldn't imagine why you'd want to, when the final version is the final code....not a release candidate, which can still have issues. Your best bet would be to do a clean install with the final version anyway.
Conker said:
I wouldn't really trust deathfrombelows benchmarks all the way either when a majority of other benchmarks show that windows xp x64 is faster in a lot of stuff also.
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It is true, there are benchmarks out there where XP x64 is faster. Problem is, they are all very old. So, if you want to bash DeathFromBelow with old information, be my guest. If you want to live in the present time, Vista x64 is faster. Considering you can get a copy fairly cheap, and there's no release date for Windows 7 yet, there's little reason to sit on your hands and wait for something to be released when a very stable, very fast OS is already available, with mature drivers and mature application support.
 
I wouldn't buy XP or Vista right now for a new gaming rig (assuming that you need to purchase a license). I would just run the Win7 beta and purchase a 7 license when it debuts.
 
There are no guarantees that you will be able to run a beta or RC code up to, or past the date in which the retail versions will be available. Then what are you supposed to do?
 
Buy the license then (whether it's Vista or 7). It's worth the gamble to not buy Vista now and hope that 7 comes out before the beta or RC code expires.
 
But I would be able to just run off of Windows 7 (the beta), as my primary OS though right? I don't have ANY OS right now.
 
now, if I use this and then it expires, as long as I back up my info before it expires, I could recover it on a vista OS right?
 
CousinVin said:
now, if I use this and then it expires, as long as I back up my info before it expires, I could recover it on a vista OS right?
Click to expand...

Correct. Although backing up stuff isn't absolutely necessary, when you install windows it doesn't touch anything on your drive except your windows, users, and program files folders, unless you command it to format the drive during install.
 
devil22 said:
Correct. Although backing up stuff isn't absolutely necessary, when you install windows it doesn't touch anything on your drive except your windows, users, and program files folders, unless you command it to format the drive during install.
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so if the liciense expires and I just install Vista, it will keep all my info as long as its on my hard drive?

This is just my first build, and I've never gone through changing operating systems
 
CousinVin said:
so if the liciense expires and I just install Vista, it will keep all my info as long as its on my hard drive?

This is just my first build, and I've never gone through changing operating systems
Click to expand...

Just create separate partitions for the OS and your data when you install the 7 beta. That way whenever its time to upgrade you can just wipe the partition with the 7 beta and install the new OS there. All your data on the second partition will still be accessible.
 
DeathFromBelow said:
Just create separate partitions for the OS and your data when you install the 7 beta. That way whenever its time to upgrade you can just wipe the partition with the 7 beta and install the new OS there. All your data on the second partition will still be accessible.
Click to expand...

makes sense. Isn't the Windows 7 beta like 16 GB?
 
Conker said:
I wouldn't really trust deathfrombelows benchmarks all the way either when a majority of other benchmarks show that windows xp x64 is faster in a lot of stuff also.
Click to expand...

I personally WOULD trust his benchmarks, since they are verbatim what my personal experience has shown. If you would like to perform your own detailed benchmark, and post your results, along with the thorough logistics of your testing so they may be scrutinized for accuracy, then maybe you'll have room to go dissin' on other people's benchmarks when said benchmarks match the real world experience of a very large number of people.
 
DeathFromBelow said:
Just create separate partitions for the OS and your data when you install the 7 beta. That way whenever its time to upgrade you can just wipe the partition with the 7 beta and install the new OS there. All your data on the second partition will still be accessible.
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Yep, this should be a given by now, to store your data on a separate drive or partition.
 
Don't listen to these people, OP. They want you to feel as miserable as them for getting tricked into wasting money on that horrible OS.

Go for XP, then get Windows 7 when it comes out.
 
mknlb50 said:
Don't listen to these people, OP. They want you to feel as miserable as them for getting tricked into wasting money on that horrible OS.
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Are you serious? Do you think people will listen to you, spouting this FUD that you know damn well isn't true? Wow.

Funny thing is, I've been running Vista since the day it was released, and I don't feel miserable at all. I think you are sadly mistaken and misguided, and unfortunately choose to buy into the bullshit.
 
mknlb50 said:
Don't listen to these people, OP. They want you to feel as miserable as them for getting tricked into wasting money on that horrible OS.

Go for XP, then get Windows 7 when it comes out.
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The lack of facts really makes you sound silly.

If you'd like people to actually listen to you, you need to support your thesis with actual arguments and information.

Or we could all do things your way, and revert to the primitive poop throwing we know to be "OMG, <insert operating system here> SUx0rz, GET <insert other operating system here> instead!", provided helping people is not your primary goal here.
 
Jon55 said:
Exactly. In any case, Vista 64 all the way.
Click to expand...

I've been kicking around the various 64-bit versions of the 32-bit OSes I've run (XP, Vista, openSuSE, Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex), and so far, I can sum up the hardware incompatibilities I've run into compared to their 32-bit counterparts.

None.

The few *software* incompatibilities I've run into are strictly with XP 64-bit and 7 64-bit, but for vastly different reasons (XP64 was the first Microsoft 64-bit desktop operating system, and as such, had initially woeful driver support, while Windows 7 is still in beta, and thus still suffers from the developers waiting for the OS to actually go RTM). Otherwise, I changed exactly NONE of the software I normally run because of the bitness change (because either the change wasn't needed or because there was a 64-bit version of the same software).

I don't have a huge amount of RAM (in fact, I have all of a gigabyte of RAM; this rig IS called "Mighty Mouse, V2.0" after all), so why consider it?

Simple: I wanted data once and for all for or against the mantra I've been hearing for most of the past year.

"Don't upgrade/crossgrade to (name of 64-bit operating system here) unless you have 4 GB or more of RAM."

From my experiences to date (including currently typing this from Windows 7 64-bit build 7000), said mantra can be described thusly: Pure bunkum.

Look at the specs for the rig in question: Intel Celeron DC processor, nVidia chipset, and ATI budget PCIe graphics (along with Creative audio). Sounds like a recipe for 32-bit disaster (let alone 64-bit disaster). By and large (in fact, by and small), that not only didn't happen in Vista or 7, it didn't happen in openSuSE or Ubuntu, either. If anything, what hiccups I had were on the 32-bit OS side; the 64-bit side was actually pretty darn painless.

I have a NEW mantra (based on my experience to date).

"Don't install a 32-bit OS on any machine with a 64-bit CPU unless there is a critical lack of driver or application support."

And that is especially true if you have a gigabyte of RAM or more. (One; not four or even two. If the operating system supports it, give 64-bit serious consideration at 512 MB, and no, I'm not kidding.)
 
CousinVin said:
makes sense. Isn't the Windows 7 beta like 16 GB?
Click to expand...

Hardly 16 GB; in fact, the 64-bit build 7000 is *smaller* than Vista 64-bit (even without a slipstreamed SP1); it's more like 12 GB in a full Ultimate install. (Vista 64-bit is actually bigger by about 5 GB, and closer to 20 GB throwing in SP1.) While 7, unlike Vista, went out exclusively in Ultimate/Kitchen Sink Edition form, considering it supports more, not less, hardware than Vista, includes more features, and still supports most of the features of Vista (most of the features that went away were at the low-end of the performance scale, and by and large are of little concern to those of us that frequent [H]), why did 7 actually shrink?

Sorry; 7 (even 64-bit) actually has less (not more) bloat than Vista of the same bitness.
 
haha old thread kinda. I just went with the 7 beta. So far, I'm loving it. It can't run maplestory, but I really don't need that game... Thats the only issue I have had with it so far.I will deff buy the 7 license when it comes out.
 
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