HAZMAT

I just purchased a kit to build a new compy and was curious since the last system I put together was a Prescott P4 that is still running XP wonderfully.

I ended up getting a Intel Quad Core 6700 and an SLi board with 4gb of ram and 2 Geforce 9600 Super GTs.

The question is what is the best operating system for mainly gaming and some graphics and MS Office work?

I currently have XP Pro Sp2, XP Media Edition and a copy of XP 64bit. Would Vista Ulti work better?

Please help!

Thanks!

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Bamboo

I and a lot of other guys here are happy with Vista 64. I have the Home ed. and it works fine and lets you run all 4 gigs of RAM. Since you already have XP 64, if you didn't want to spend the extra $100 or so for Vista, you could run that for a while. There is supposed to be more and more support for Vista 64 and less for XP 64.

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birdie_in_Texas

I thought the 9600's were considered "not good"...?

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HAZMAT

I've been reading more and more and the 9600 are just fine.

They dont provide the same punch as the 8800 but they are also $50 cheaper.

I just picked up 2 of them for a total of $240 and will run them in SLi to determine if they heated debates of poor performance are true. Most of the comments I have read are people who just but 8600GT with 256mn to find out they could have gotten a 9600with 512mb for the same price.

Tom's Hardware website has a great 12 page article on the performance, and since I was looking to keep it under $1200 I hope to be happy by this time next week.

Bambo,

Thanks for that comment. Being in the military I get decent prices from the military home -use program thanks to Bill and Uncle Sam. I was thinking of just getting Vista Ultimate for $178 but I am clueless if its 64bit or is there another version?

Also how does it stack up for playing games? Some articles I have read it has been rather hit or miss.

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Black_V!per

WinXP x64 is the most stable gaming platform i've ever used. I hated all the problems and errors I got when using Vista x64 Ulti.... XP Pro 32 is great and all, but x64 has more headroom for growth.

If you have XP x64 stick with it, dont worry about Vista till the next version of windows (Windows 7) is coming out.

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birdie_in_Texas

i am hoping yours work out..as i have still not gotten video for this newer setup with the Q6600...if i can get 2 that bang a** for cheap, then that sounds like the way to go maybe..

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Bamboo

Again guys, both next gen stuff from AMD/ATI and Nvidia will be out next month, and in full swing come July. Even if you don't pick up a new one, prices on the old will go down.

As far as the 9600GT, they are really good. An overclocked one is same or faster than my 8800GTS 640mb (have seen some benchmarks on review sites).
Most people are saying in this forum not to buy 8600GT, that may be what you are thinking of, as they suck compared to the 9600GT.

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msdz

The $178 price tag sounds like it maybe Vista Ultimate 64 bit OEM version. Which is good enough for most people, you may need to call Microsoft if you make any upgrades later(some people have made claims they have had to do that) but still not a bad deal. By the time i probably upgrade my new computer another OS will probably be out or a whole new computer may have to be built.

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