Which Operating System???

M

musicmaker_117

New Member
Hi all, this is my first post :)

I have just bought the following

80 GB Sata Segate Barracuda (8mb Cache) (Dual Boot Vista/Xp)
500 GB Sata Samsung Spinpoint hard drive (16mb Cache)
Antec P180 Gaming Case
Arctic Freezer 7 Pro
Sony Lightscribe Sata DVD Drive
Asus P5B Deluxe Motherboard
Intel Core2 Quad Processor Q6600
Kingston HyperX DDR2 (4x1gb) PC2-8500 DDR2-1066
Nvidia GeForce BFG 8800GTS Overclocked 7680mb PCI-E SLi 8800 GTS
100 wat Antec Modular Power Supply

I am wanting to Dual Boot my system. My question is, can I use XP/Vista, 32 Bit or 64 Bit, Or will I only be able to install 64 bit? I know 32 Bit will only see 3Gb memory so I could sell a stick of Ram if needed. Are there any major benifits from using one over the other?
 
You can dual boot XP and Vista on the same system whether or not one is 64bit. There are two thing to know however.

1)For a 64bit edition avoid XP Pro 64 since that sadly lacks the much needed driver support along with the lack of 64bit programs where only now some new programs and even games are finally being seen.

2)When dual booting the two versions the Vista restore points are vunerable to XP since once you boot the older version the restore points are simply canceled out.

Another thing to add is the problems seen even with Vista 64 with 4gb of memory installed. Microsoft recommends removing 2gb out of 4gb when first installing a 64bit edition until after Windows is up and running due to errors seen.

In 2010 the next version of Windows is due out which will be the last to see a 32bit edition there. Originally Microsoft intended to see strictly 64bit editions until overwhelmed by concerns. Eventually we all be running 64bit versions of Windows while that wait to some extent due to the 32bit saturation of software currently seen.

Vista is obviously a newer version with new things seen while many have other thoughts about even running it. With the first service pack out many that have held off may decide to run it as primary or secondary OS. It has it's ups and downs like any other version where preferences seem to take over.
 
musicmaker_117 said:
Hi all, this is my first post :)

I have just bought the following

80 GB Sata Segate Barracuda (8mb Cache) (Dual Boot Vista/Xp)
500 GB Sata Samsung Spinpoint hard drive (16mb Cache)
Antec P180 Gaming Case
Arctic Freezer 7 Pro
Sony Lightscribe Sata DVD Drive
Asus P5B Deluxe Motherboard
Intel Core2 Quad Processor Q6600
Kingston HyperX DDR2 (4x1gb) PC2-8500 DDR2-1066
Nvidia GeForce BFG 8800GTS Overclocked 7680mb PCI-E SLi 8800 GTS
100 wat Antec Modular Power Supply

I am wanting to Dual Boot my system. My question is, can I use XP/Vista, 32 Bit or 64 Bit, Or will I only be able to install 64 bit? I know 32 Bit will only see 3Gb memory so I could sell a stick of Ram if needed. Are there any major benifits from using one over the other?
Click to expand...

100 wat Power Supply? I think you mean more than that.
 
g25racer said:
100 wat Power Supply? I think you mean more than that.
Click to expand...

They never quite made too many 100w supplies except for some very old boat anchors since the Ix86 series saw 180w then eventually 250w supplies. I suspect that was a simple typo for 1000w not 100w or a different number like 500w or 600w.
 
Lights and fans please! That would be neon light strips not the hard drive led since no drives would be present making it hard to dual boot in more then theory only. :P
 
Why are you using an 80GB hard drive for both Vista and XP? Thats not nearly enough if you want to install programs/games on them.
 
Gee? Microsoft points out a 40gb drive with 35gb available. Multiply that by two with XP to get 80gb. If you are not planning to run any large number of programs but simply a few games and a small number of programs you will be a little tight on space but can manage if you are simply getting familiar with more then one version.
 
Its my intention to just have XP/Vista dual booting on the 80 Gb drive, then my music/game files on the 16mb Spinpoint drive. If I need to re-install either operating systems at a later date then my games/files will be left intact on the 500 Gb drive.
 
It wouldn't matter. You'd have to reinstall the games for the registry entries, etc. The only thing that would matter were the save game files.
 
musicmaker_117 said:
Its my intention to just have XP/Vista dual booting on the 80 Gb drive, then my music/game files on the 16mb Spinpoint drive. If I need to re-install either operating systems at a later date then my games/files will be left intact on the 500 Gb drive.
Click to expand...

In both versions of Windows you have to see everything reinstalled if Windows is reinstalled for any reason. It won't matter is you custom install game folders with one version or the other not both to the 500gb drive a fresh copy of Windows sees a brand new registry.

For the most games and apps run best when installed on the OS drive/partition and not lagging due to the need to load from a separate drive. The 500gb simply makes a good storage and backup medium unless seeing problems getting XP onto the second primary.

With both XP Pro and Home editions you can run into problems at times with Vista on the same drive. Here I see the best results seeing XP on a second drive with Vista on the host.
 
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