Choice to get vista or Winxp?? Advise needed

IgsTer

Hey..

well im going to be getting my prebuilt pc from komplett within the next few weeks..and i am unsure on what os to get with it..

WinXP: Now why i think i should get this is because it will have hardly any compatibility issues with programs i already use and it wont hamper down the fps when playing some games which ive heard vista does do..

Vista: Now why i want to get this is because its the new thing out at the moment and it would be good to get for a brand new rig..and also has directx10 support which is important as i will be getting a 8800gtx with my new rig..but ive heard it really affects the fps you get in some games and also there are alot of compatibility problems with some programs.. and all in all isnt really up to the mark of xp performance right now..

so im stuck really..

Bit of advise please on what you think would be the better choice and what yous would go with..

Thanks

uberpixie

Tough choice.

XP is stable now and is the fastest for games.

Any game coming out over the next 2-3 years will still be supporting it under DX9.


Vista has many compatibility issues at the moment and is slower with any of the games you get working with .

In the long run Vista will have the support for DX10 and is the better long term bet.

Would be torn myself, I am waiting 6 months before I build again and I am hoping that a lot of the bugs in Vista will be gone by then.

The real question if you do go Vista is 32 bit or 64 bit

(32 bit has better compatibility now, 64 bit handles 4gig of ram better and might be better in the future....)

Worst comes to worst you can always buy XP now and get Vista later

Seriously though it is a tough decesion, if you are going gaming I would go Vista Home premium 32 Bit and keep my fingers crossed over the next few months....

shanethemofo

a lot of places seem to have this thing where you buy xp and get a free windows vista upgrade or something like that... cant remember where i saw it. think it was ebuyer

jesus_thats_gre

I would get Vista to be honest. The 32bit version!! I have been using Vista for a while now and have had little or no problems. It is not perfect by any means but if you are any way competent, you will be fine.

uberpixie

shanethemofo wrote:

a lot of places seem to have this thing where you buy xp and get a free windows vista upgrade or something like that... cant remember where i saw it. think it was ebuyer

Done my Microsofts partner Moduslink, you can allegedly buy a machine with XP and then upgrade *free* to Vista (if you pay shipping and handling) and get Vista.

Offer is up at the end of March.

Moduslink are meant to be running this programme for every major PC maker in Europe and are by all accounts making an utter balls out of it.

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/02/16/redeem_this_bill/

Stephen

Vista 32 bit. I'm using it myself. It was initially way slower in games, but the most recent nVidia driver release has caught up a lot, its only marginally slower now. Just make sure you have plenty of RAM.

Also, the only games I really play on it are source engine ones, but I am playing them on a wide screen at 1680x1050 with good framerates on a 7800GTX.

edit: Yeah, Moduslink appear to be crap. Their website is rubbish, and I applied for the Vista upgrade for my ould fella's HP laptop that was bought around Christmas. Haven't heard a word from them yet.

mathias

I bought Vista last week for my 1 year old rig , its an AMD 3800 X2 with a 7800GTX card , an audigy 2 platinum with breakout box ( like to record at home ) 2GB memory and 4 hard drives , ETC ....

Now it loads up in about 30 mins , quickest install of windows ive seen yet ,
However ,

The creative card only has beta drivers and these dont work properly for me , the breakout box and 5.1 do not work at all , so no recording for me:mad:
Printer and scanner drivers can be found but takes a bit of hunting ,
Thunderbird , my mail program , works but the address book doesnt ,
My old video capture box from dazzle does not work at all
My screen calibrator from spyder does not work at all , ( drivers promised soon but not yet ! )
Photoshop has some problems with authentication , but there is a workaround for this
My PCI USB2 hub , essential even in XP cos onboard ones decrease performance, is not even recognised as a USB hub , its showing as unknown device ...will apparently work with the xp drivers , havnt tried that yet as I only just found out.

My Sandisk card reader does not work at all , no drivers yet , this thing didnt even have drivers for XP , it just installed , but does not work in Vista at all. Just pops up as unknown device , so cant even search for it on the Web.

My Sony camera DSCP100 will only work as an external hard drive , the software that came with the camera will not work. ( not really an issue for me but might annoy some people)

You get the idea , if you get Vista , be prepared to spend a lot of time fixing it.

Now I got the 32 bit home premium version , the 64 bit version must have 64 bit drivers , it will not even entertain the idea of 32 bit XP drivers so be warned. That will be a lot harder to set up , and 32bit is hard enough if you ask me.

Im a week into it now and Im about 75% done , It will get there Im sure , but you need to know what your doing and it takes time.

Having said that I like it , its a nice interface , love the aero thing , cant wait till its all up and running.

My advice , stick with XP until this is all sorted , otherwise free up some time to spend on Vista , I would say Ive put at least a good 22 hours into this so far!

unkel

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

I would get Vista to be honest. The 32bit version!! I have been using Vista for a while now and have had little or no problems. It is not perfect by any means but if you are any way competent, you will be fine.

