new pc - Vista or XP

luckylucky

I'm going to be ordering a new PC shortly. I'm getting mixed reports on Vista. Should I stick with XP or move to Vista and if so which edition of Vista. I will be largely using this to play poker online and running multiple apps simultaneously. Also If I do go with Vista should I go for 32 bit or 64 bit?

Any help would be great.

dulpit

Vista. Simple as. I've been using it since summer, never have any problems with it. At this stage i can't see why anyone would want to get XP.

As for 32 or 64 bit versions, unless you want more than 3.2 (?) GB of RAM there's no benefit to getting 64 bit (i think, i am quite possibly wrong and am open to correction)

mathias

Go for Vista 32 bit , 64 could give problems with drivers and such , expecially if you have oldish printers , wireless adaptors etc.

Vista is solid as a rock for me now , wouldnt go back to XP for anything !

ntlbell

The best advice I could give is. If you have to ask then stick with XP.

luckylucky

cheers all for the tips so far.

ntlbell wrote: »

The best advice I could give is. If you have to ask then stick with XP.

Maybe I should roll back to Windows 95 then :rolleyes:

Anyway I ask because I have never used Vista before so I would have thought it was a sensible question.

jd83

have it a few months now no problems, installed sp1 no problems, so would reccomend it. dont listen to the vista bashers

Bluefrog

If you Choose Vista:

Minimum 2GB of RAM
Minimum 256MB graphics card

Be careful about version - there's a world of difference between basic and ultimate.

With SP1 now there's no real reason not to go for Vista if you don't mind paying for the higher hardware spc to run it.

You could always go completely crazy and try out Linux - Ubuntu is a nice friendly distribution and give MS and their licensing fees the old heave-ho.

luckylucky

mathias wrote: »

Go for Vista 32 bit , 64 could give problems with drivers and such , expecially if you have oldish printers , wireless adaptors etc.

Vista is solid as a rock for me now , wouldnt go back to XP for anything !

Yeah according to this 64 bit looks best avoided for now

http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/1426/vista_64_bit_or_32_bit_version_x64_vs_x86

rory1983 wrote: »

have it a few months now no problems, installed sp1 no problems, so would reccomend it. dont listen to the vista bashers

Yeah I am gathering from the interweb that Vista's popularity is growing. It's time I checked it out I suppsoe. Any idea of what version to get - is there any point in going for the Ultimate Edition? The one extra feature that caught my eye was the ability of it (according to the microsoft blurb anyway) to send faxes, something that could come in handy occasionally.

Bluefrog wrote: »

If you Choose Vista:

Minimum 2GB of RAM
Minimum 256MB graphics card

Be careful about version - there's a world of difference between basic and ultimate.

With SP1 now there's no real reason not to go for Vista if you don't mind paying for the higher hardware spc to run it.

You could always go completely crazy and try out Linux - Ubuntu is a nice friendly distribution and give MS and their licensing fees the old heave-ho.

I wouldn't mind seeing microsoft's dominace weaken at all but for me personally there are two main reasons why I won't be giving Linux a go.

• I'm an online poker pro and afaik few if any of the online poker sites work on Linux.
  
• I spend enough time on the PC already. Trying to figure out a totally different operating system like Linux after spending almost 2 decades using Windows does not float my boat.

Do you reckon it's safest to go with 4 GB Ram?

astrofool

luckylucky wrote: »

Yeah according to this 64 bit looks best avoided for now

http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/1426/vista_64_bit_or_32_bit_version_x64_vs_x86

That article is from 2006, probably not that relevant now, if all your hardware is supported by Vista x64 (and it will be if it's supplied that way), then in the long run you're better off with x64.

What spec of machine are you going to be running on?

ntlbell

luckylucky wrote: »

cheers all for the tips so far.



Maybe I should roll back to Windows 95 then :rolleyes:

Anyway I ask because I have never used Vista before so I would have thought it was a sensible question.

I wasn't trying to be condesending. XP is very very stable and just about anything that needed to be ironed out is. So unless there is something very specific in Vista that you require I would stick with XP and if there was something very specific in Vista I assume you would know what you need to do and so wouldn't need to ask.

Windows 95 would be fine for the majority of tasks but as I don't recall you stating anything you were going to use it for so I can't advise on that

sorry just read the poker info

luckylucky

astrofool wrote: »

That article is from 2006, probably not that relevant now, if all your hardware is supported by Vista x64 (and it will be if it's supplied that way), then in the long run you're better off with x64.

What spec of machine are you going to be running on?

