Best OS for CAD and gaming purposes?

Hi everybody, I'm new in here!

I've recently ordered a Samsung R560 (specs in my signature) and I'm going mostly to run civil engineering oriented applications (AutoCAD, Civil 3D, CypeCAD...) and games on it (hope GTA4 run fine, maybe some Crysis and a bit of racing games too). The notebook has Vista Home Premiun already preinstalled, and my question is: should I downgrade to XP in order to get better performance?
My desktop has XP so I'm familiar to it, and I've also worked just a bit in Vista with my girlfriend's notebook; although I think I prefer XP, I can definetly live using Vista.

Thanks in advance, hope you can help in this

 

i say try it using vista and if you dont like it downgrade, i love vista though i have to do a reinstall due to some errors that i have got using some programs - not MS fault

 

XP will be better.

a friend of mine is doing architect and she noticed Vista feels quite sluggish for CAD users.

many could argue Vista is better but XP is still faster on same hardware.

There's a reason why professionals use a little older OS... its specific and performs with stability.

 

That's not true, it's only true if your hardware is slow.

No, not because of stability, it's because some of the software they use aren't up-to-date yet and don't support the newer OS. And XP isn't more stable than Vista.

 

I ve got T9300 on my Sony Vaio ..still it isnt as fast as it should be

 

Your processor doesn't necessarily determine the overall speed of the system.

RAM? HDD? These play a significant factor as well.

A T9300 with a 60GB 5400RPM (an example of a not-so-fast drive) and 1GB RAM will not be as quick and responsive as a T9300 with a 200GB 7200RPM drive with 2-4GB of RAM.

 

250 GB 7200 RPM and 2 GB 667 mhz RAM.


give up dude.

Vista runs fine on latest hardware but not fast like a horse

 

I would run either XP or Vista Ultimate x64. But if you don't have the 64 bit version of the cad programs that you are going to use, then stick with XP. That's what I would do personally. I am running Ultimate X64 and have Autodesk Inventor (x64) and Autocad (x64) running on my laptop. However I have yet to be able to get Solidworks to work with Vista x64, and it appears that I am not the only one either. As far as games go I would use Vista, but i really dont have any preference between vista and Xp when it comes to games.

 

For CAD programs, you'll want lots of RAM. That generally means you'll want to go 64-bit (assuming all your CAD programs are 64-bit compatible or have 64-bit versions). If that's the case, go with 64-bit Vista NOT 64-bit XP. You'll have nothing but problems with 64-bit XP.

If you end up sticking with 32-bit, then I say try out Vista and see how you like it first. I ended up really liking Vista after using it for a while and can't say there's really a huge difference in performance between the two. If you really can't stand it, then switch to 32-bit XP.

 

I second this opinion. Vista 64-bit is excellent; just look up information for each of the CAD programs you'll use to check that they don't have any problems.

 

Then something's wrong with your setup. I've got dual-boot Vista/XP on the same laptop, and Vista is as fast as XP.

 

Thank you guys for all your opinions. I've checked if I could get 64-bit version of the programs I'll use but seems impossible, so I'm stuck to 32-bit right now. I have to give Vista a try and see If I approve it.

 

You're welcome!

And you may find you you like Vista after all.