Operating Systems

I had an older system with 2 GB RAM and a Pentium 4 (2 GHz) running XP Pro and was fortunate enough to be recently given a bare bones Pentium Quad-core system with 4 GB of fast RAM and a super NVidia video card and a 1TB SATA-II hard drive. I opted to buy Windows 64-bit Vista Ultimate for this machine. It has been great!! Fast. Handles any amount of work or number of games so far that I am able to throw at it (the 4 core processor and the 64-bit OS help here). One other advantage that Vista has is it's capability to properly use more than 3 GB of RAM, in fact up to 32 GB, I believe. XP Pro is limited to 3 GB. I thought this was a real advantage as memory prices tend to drop in time and more RAM is always good for responsiveness. I have no complaints so far with Vista. I run 32-bit software, freeware, shareware, old games (Empire Earth, Empire Earth II) and new games (Empire Earth III) and 64-bit software and have yet to run into a problem. The hardware is very capable, though and I am sure, I would not be as happy with Vista on my previous system.

well if you want speed and no looks (like the vista has) then xp is good, if you wanna do graphics and works on your computer then go for xp its faster and its durable, where as if you surely want vista's LOOKS?? then you can get VISTA MIZER for windows xp which completely turns your xp into VISTA affects, right from your registery to your startup ! I have vista and xp both , but i love xp experience its not slow its never hanging like vista and its Not a HEAVY machine lover Operating system, its compactible (m tlking about xp) and its super for me as a programmer and graphic designer!

Youve got some good advice here in the responses. I will tell you from 10 months experience with Vista that it does not play well with 3rd party software or hardware. I am seriously thinking of stepping back to XP. I was just at the Dell site yesterday at the link they provide to set up Vista to XP. It costs $50. Also Im learning about alternate OS systems that are not Microsoft. I wonder if the reason Dell is doing so badly right now is because they insisted on putting Vista on their new machines. If you do use Dell and get Vista from them, prepare for awful customer support. Im speaking from experience here.

Don't switch. Vista will only slow down your computer. It's all about visuals and doesn't really have any new features. I got Vista with my laptop and after some time I just changed it to XP.

But what I've heard from many of all my friends is vista is only useful for graphical support and not for any other use but it is not giving better performance than XP so all are preferring to go for only XP not vista. So I am also using its XP. So I prefer better to go for XP

Hey pAL, Windows Vista is not good for gaming. So many incompatibilities arise after installation.... Windows Vista uses almost 512MB of ram just on an empty desktop due to graphic/visual effects. Im a Vista user but I would someday change back to XP.

If your needs are being met by the current operating system XP I don't recommend you switching to Vista. Here is a site which can help you whether your present system is compatible with Vista or not. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/aa905075.aspx

go only with winxp. after year and so go for vista if they introduce service pack 2. winxp is enough having so many resources in it. if u want vista now itself install its service pack

i feel xp is better than vista, xp is lighter on the sytem but where as vista heavy on the system. the system slows down. u need minimu 1GB ram to run vista.......since ur computer specs are average, it would be better to go with xp.......