Best os for dell xps m1730

ok guys i need to know what is the best os to run on my m1730.
i prefer xp over vista but then again i prefer me mac over xp but cant play games on my mac.
so the question is should i downgrade my laptop from vista home prem 32 bit to
1: xp pro 32bit
2: xp pro 64bit
3: vista ultimate 64bit

now the main game ill be running is crysis till farcry comes out and crysis warhead but for now i want to get the best out of my laptop.
system spec
core2duo t9300 2.5ghz
dual sli 8800 gtx
2gig ram might upgrade to 4gb if its worth it?

thanks alex

 

It's a gaming laptop, and if you want the BEST gaming results, XP 32 bit pro IS THE BEST OS at the moment for gaming.
The upgrade to 4 GB is definitely worth it, but you can buy 4Gb RAM from various sites for much less than Dell offers them as an upgrade from 2 GB.

Check out the Ram deals thread.

 

i run vista now and have not looked back

 

well i have 3 laptops, macbook, dell d620 win xp pro and m1730.
i much prefer xp over vista. vista is so annoying in so many ways
is there any point installing 64bit xp or should i stick with 32bit?

what is the advantage of having 4gig ram over 2 gig when playing games? wil the game run smother on higher settings or something? as at the moment crysis runs smooth on high settings 1920x1200 no aa

 

I would say Vista x64 for my first choice and XP Pro 32bit if that was my only option. XP x64 does not play nice with 32 bit applications. Vista x64 is a solid choice if you want to go the 64 bit route.

 

if i do go for vista 64x should i go for home pre or ultimate ?
thanks

 

I've used both Ultimate and Home Premium and I'd say Home Premium will fit 99% of your needs. There are a few things such as Remote Desktop and not being able to join a domain that are absent from Home Premium. Most of the stuff missing are business type of applications. Ultimate just combines Vista Business and Home Premium.

 

ok thanks mate.
only thing i have to do now is chose ether xp pro 32bit or vista home pre 64bit
advantage that vista has over xp is dx10 ( apparently with the very high settings hack there is hardly any difference) intel turbo memory and both support 4gb ram
were as for me xp is more simple to use and games run better with better fps?
hm would need to run both to make up my mind.
is there anyway i could have both as a dual boot or something?

 

Yeah, you can run both at the same time. The performance is debatable, I think Vista x64 outperforms Vista 32 bit and some benchmarks show XP Pro and Vista x64 being about the same.

 

Almost the same, but NOT.
I dual booted Vista 64 and Xp 32 for a while and I`ve concluded that no matter how well you tweak Vista, XP still outperforms it in DX9 tasks.

 

4gb will only work on 64 bit OS's. Xp 64bit has always been plagued with bugs, so stick with xp pro 32bit. As for 4gb vs 2gb unless the ram has lower timings or you are thrashing there will be zero difference in performance.