XP Pro 64bit or Vista Ultimate 64bit?

Hi

Have just bought a new system:

Gigabyte EX58 UD5 ix58 i7 Socket 1366
Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz
Gainward GeForce 9800GTX+
6GB (3x2GB) memory DDR3 1333mhz

Am trying to decide what OS to put on. have always used XP 32bit but obviously that only supports upto 4GB memory so i need a 64bit OS. Do i go XP Pro or Vista Ultimate?

Any opinions would be grateful!

Cheers

In reply to a post by mattfraser:

Hi

Have just bought a new system:

Gigabyte EX58 UD5 ix58 i7 Socket 1366
Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz
Gainward GeForce 9800GTX+
6GB (3x2GB) memory DDR3 1333mhz

Am trying to decide what OS to put on. have always used XP 32bit but obviously that only supports upto 4GB memory so i need a 64bit OS. Do i go XP Pro or Vista Ultimate?

Any opinions would be grateful!

Cheers

Go with vista x64 ... Which ever flavour you wish . But xp64 didn't get the driver support that was needed to make it a success. Plus ofcourse not many users had 4gb plus...

Or if you have a spare 32bit license plonk that on now and use that until win7 comes out...

Or sneaky route - get windows 7 x64 5057 build and use that (upgrade to rc1 build when that tips up around april/may) and then buy win 7 when it sprouts out August/September time...(thats of course if you feel comfy with that route)



Also do a check on any older peripherals that theres 64bit support .

Okay, thanks for the advice.

Are there lots of applications, games etc that are not supported by Vista XP?

Go for Vista x64 as it will fly with 6GB of RAM. Vista x64 is a lot more stable & responsive than it's 32 bit version from my own experience of using both. i have also found Vista x64 to be faster than XP x64 too.

Most games and software that's designed to run on XP/Vista will work fine with the x64 editions.

Go with Vista Ultimate x64. I have XP Pro x64 and Ultimate x64 and Vista definitely makes far better use of the memory than XP. As stated in a previous post, it really does fly!!

Your current 32-bit XP would only be able to work with under 3GB of your DDR3

In reply to a post by cozumel:

Go with Vista Ultimate x64. I have XP Pro x64 and Ultimate x64 and Vista definitely makes far better use of the memory than XP. As stated in a previous post, it really does fly!!

Your current 32-bit XP would only be able to work with under 3GB of your DDR3

PAE extensions can be enabled and thus 6gb will be seen by the system - but not sure if it will paged as 4gb + 2gb pages or 3gb+3gb pages.

In reply to a post by mattfraser:

Okay, thanks for the advice.

Are there lots of applications, games etc that are not supported by Vista XP?

Vista x64 has fair driver support than xp x64 has. I would avoid xp unless you are a die hard "I LOVE XP " person. Personally if its a new build comp I would shove win 7 beta on it and some spare gb on it just incase each version upgrade doesn't work out...

Anyhow that would mean not paying for windows at the earliest september and the latest early next year

Sorry, not sure what PAE extensions are?

Okay thanks again. I guess my problem with Vista is that i have never used it!