Ive been currently using XP for a fair few years now, and ive been happy. Tried Vista a few times, but since I was running it on a low spec machine (AMD athlon XP 2600+) I preffered XP due to the slow loading times (on my machine) and compatibility issues on Vista.

However this was a few years ago, now Im setting up a new rig, I was wondering, for all the people who are Vista users, is there any need for me to upgrade to Vista, or shall I just stick with good old XP?

Here the specs of my new rig (not amazing but decent for my price range)

Motherboard: MSI K9A2 Platinum
Processor: AMD Phenom Quad Core 9850 (Black Edition)
RAM: 4 x 1GB OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 (800Mhz)
GFX Card: Club3D GeForce 8800GT 512MB
PSU: eXtreme 600W
HDD: 400GB SATA Barracuda 7200

Ive also read that there are RAM limits for XP, a bit over 3GB for 32bit systems, but more for 64bit systems, is this true? and will this be a factor in which OS i should choose?

XP and Vista 32 bit have a limitation of 4GB total RAM. Physical + Virtual RAM. So with your 4GB, you will only be using 4GB - Virtual RAM = Physical RAM being used. Usually equals a little more than 3GB.

Vista 64 bit can handle more RAM.

A lot of people like to complain about Vista, but I think it is a good Operating System that is getting better all the time. If you are really worried Dual Boot. Or Triple Boot with Linux.

Whatever you decide, don't get Vista Home Basic. It is too watered down.

i'll think i'll try vista 64bit then. i would like to upgrade and stick some 2GB sticks in future looks like vista 64bit is the way to go

would i have to get a specific 64bit version of vista? or do the versions of vista both support 32bit and 64bit systems

yes you need to get a 64 bit edition.

I got a free copy of vista 64 business from my department at school via msdnaa, and I like it thus far. A few things piss me off, but I am still optimizing it to my liking which will happen with any OS.

I have found the Ultimate Version to run better than other versions. x64 Ultimate is pretty quick with the right equipment.

I bought OEM Vista Home Premium x64 for about £54.

My rig is

Core 2 Duo E6320 4MB L2 cache OC at 2.15Ghz (running stable with fans)
5.00GB RAM PC6400 (2x2GB 1x1GB Corsair make)
Nvidia 8800GTS 320MB EVGA Manufacture Superclocked edition
5.1 Surround
600W Zalman PSU
250GB Sata 3
LITE-ON DVDRW LH-20A1S 20X DVD Burner (not that I can find any cheap 20X Blank DVD's ).
Asus P5N32-E mobo


If you have Service Pack 1 on Vista + all the updates I have yet to experience a problem. All my hardware works (yes I built my PC) and all my games work great. I use Vista every day and it works a treat. Imho I would use Vista because of it's prolonged update support over XP. And XP is so old now it was made what 2 years after 2000?

2002? lol

he meant Windows 2000. lol

*btw, XP launched in 2001

Anywho, I love Vista. I've used it since before it officially came out (RC3 I think was the earliest I started using it). It's been more than a year and I have no complaints. I use Ultimate 32bit.. I kinda wish I had 64bit though

oops lol.

both XP 64 bit and Vista 64 bit can handle more than 4GB of RAM if that was your only concern.

Vista isnt as bad as people think, its just a matter of preference and what you are using the PC for I guess.

id say get vista ultimate 64bit... almost all the people that complain about vista are ones who try to run it on outdated hardware or people that have spent almost no time with it and would rather stick with what they already know.. xp.
ive been using vista since beta 2 and ive loved it ever since i first installed it... and that was even running it on an amd 3200+ with 384mbs of ram haha
now its on my laptop with a core 2 duo, geforce 7600, and 2 gig of ram. runs much better haha