I'll second that. No problems here except for the missing driver for my ancient parallell laser printer. Samsung came up with a driver a few weeks ago, so I'm happy

Still have XP in dual boot though, just in case

IgsTer

yeah i might go with xp then but not 100% sure..i would like to use a brand new operating system like vista..but dont want it to lag up my games..or have tonnes of issues with some programs not working and stuff like that..

so does vista still hamper your fps down while playing games or is it not that bad?

i think it would just be alot safer to stay with xp for around another six months and then maybe upgrade..could i buy the 100euro home premium OEM on its own later in the year or would i have to get the full 300euro one because im not buying it with hardware??

mathias

Gameswise I have no problems , Im playing Fear and Far cry at the moment with no issues ( except sound of course but thats creatives fault ) , the latest Nvidia drivers pretty much solved the framerate issue. I get a minimum 40Fps on the Fear test at 1280 x 1024 with everything turned on , thats pretty good!

Far cry has no issues at all , and for the record I bought the 97 euro OEM version off Komplett on its own , the only item on the order , and there were no issues.

As per Unkel , I am dual booting in case I need anything from the XP installation , thats the way to go to be sure you dont lose out.

netman

What's the benefit of switching to Vista compared to XP?

Apart from hours of fun trying to find drivers for all your stuff

DirectX10. Only one card out there supports DirectX10, the nVidia 8800 series, and it's outrageously expensive. Any company making a DirectX10-only game at this stage (or in the near future) would be shooting itself in the foot.

DRM. I mean DRM is bad, right? Who wants to watch high-def content downsampled to low-def because your monitor doesn't support HDCP?

HAL. There is no DirectSound Hardware Abstraction Layer in Windows Vista. No more hardware-accelerated audio on Vista.

Creative are trying to battle the issue by translating a handful of games to use OpenAL calls instead of DirectSound3D calls. If you don't want to use their beta software or happen to play one of thousands of games that aren't on their list you're stuck with no advanced functionality from your sound card. If you happen to have an audigy card forget about it - Creative ALchemy works only on X-Fi.

So unless you're prepared to sacrifice a lot for a new glossy interface, I don't see a reason for going with Vista.

In a year or two I'm sure it'll all be better, hardware will be Vista-ready, software will be Vista-ready, and XP will probably be gone so you won't have a choice either. I just can't see why would anybody pay more to have less right now.

IgsTer

mathias wrote:

Gameswise I have no problems , Im playing Fear and Far cry at the moment with no issues ( except sound of course but thats creatives fault ) , the latest Nvidia drivers pretty much solved the framerate issue. I get a minimum 40Fps on the Fear test at 1280 x 1024 with everything turned on , thats pretty good!

yeah that does sound pretty good actually..

if its true then i shouldnt be worryed about it wrecking game performance..

if i do decide to get vista i dont think ill be able to dual boot because i dont have any xp installation disk..and even if i did i wouldnt know how to go through all that dual boot stuff..

do you think it would be still safe then going with vista without a dual-boot setup? or is it really needed..



ye netman those are some good points as well..although i am getting a 8800gtx with this setup..and most of the other hardware including monitor as far as i know is hdcp compatible and vista ready..but i know what you mean by all this trouble just for a glossy new look...and what will this drm thing stop you been able to do exactly?

irlrobins

Better suited to windows forum

edanto

mathias wrote:

Now it loads up in about 30 mins , quickest install of windows ive seen yet ,
However ,

The .. only has beta drivers and these dont work properly for me , the ... not work at all , so no recording for me:mad:
... drivers can be found but takes a bit of hunting ,
...works but the address book doesnt ,
... does not work at all
... does not work at all , ( drivers promised soon but not yet ! )
.. has some problems with authentication , but there is a workaround for this
... hub , essential even in XP cos onboard ones decrease performance...its showing as unknown device ...will apparently work with the xp drivers , havnt tried that yet as I only just found out.

...does not work at all , no drivers yet , this thing didnt even have drivers for XP , it just installed , but does not work i
... will only work as an external hard drive , the software that came with the ... will not work.

Not to make too much of a joke of your troubles there mate, but to me it reads like Microsoft are up to their old trick of impersonating linux

Capt'n Midnight

Vista is a new microsoft OS so just like 2k/XP six years ago there will be delays on drivers and teething problems

XP comes as HOME or PRO - fairly simple choice
VISTA has four versions - not so easy

Anyone know which, if any, versions of VISTA have downgrade rights to which versions of XP ?

NutJob

uberpixie wrote:

Tough choice.

XP is stable now and is the fastest for games.

Any game coming out over the next 2-3 years will still be supporting it under DX9.


Vista has many compatibility issues at the moment and is slower with any of the games you get working with .

In the long run Vista will have the support for DX10 and is the better long term bet.

Would be torn myself, I am waiting 6 months before I build again and I am hoping that a lot of the bugs in Vista will be gone by then.

The real question if you do go Vista is 32 bit or 64 bit

(32 bit has better compatibility now, 64 bit handles 4gig of ram better and might be better in the future....)

Worst comes to worst you can always buy XP now and get Vista later

Seriously though it is a tough decision, if you are going gaming I would go Vista Home premium 32 Bit and keep my fingers crossed over the next few months....

Only thing to add to that is Microsoft are in the Eu courts over high pricing of Vista with a ruling due soon. So holding off pending the result may be a good idea.

Plus driver support is due to suck on the 64bit platform alot more than the 32 bit

IgsTer

well im getting the oem version and the price of that is the same really as the oem version of xp..so that wouldnt bother me..and im also going to be getting the 32bit version..