Which version of vista would be best for a gaming pc with XP Pro SP2?

[vles007]

I just ordered a pc for gaming that am going to install XP Pro SP2 on as my main OS. BUT... I want to play crysis in dx10 and other games that take advantage of dx10, and i know that you need vista in order to take advantage of those features.

The main concern is that im not sure which is the best way to dual boot OS's. Iv'e only done it once and it wasnt very fun. Do you always have to choose what OS its going to log into or will it just load up your main OS automatically? So many questions... lets just start with this.


Also, what would be the best version for the gamer? I figure ultimate would be the one but i hear premium is just as good for gamers...


I'll be installing it with an E8400.



Thanks.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: vles007
I just ordered a pc for gaming that am going to install XP Pro SP2 on as my main OS. BUT... I want to play crysis in dx10 and other games that take advantage of dx10, and i know that you need vista in order to take advantage of those features.

The main concern is that im not sure which is the best way to dual boot OS's. Iv'e only done it once and it wasnt very fun. Do you always have to choose what OS its going to log into or will it just load up your main OS automatically? So many questions... lets just start with this.



Thanks.

If you have a spare hard drive, then consider this option:

1) disconnect the WinXP drive and all other hard drives, flash drives, external drives and memory-card readers. So now your spare HDD is the only drive in the system.

2) install Vista on the spare HDD while it's the only drive in the system.

3) reconnect your other drives and stuff after Vista is installed on the spare HDD.

4) when your motherboard POSTs, hit the boot-device selection hotkey and pick the drive (and thus the OS) that you want to boot.


The fly in the ointment is that not all motherboards have a boot-device selection hotkey. For Asus boards, it's the F8 key during POST. What brand of board do you have?

As for which version is best, any of them would run DirectX 10 games and any of them will run unlimited CPU cores on at least a single-socket system. I think the main thing would be to get 64-bit so you can pile in just as much RAM as you want.

 

[vles007]

Well, i ordered a Gigabyte DS3R P35 board and 2x 2GB GSkill DDR2 800 RAM.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: vles007
Well, i ordered a Gigabyte DS3R P35 board and 2x 2GB GSkill DDR2 800 RAM.

k, checking... F12 will be your boot-device selection hotkey. One thing I like about this method is that you can remove either drive, and the other one will still boot.

 

[vles007]

Thanks a lot for the advice.


Only problem is that i only ordered one hard drive. I wanna keep my system as neat as possible so im using SATA and i only have IDE HDD's laying around. I might just have to wait.


Is there any advantages to partitioning a system to dual boot?

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: vles007

Is there any advantages to partitioning a system to dual boot?

It lets you run both OSes with just one hard drive, is the main advantage I can think of.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: vles007
Thanks a lot for the advice.


Only problem is that i only ordered one hard drive. I wanna keep my system as neat as possible so im using SATA and i only have IDE HDD's laying around. I might just have to wait.


Is there any advantages to partitioning a system to dual boot?

I guess the biggest advantage is you only need 1 hd to run 2 O/Ss. Before you dismiss Vista as a day to day O/S, you might want to give it a try for awhile. I've dual booted XP and Vista since Vista's launch and I've never gone into XP except to take care of maintenance. Dual booting is nice for insurance purposes, but you may find you don't need to.

If you do dual boot, install XP first, than Vista. I would partition the drive before installing either O/S, and you'll have to decide how big to make each partition. I started with a 50-50 split of a 320gb hd. I then repartitioned the drive to make my XP partition 40gb, and gave the rest to Vista. On my next full reinstall I'm going to wipe XP and use Vista exclusively.

 

[Noema]

I have both XP and Vista in my machine; haven't booted to XP in months. I suggest you stick with Vista as your main OS.

 

[vles007]

I'm not really sure i trust Vista yet though. I have had nothing but problems with it, and it runs SO slow. XP has been so good to me. I got it so that from hitting the power button on my pc to a fully loaded desktop ready to use - 11.237 seconds.


Is vista really that stable yet? I have been really pushing away from it.

 

[ViRGE]

Vista is perfectly stable, I've been using it for over a year with no notable issues. With old hardware it can be slow at times (that's progress for you), but with the kinds of computers most of the people on these forums run, that is not an issue.

