If it's gonna be more than 4GB of RAM and it's a newer computer, skip Vista and put 7 on it.
Honestly does not matter if you have 4 GB of RAM, Anyone with 2.5 GB or more with a 64 Bit CPU should go the route of 64 Bit OS, What is your CPU? Vista did suck, but today with service packs is almost on par with Windows 7, but if your paying for the OS then you should go 7. If Vista is free then go Vista just make sure you do all necessary updates.its not new but a good computer, its guna have 4gb of ram init and its got a 1.8ghz processor, i got windows 7 on my laptop and i do really like it.
if i upgrade from win xp am i going to be loosing speed i.e will windows vista be more resourceful than say windows xp with 4gb ram.
cheers
Really? I've got 8.1 working perfectly on a PC which was originally designed for XP and came out in 2009, possibly before Windows 7 was even released. Upgrading it from 8 to 8.1 through the Windows Store was easy enough and I've not had any problems concerning drivers with it.
It goes without saying though, check driver support before you upgrade the OS. It might be that XP is the last supported OS if the hardware is really old. 9 times out of 10, Vista drivers will work with 7 and 8.
An indication as to how old this hardware is would be good in helping to determine if a newer OS would work for you or not.