Hi,

I want to get me a new PC. But I am still not 100 percent sure. So I want to get some feedback from the hardware gurus.
My work field is programming, modeling, rendering and I want to play some decent games:

Intel Core 2 Duo E 8500 3.16 GHz (6 MB L2)
4 GB DDR2 800 Kit CL4 (2x2 GB)
Asus P5Q Pro
NVidia GeForce GTX 260 896 MB GDDR2
Seagate 750 GB SATA2 32 MB Cache
DVD Writer 20x SATA Dual Layer
Ezcool Midi Tower, 450 Watt

I am afraid of Vista (I installed it for some of my clients and we always had compatibility problems with databases and software). So I plan to go with XP.

But what about memory? Is it waste of money to spend 4 GB RAM when I go with XP? Should I search for a 64 bit OS? Will I get trouble to run my software then? Should I better install both 32bit and 64bit on different partitions?

Any other hints and ideas?

Thanks in advance!

There was a 64 bit Version of Windows XP available, but I doubt you can still buy it while Microsoft is trying to push Vista in every new computer.

edit:
Whoopa! Surprise!
Just look what I found at reichelt.de
http://www.reichelt.de/?;ACTION=3;LA=2;GROUP=N11;GROUPID=3913;ARTICLE=58895;START=0;SORT=preis;OFFSET=16;SID=29wkxdOqwQAR0AAGt06Qs704e80ab6a9ce777989a45f0a70f9647

Hm, this is bad. Vista creates big problems with some programming tools and databases. I will not use it for my daily work. It is waste of time. And all these popups even when you only want to copy some files will also waste my time.

But maybe it is possible to install Vista on a second partition additionally to XP. But I heard that there are some problems to make a dual-boot system with XP and Vista.

Edit: Thanks for the Reichelt-Link!

Hi Frank,

There is no problem dual booting with Vista and any other OS. I don't do any programming, but I am running Vista 64-bit and I love it. It has been stable as a rock, runs smoothly and is very fast. It has great memory management as well.

If you go with XP (32-bit) then you cannot use all 4GB of your RAM. Only 3. If you want to use more than 3, then you will need to go with a 64-bit system.

The Asus P5Q is the motherboard I am running. It is a great MB! Good choice and it is not expensive, either (compared to some MBs).

Since you are getting Sata drives, you might want to look at getting two 500 GB drives instead of one 750. It might actually be LESS expensive and you end up with another 250 GB. With raid, they will act like one big drive .

I know that this is something that some people disagree with, but I would get I bigger power supply. It will do you good if you upgrade some parts later that require more. 450 is kind of borderline these days.

I am sorry that I don't know a lot about your video card selection. I am running an Nvidia GeForce 9800 GX2 (1GB) and it rocks!

vista-linux-dualboot works nicely, i don't see why there should be a problem with xp. i suggest the following partition design, based on a 250GB hdd, [+x GB] refers to bigger disks:

sda0
-sda1 primary vista (system, ~30GB)
--sda5 logical data vista (programs, ~40GB [+x GB])
-sda2 primary xp (system, ~10GB)
--sda6 logical data xp (programs, ~50GB [+x GB])
-sda3 primary linux [root](for recovery and a proper boot manager, ~10GB)
--sda7 logical linux home (~10GB [+x GB])
--sda8 logical linux swap [~1GB)
-sda4 primary data (ntfs, for both vista and xp for your programming things and documents, ~100GB [+x GB])

Thanks. Is it better to install the latest software at the end? So maybe installing Vista 64 bit after installing XP 32 bit?

And thanks for the hint about the HDD. I will check how it will be to get 2 of them instead of one. But maybe they drain more power then from the power supply.

By the way: How do I create partitions before I install an OS?

Are you sure about that? I've heard about problems when installing one OS before the other. Apparently Vista doesn't like it when XP is already installed, when detected it will automatically try to replace it.

It might have been fixed a long time ago though, as nowadays you can even boot from an USB stick.



I totally agree. In fact, I've got my fair share of doubts whether the PC will run with only 450W. 3D cards and processors do become more and more power efficient, but the overall trend is still an increase in power consumption.

Cheers

During the installation process. Win2000 and XP can do that.

vista, ubuntu etc. can do it too.

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

gparted live cd

or if you are going to install linux anyway, it usually comes with either gparted or cfdisk or both. so
1. insert linux/gparted disk
2. run the partition application
3. reboot
4. install xp
5. install vista
6. install linux (to get the boot manager automatically set up all OSes)