- Aug 16, 2002
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I have components for a new PC coming in tomorrow. Relevant specs are an i7 920 CPU with 6GB (3x2GB) RAM and a Radeon 4850 on an Asus P6T Deluxe V2 board. It's a huge upgrade from my Barton 2500 system with 1GB RAM and a Radeon 9600XT on an Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe
Anyway, this new PC is primarily intended for moderate gaming, but I'd like to squeeze every bit of performance out of it as I can, since I'll be using it for, well.. just about everything (occasional encoding, graphics, media playing, etc.). I know 32-bit operating systems have the physical memory limit, and to fully take advantage of the 6GB I'd need to use 64-bit, but have all the quirks been worked out of that yet? Is there a 32-bit auto-"legacy" mode for non-64-bit-compliant apps that works well?
I have no objections to multiple operating systems (whether it's multi-boot or in a VM), and my choices come down to 32- or 64-bit XP or Vista (though I'm really not a fan of Vista and would prefer to wait until Windows 7, which I'll probably VM once RC1 comes out), or thinking outside the box and going Windows Server 2008 "Workstation".
I'll probably keep an install of 32-bit XP around for legacy purposes for various older games and apps, but probably won't use it as my primary OS since I'd be wasting so much of my computer's potential.
What are people's thoughts? Previous/similar experiences?
Anyway, this new PC is primarily intended for moderate gaming, but I'd like to squeeze every bit of performance out of it as I can, since I'll be using it for, well.. just about everything (occasional encoding, graphics, media playing, etc.). I know 32-bit operating systems have the physical memory limit, and to fully take advantage of the 6GB I'd need to use 64-bit, but have all the quirks been worked out of that yet? Is there a 32-bit auto-"legacy" mode for non-64-bit-compliant apps that works well?
I have no objections to multiple operating systems (whether it's multi-boot or in a VM), and my choices come down to 32- or 64-bit XP or Vista (though I'm really not a fan of Vista and would prefer to wait until Windows 7, which I'll probably VM once RC1 comes out), or thinking outside the box and going Windows Server 2008 "Workstation".
I'll probably keep an install of 32-bit XP around for legacy purposes for various older games and apps, but probably won't use it as my primary OS since I'd be wasting so much of my computer's potential.
What are people's thoughts? Previous/similar experiences?