I haven't bought the PC yet, but this is along the lines of the spec I might be going with. Prices are from www.hardwareversand.de (they seem very reasonable from waht I can gather)

• CPU Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Tray 4096Kb, LGA775, 64bit, Conroe €142,94
• Motherboard Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS4 ,Intel P35, ATX, PCI-Express €132,55
• CPU Cooler Xigmatek HDT-S1283, Sockel 939/AM2,775 €29,67
• RAM 4096MB DDR2 Corsair Valueselect-Kit CL 5, PC5400/667 66,00 €
• CASE Coolermaster Elite 330 ohne Netzteil schwarz 28,28 €
• PSU ATX-Netzteil Corsair 620W 620 Watt 106,38 €
• GRAPHICS CARD XFX GeForce 8600GT 540M, 256MB DDR3, PCI-Express €72,47
• HARD DRIVE Samsung HD753LJ 750GB S-ATA II, 32MB Cache €98,04
• DVD RW DRIVE NEC AD7191S bulk schwarz Lightscribe €31,33
• SPEAKERS Creative GigaWorks T20 €57,50
• OP SYSTEM ???????????????????????????????????????

ntlbell wrote: »

I wasn't trying to be condesending. XP is very very stable and just about anything that needed to be ironed out is. So unless there is something very specific in Vista that you require I would stick with XP and if there was something very specific in Vista I assume you would know what you need to do and so wouldn't need to ask.

Good point. Soz I got boards sarcy replies paranoia syndrome.

If you get a 32-bit OS then you'll only have 3.25GB of RAM usable, maybe less. Something you might want to consider.

astrofool

luckylucky wrote: »

I haven't bought the PC yet, but this is along the lines of the spec I might be going with. Prices are from www.hardwareversand.de (they seem very reasonable from waht I can gather)

• CPU Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Tray 4096Kb, LGA775, 64bit, Conroe €142,94
• Motherboard Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS4 ,Intel P35, ATX, PCI-Express €132,55
• CPU Cooler Xigmatek HDT-S1283, Sockel 939/AM2,775 €29,67
• RAM 4096MB DDR2 Corsair Valueselect-Kit CL 5, PC5400/667 66,00 €
• CASE Coolermaster Elite 330 ohne Netzteil schwarz 28,28 €
• PSU ATX-Netzteil Corsair 620W 620 Watt 106,38 €
• GRAPHICS CARD XFX GeForce 8600GT 540M, 256MB DDR3, PCI-Express €72,47
• HARD DRIVE Samsung HD753LJ 750GB S-ATA II, 32MB Cache €98,04
• DVD RW DRIVE NEC AD7191S bulk schwarz Lightscribe €31,33
• SPEAKERS Creative GigaWorks T20 €57,50
• OP SYSTEM ???????????????????????????????????????

Good point. Soz I got boards sarcy replies paranoia syndrome.

Everything there will work perfectly on Vista x64. Is there any legacy programs you're using that might cause problems?

Vista manages RAM better than XP does, while XP has a lighter footprint, though if you disable Aero, Vista's footprint drops down a lot. Server 2k8 is lighter than 2k3 when it comes to usable requirements, which is nice

Plan_D

luckylucky wrote: »

Do you reckon it's safest to go with 4 GB Ram?

You can never have enough RAM tbh

Go with Vista lucky. It is a bit like office 2007. The first time you start tweaking it, everything seems a little daunting. Something like add and remove programes can be difficult to find (I just pretend to delete an icon on my desk top and then follow the link...) due to name changes. Properties has become "Personalize" Stuff like that.

Once you get used to it every thing is grand. I find all the normal poker sites work with it. The only one that didn't, but I have not tried it since the end of last year, was IrishEyes poker. It did work but Vista reverted to an XP type mode to run it. Vista is here to stay so you will have to get used to it at some stage!

gl with the new build.

luckylucky

astrofool wrote: »

Everything there will work perfectly on Vista x64. Is there any legacy programs you're using that might cause problems?

Not sure tbh. How old would the software need to be not to be compliant with 64 bit?

luckylucky

luckylucky wrote: »

Not sure tbh. How old would the software need to be not to be compliant with 64 bit?

Unless they're 16-bit apps you should be fine. Anything made since the release of Windows 95 *should* be 32-bit.

luckylucky

Karsini wrote: »

Unless they're 16-bit apps you should be fine. Anything made since the release of Windows 95 *should* be 32-bit.

Cheers. Think most of my apps should be then. Don't think any of them are any older than 7 years old max.

conorgriff

Go with Vista, I'm running it with no issues. I play all the latest games and everything runs fine, it's more stable so far than my XP machine so I don't see any reason not to get it. BTW I'm running 64-bit Home Premium, I wouldn't bother with Ultimate really unless you particularly need its additional features