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Upgrading with XP and 4GB Ram
Figgy
Fighter of the night manChampion of the sunRegistered User regular
Fighter of the night manChampion of the sunRegistered User regular
I thought this warranted its own thread rather than posting in the computer build thread, since it's more of a two part question.
First, here is my current system:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+
2GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800 OCZ Dual Channel RAM
EVGA GeForce 7900 GT KO 256MB
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum
I just ordered:
EVGA E-GEFORCE 8800GT 600MHZ 512MB 1.8GHZ DDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI-I HDTV Out Video Card
Another 2GB PC2-6400 DDR-800 OCZ Dual Channel RAM ($285 with taxes and shipping, and take about $60 off when mail-in rebates come back)
Now, my main question is: what version of Windows should I be looking into to get the best bang for my buck? Right now I'm running Windows XP Pro. I understand that I won't be able to utilize all 4GB of my RAM with this version of windows, so...
Should I grab Vista and then also be able to use DX10, or should I find a copy of Windows XP 64bit instead so I can use the 4GB and forget about DX10?
My main concern is the stability of Vista right now along with the amount of my system resources the OS itself will hog, thus negating most of my upgrade.
This is primarily a gaming PC.
First, here is my current system:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+
2GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800 OCZ Dual Channel RAM
EVGA GeForce 7900 GT KO 256MB
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum
I just ordered:
EVGA E-GEFORCE 8800GT 600MHZ 512MB 1.8GHZ DDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI-I HDTV Out Video Card
Another 2GB PC2-6400 DDR-800 OCZ Dual Channel RAM ($285 with taxes and shipping, and take about $60 off when mail-in rebates come back)
Now, my main question is: what version of Windows should I be looking into to get the best bang for my buck? Right now I'm running Windows XP Pro. I understand that I won't be able to utilize all 4GB of my RAM with this version of windows, so...
Should I grab Vista and then also be able to use DX10, or should I find a copy of Windows XP 64bit instead so I can use the 4GB and forget about DX10?
My main concern is the stability of Vista right now along with the amount of my system resources the OS itself will hog, thus negating most of my upgrade.
This is primarily a gaming PC.
Figgy on
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Vista is plenty stable and, quite frankly, its increased "system hogging" is completely inconsequential if your packing four gigs of RAM. Don't sweat about it too much.
Well, just the fact that I'm missing out on that RAM is annoying unto itself. I'd like the have that extra memory there, especially when I'm video editing and photoshopping (not that often, though)
Also, something like Age of Conan is a memory hog like you wouldn't believe.
What version of Vista should I be looking into?
Truth.
I am running Vista x64 with 4GB ram and it runs faster and smoother than XP did with 3GB ram.
HOWEVER. Make sure you can get all the 64-bit Vista drivers you need for your hardware before you buy Vista.
Don't get me wrong, it's a good OS if you get it working, but driver support is beyond terrible.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
Now, I have two separate hard drives, one 200gb and one 300gb
Right now, the 200gb houses windows and all installed applications and games. The 300gb is for backup storage, such as documents, music, videos for school, etc etc.
The 300gb is newer and a bit quicker with more cache. What I want to do is this:
-Copy pretty much all the shit I wanna save over to the 200gb (currently my OS drive)
-Install Vista 64 onto the 300gb and format when it asks me... so it's going on the faster drive and it'll be totally clean.
-Once that's done, move all the saved shit from the 200gb temporarily over to the 300gb
-Format the 200gb clean.
-Move storage related shit back over to the clean 200gb
Now, Vista is on the 300gb and the 200gb is for file storage (music, video files, documents, etc.)
Am I going to run into any problems doing this? Does Vista not like what I'm going to do?
I mean, if needed, I could even disconnect the 200gb before I install windows... if it's going to be a little bitch.
The ideal version you should target is Home Premium.
Yeah, Home Premium is likely the version you'll want to obtain (well, you could go for Business or Ultimate... just stay the hell away from Home Basic) -- just keep in mind that retail packages of it don't have the 64bit disc included, you'll need to obtain it somewhere else. Microsoft can provide the discs, but it'll cost a bit to have them shipped.
10 bucks.
Personally I'd go for an OEM version online or something, save some cash.
I tried XP64, and found that plenty of hardware makers who provided Vista64 drivers never bothered with XP64. Just don't do it.