Vista or XP

Frippy · 6 Nov 2007 at 23:53

I've a choice of either operating systems but am a little unsure which is better for the new system I am building.

It is built around an E2140 processor and a Fatal1ty F190-HD motherboard, 2 gig 6700 ram and a Radeon X2900Pro. Will be used mainly for gaming. Unsure whether to put XP on it and wait a while or just go all out and put Vista on it?

I have done a gentle overclock to a 250FSB and raised the chip speed to 2.0 gig, I am sure it will go more. The Pro can be clocked to XT speeds, so I am sure for gaming it'll be ok on XP, how will this hold up on Vista?

Thanks.

Craig321 · 6 Nov 2007 at 23:55

If mainly for gaming then I'd say Vista.

A lot of up-and-coming games will use DX10 & there are also some Vista only games out which you might want.

Vista will only get better

(unless of course they screw it up with an SP or something... but I doubt that)

badbob · 7 Nov 2007 at 00:01

I tried Vista yesterday. Went back to XP within the next day. Slow and buggy I/O over hard drives and network.

Frippy · 7 Nov 2007 at 00:02

Thanks Craig321, Vista it is then.

badbob, sorry to hear that, I though Vista was supposed to be the dogs?

Tute · 7 Nov 2007 at 00:16

Frippy said:
Thanks Craig321, Vista it is then.

badbob, sorry to hear that, I though Vista was supposed to be the dogs?

It is!

I certainly wouldn't go back to XP. I find gaming performance is as good as XP now, and the whole OS is much smoother and nicer to use.

badbob · 7 Nov 2007 at 00:23

Frippy said:
Thanks Craig321, Vista it is then.

badbob, sorry to hear that, I though Vista was supposed to be the dogs?

It looks nicer, however 400K/sec LAN transfers and slow HD-HD copying make me :mad:

even with the tweaks. Also stuttering audio during music playback (X-Fi) music is stored on another computer on the LAN. Fine with XP.

Fire Wizard · 7 Nov 2007 at 00:25

Hey Frippy, If anyone is looking at purchasing a new operating system than their is no reason not to go for Windows Vista. Windows Vista is a brilliant operating system. The Aero effect and User Interface (UI) is fantastic and is very nice compared to Windows XP in my opinion. Now that Microsoft have released a couple of Performance and Reliability packs as well as other updates, the whole operating system is fast, stable, extremely reliable and very secure. The support for Windows Vista is now excellent and the majority of the hardware and software out their now work absolutely fine under Windows Vista.

You may also be debating over which version to go for. Here is a great graph that compares all of the editions of Windows Vista with one another. The two you are most likely looking at are Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate. I have used both and in my opinion Vista Ultimate is not worth the extra £50 over Home Premium.

Now you may also be wondering weather to purchase the 32-bit or the 64-bit edition of Windows Vista. If you have a processor that is capable of handling 64-bit instructions (Like yourself

) then their is no reason to go for the 32-bit edition. You won't see a massive performance increase going from a 32-bit to a 64-bit operating system as of yet since many programs have been written for 32-bit architectures.

However this will be changing in the future because with 64bit being more recognized, more and more programs will be written under 64-bit architectures. When programs are released that are written specifically for 64-bit, you will then start to see a performance increase from 32-bit programs.

The important updates that Microsoft have released, most of them are put onto the Windows Update section however, their are a couple of Updates that are worth installing which are not (Yet, hopefully they will put them on their) on Windows Update. The updates that are worth getting are below:

Microsoft said:
KB941649 This update improves the compatibility, reliability, and stability of Windows Vista.

• It extends the battery life for mobile devices.
• It improves the stability of portable computers and of desktop computers that use an uninterruptible power supply (UPS).
• It improves the reliability of Windows Vista when you open the menu of a start-up application.
• It improves the stability of wireless network services.
• It shortens the start-up time of Windows Vista by using a better timing structure.
• It shortens the recovery time after Windows Vista experiences a period of inactivity.
• It shortens the recovery time when you try to exit the Photos screen saver.
• It improves the stability of Windows Power Shell.

This update also resolves the following issues in Windows Vista:

• A compatibility issue that affects some third-party antivirus software applications.
• A reliability issue that occurs when a Windows Vista-based computer uses certain network driver configurations.