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: vles007
Is vista really that stable yet?

Yes, and it has been for about 18 months now. :laugh:

 

[vles007]

Ok.


This is my rig:

E8400 Wolfdale
Gigabyte DS3R P35
4GB GSkill DDR 800
EVGA 9800GTX 512MB
400GB WD 7200RPM SATA 3.0
Pioneer 20x SATA DVD Burner
OCZ GameXStream 600w PSU


How well would Vista do on this machine? The parts will be here monday...

Is there cool tricks out yet to make vista run faster for you? I'm also looking for the best junk cleaning programs out there for it.

Oh, and should i go for Premium, or Ultimate? Also, can you find OEM versions of these?


P.S. I'm actually just thinking about saying screw it and putting my 320GB Seagate IDE in there to run Vista on...

 

[alevasseur14]

That looks like a really, really nice machine. You won't have any problems with running Vista, I can tell you that. The most important thing is memory, and you've got that taken care of in spades.

A couple things though... Just in case you hadn't thought about it, you'll need to run Vista x64 in order to be able to address all 4GB of memory you'll have installed. Also, if you don't get a Vista disk with SP1 integrated, you may have to pull on of your memory stick until you at least get Vista installed and patched. There's a bug that won't let some folks install with 4GB of memory. From what I understand, it mostly affects nVidia chipsets, but I have heard of people having problems with their Intel boards as well. Just something to think about.

When it comes to versions, I think I'd be fine with Home Premium if I had to do it over again. I have Ultimate and haven't once used one of the "Ultimate" features. You can get an OEM copy but it'll be tied to the motherboard you install it to and can't be moved.

 

[vles007]

You can get an OEM copy but it'll be tied to the motherboard you install it to and can't be moved.

What do you mean by this? How does it know which motherboard?

 

[heymrdj]

It can be moved, it's just not legal, as per the Microsoft License Agreement. Only retails can be legally moved from system to system. XP was the same way, so was ME and 2000 I believe. That's the difference between Retail/OEM copies, that and the fact Retail comes with like 3 free uses of MS support, while OEM you have to pay for any and all MS support.

 

[vles007]

so if they dont know and have no way of telling, then whats stopping anyone?

 

[alevasseur14]

I'll research it more for you when I get to work.

Tons of free time....

 

[vles007]

Thanks

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: vles007
I got it so that from hitting the power button on my pc to a fully loaded desktop ready to use - 11.237 seconds.

While I doubt this, its really irrelevant today. Once Vista is up and running, with all the updates, drivers and etc, you won't reboot very often at all, if ever.

 

[alevasseur14]

Well, that was a freebie. I was just firing up Google to clarify my other post and I happened across this post which explains the difference between retail and OEM versions pretty nicely. I'll throw in a couple other links as well.

Post: http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2193054&enterthread=y

Vista EULA Link: http://download.microsoft.com/...-8153-889cf5105718.pdf

http://www.winsupersite.com/sh...winvista_licensing.asp

That link explains that basically the Vista license is the same as XP, MS just clarified it a bit. Good read.

I hope this helps. Let me know if I can do anything else for you!

 

[vles007]

While I doubt this, its really irrelevant today. Once Vista is up and running, with all the updates, drivers and etc, you won't reboot very often at all, if ever.

Why do you doubt it? I timed it with a stopwatch. Granted, i have a few tweaks done to make it go super fast, but it's not impossible.

 

[vles007]

well, i accidentally got the 32 bit version of premium...



is there going to be any huge performance differences with gaming on the 32 bit version?

 

[alevasseur14]

Nothing huge. You won't be able to address all of your 4 GB of memory. Instead you'll be able to use somewhere between 3 and 3.5 GB usually.

But, you'll hardly notice and will still love the machine!

 

[vles007]

What do you mean by "address" the memory? does it mean that i'm still using the 4gb of ram and it's just not showing it? Or does it mean that i cant use all of my 4gb at all...?



I paid for 4gb i want to use 4gb.


Is there a fix for vista to see all of it?

 

[vles007]

Ok, i just loaded up SP1 and it is now fully "addressing" my 4GB ram. It says 4096 in the ram section.