[norman]

I have a question for ya, I am going to college to "try" and get my certifications for MCSE. Since I am student at Baker here in MI, I can download serval different OS systems like, Vista Bussiness, XP Pro SP2, XP Home SP1,..et My question is, I am now running XP Pro SP2 32-bit but, I can get a free copy of XP Pro 64-bit. Should I get that OS or Vista? I am a gamer if that helps.

Thanks Jephree

[jephree]

Vista would offer DirectX 10.

In my opinion that is the only Vista advantage.

Do not use Vista if your computer is more than a year old.

In other words you need the latest hardware.

I use XP 64 but only because of gaming.

It is a server platform therefore has some drawbacks.

As servers are not meant to start and stop all the time the startup tends to be slower than 32 bit.

Although you need 64 bit drivers they are plentiful for XP but not so for Vista 64.

Also some "Free for home use" software will not run on XP 64 as the software manufacturer does not expect a home user to be running this OS.

If you have the hardware go Vista for the DirectX otherwise XP 64 is good.

[norman]

Thanks Jephree. If you remember me you help me out about 2 months ago building my gaming computer. I have the EVGA 780iSLI board..et. I talked with some of my classmates and they said, "xp-64" is nothing but a headache. Like everything they try to run, doesn't run because of drive issues. I can dowload the Vista Bussiness but, don't know if that is 64-bit or 32-bit. All I need to do is go to Microsoft's website and download home media center because Vista Bussiness don't have that stuff in it.

[jephree]

You should have no problem running Vista and if it is free go for it.

As far as I know all versions of Vista besides the basic offer a choice of 32 or 64 bit.

I've had no problems with XP 64 drivers but all I use that computer for is gaming.

No printer or external hardware etc.

All the internal hardware had readily available drivers.

But if you have a free Vista go for it. You will find over 90% of software will revert to 32 (x86) bit.

Even with gaming only a few titles even address 64 bit at this point in time.

64 bit will allow you to utilize 4GB RAM and up. 32 bit is limited to 3.5 at best. That being said 3GB on a personal computer is more than you will ever use or need.

64 bit being a server platform allows for servers to run more RAM.

Again servers are not running peripherals so driver conflicts are not such an issue.

[norman]

Thanks Jephree, I download the files onto my desktop in a folder. Now, do I put them on a DVD? I don't want to keep the files on my desktop that why I am aking. Do I use cd or dvd (blank that is). By the way, I download Vista Business.

Note: If want to run 3GB of memory then I can't use dual channel right?

[jephree]

You can use dual channel with either 2 or 4 GB. 4GB will run dual channel although only @3GB will be utilized by Windows 32bit.

Downloading Windows entire Operating Systems is quite unusual. You might want to read the installation info from the download source.

In general you need to make an ISO DVD for Vista.

Your download should not have been files per se but a single ISO.

This is a disk image and must be burned as a disk image not data.