Download for: 32-Bit / 64-Bit / More Information

Microsoft said:
KB941600 Cumulative update rollup for USB core components in Windows Vista:

Issues that are fixed in the update rollup
925528 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925528/) Stop errors occur on a Windows-based computer that has 2GB or more of RAM and is using an NVIDIA nForce USB controller
929734 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929734/) You may experience problems after you resume a Windows Vista-based computer from sleep or from hibernation
930568 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930568/) Error message when you try to put a Windows Vista-based computer to sleep or into hibernation: "STOP 0x000000FE BUGCODE_USB_DRIVER"
929478 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929478/) After you use the Safely Remove Hardware option to remove a built-in optical drive from a portable Windows Vista-based computer, you may be unable to reconnect the drive
930570 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930570/) Error message in the Usbhub.sys process when you wake a Windows Vista-based computer from sleep or from hibernation: "STOP 0x00000044"
928631 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928631/) A USB device may no longer work correctly after Windows Vista resumes from sleep or from hibernation
933433 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933433/) Recording quality is poor when you use a USB microphone on a Windows Vista-based computer that has 4 GB of RAM or more
933442 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933442/) A USB composite device does not work after you disable and then enable the device in Device Manager on a computer that is running Windows Vista
934633 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934633/) When you connect a USB multifunction printer device to a Windows Vista-based computer, a second instance of the printer object is created, and the first instance no longer works
934796 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934796/) Error message on a Windows Vista-based computer that is running a USB composite device: "STOP 0x000000FE"
933824 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933824/) The Safely Remove Hardware feature and the Windows Explorer "Eject" command do not work correctly with an Apple iPod that is connected to a Windows Vista-based computer
935782 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935782/) A USB device takes a long time to resume from "selective suspend" mode on a Windows Vista-based computer that uses UHCI USB controllers
935783 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935783/) When you resume a Windows Vista-based computer from sleep, you may experience unexpected behavior from a USB device

Download for: 32-Bit / 64-Bit / More Information

Rebelius · 7 Nov 2007 at 00:29

badbob said:
It looks nicer, however 400K/sec LAN transfers and slow HD-HD copying make me even with the tweaks. Also stuttering audio during music playback (X-Fi) music is stored on another computer on the LAN. Fine with XP.

you must be doing something wrong. I get up to 850KB/s transfers from usenet servers, nevermind LAN.

bledd · 7 Nov 2007 at 00:33

Rebelius said:
you must be doing something wrong. I get up to 850KB/s transfers from usenet servers, nevermind LAN.

it's a known problem that network shares have really crap performance

i get better performance on torrents than i do on LAN :/

Frippy · 7 Nov 2007 at 00:39

Thanks folks! Fire Wizzard, very helpful - I'll deffo go Vista now. Oh and the version I have is Home Premium, is that good or bad?

Fire Wizard · 7 Nov 2007 at 00:40

Hey Frippy, Windows Vista Home Premium is absolutely fine. The best Version in my opinion.

Craig321 · 7 Nov 2007 at 00:41

Frippy said:
Thanks folks! Fire Wizzard, very helpful - I'll deffo go Vista now. Oh and the version I have is Home Premium, is that good or bad?

Best one in my opinion. (Slightly more expensive than basic... basic is just boring

and a lot cheaper than Ultimate. You don't lose out on much not getting ultimate)

Bony Maloney · 7 Nov 2007 at 00:41

Tute · 7 Nov 2007 at 00:45

bledd. said:
it's a known problem that network shares have really crap performance

Have you tried turning off "Remote Differential Compression"?

I found it helped both my LAN and HD-HD transfers massively.

Rebelius · 7 Nov 2007 at 00:48

bledd. said:
it's a known problem that network shares have really crap performance

i get better performance on torrents than i do on LAN :/

guess i'm about to find out about that then - I should be getting some Network storage delivered from our favourite hardware store tomorrow.

badbob · 7 Nov 2007 at 00:49

"Remote Differential Compression"?

Yes, and firewall, UAC, system restore, windows defender, indexing. Latest Vista updates (update page) not manual updating from exe's.

RobH · 7 Nov 2007 at 00:55

I was using Vista for a while but there were certain things that made me switch back, the main one was complete lack of driver support for nVidia's WDM driver (VIVO) and that I had major issues with file transfer between disks and the network. In XP I can get about 94Mbps FTPing to my Xbox, in Vista I was lucky to get 8Mbps! There are some major issues that need to be resolved before I reinstall it.

nikebee · 7 Nov 2007 at 14:32

Personally I'd get XP unless you are absolutely sure that Vista will work with your setup.

I've got Vista 32bit on my MediaCentre and it works absolutely perfectly.

My new machine (Q6600,4GB G.Skill,evga 680i, 8800GTX) absolutely hates Vista (32bit and 64bit) and gets random BSOD's all the time, even with all drivers and windows updates up-to-date.

I've yet to find out if this is an actual hardware fault (will install XP on it tonight) or if it's Vista being Vista.

Jumping · 7 Nov 2007 at 15:47

I would go with Vista over XP on all new machines. Vista will get better and better as it evolve and mature, its like 2000 ->XP when XP came out people just moaned and kept saying 2000 is so much better bla bla bla.

I haven't had any problems with Vista either at work or at home.

Vista is where MS will concentrate it's efforts so it makes sense to use it and not XP.

uv · 7 Nov 2007 at 16:32

tried Vista - like, 6 or 7 times, each time switching back to XP (or PCLinuxOS).

Sticking with XP now, until Vista SP1 is out - it's horribly slow - explorer in XP feels snappy in comparison, and my audio drivers actually work in XP

There were a few nice features, but not enough for me to put up with the performance hit.