On XP Pro 32bit for now, upgrade to 64bit, or Vista?

Hello all, I've been a desktop user pretty much all my life and have only used laptops for work, but I will be getting one soon as my main PC . I've been running XP pro forever now and just updated to SP3 recently and everything seems to be running ok. I run alot of old school desktop hardware P4 Norhtwood AGP, PATA etc. I'm all over the board as far as usage, sometimes i go on gaming binges for months then stop for months, i do alot of web surfing, a dabble a little in CAD and photoshop, do some video encoding/decoding to get my movies onto my laptop for travel etc. So my question is if I'm getting a new laptop, they pretty much all come with some version of Vista, should I downgrade (i've heard many say it's more of an upgrade) to XP pro SP3. I mean what are the big reasons these days to upgrade to Vista or even 64bit xp pro. I know there were ALOT of issues with Vista in the beginning but seems that MS has come along way in trying to resolve them. I also know that Vista is a resource hog, which I think is something you wouldn't want especially for a laptop. Enlighten me!

 

Vista uses more resources than XP, but a computer with a new Core 2 Duo processor and at least 2 GB of RAM is more than adequate to deal with it. It consumes more resources, but uses them effectively. It's not necessarily a huge waste.

The performance difference between Vista SP1 and XP SP3 is very small, with XP winning out in some tests and Vista in others. Also, there are no compatibility issues to worry about.

Since you mention upgrading to XP x64, why not Vista x64? Vista x64 is extremely stable and has almost no compatibility issues (except with legacy programs). The most notable exception is Cisco's VPN Client, but that's not compatible with any 64-bit OS. The big reason to use 64-bit is to be able to use 4+ GB of RAM.

One thing you will want to consider is removing the bloatware from your computer if you choose to get a new one. Many people buying a new computer nowadays get it only to find out that it runs very sluggishly. They attribute it to Vista and bash it nonstop when in reality it's the useless extra software that vendors install before you receive your laptop. There are countless guides on removing this software, so feel free to post back here when you're ready to do that.

 

you can get it with vista, try and downgrade then... in case that you will find out that xp would be better. - but what i wanted to add to that already mentioned by crash: in any way, make sure that there are xp drivers available for the laptop you're going to buy. it's a pain to get xp on some so called "multimedia" laptops for example.

 

What kind of graphics card do you have?

 

Crash writes well. XP is not worth the downgrade - Vista is more stable, more intuitive, manages memory much better... it's overall a much better OS.

The 'resource hogging' is only very slightly true. Yes, it requires a little more resources than XP or 7 for that matter, but it uses them very well, and a lot of it is not actual proper memory use.

XP Pro 64-bit is a bad idea - there is hardly any support for that.

 

I agree that there is less support for XP Pro x64 ... HOWEVER ... drivers exist on manufacturers websites for that OS, and as such, even if there will be some problems, I doubt that they will be huge.
Even MS has been releasing updates for XP PRO x64. Nothing along the lines of SP3 for the 32bit flavor ... but enough.

Having said that ... I have 2 OS-es:
1.) XP Pro SP3 (32bit)
2.) Vista Home Premium SP1 (64bit)

I find it to be a decent combination so I can maintain compatibility with old programs while working in 3dsMax in 64bit bit environment that will completely take advantage of my hardware in full.

 

I would say go for the 64 bit edition of either. No Viruses as of yet for the x64 platform, taking advantage of all 4 GB of Ram on Lappys, and the full utilization of your 64 bit processor.
As For the XP Version, The Personal Address Extention (PAE) command enable is available under Xp, so if you wanted to keep an XP flavor you woulnd't want to worry there. PAE allows you to address beyond the 4GB memory aperature.
As for Vista, there is the new "Readyboost" technology that allows you to use a high speed USB Flash Memory Drive as a suppliment to system ram - almost as if it were using it as a pagefile.

 

Might be better to wait for Windows 7, Once its out Vista will be obsolete.
Since Windows 7 will do everything Vista can do and do it better.

You can always try Linux for the mean time.
Or stay with XP till you actually need a new OS for something.

 

The NBR Vista tweaks sticky is a good resource for speeding up Vista.

Or as Sewje said - try a flavor of Linux untill Windows 7 Comes out.

 

If the laptop comes with Vista, forget everything you heard and just try it out for a few weeks... if you don't like it, you can always switch OSes then.

Windows 7 will have the same guts as Vista, and use the same drivers and everything will be compatible... so it will really just help make XP obsolete, not Vista. (MS will be releasing Vista SP2 to bring Vista up-to-date with the Windows 7 internals.) The only thing Windows 7 will have over Vista is a few UI enhancements, such as MS's newfangled taskbar. 7 will probably come with WMP12 and IE 8 too, but you'll just be able to download them for Vista or XP I'm sure.

 

Here is the Link to the MS database page that discusses the PAE and Windows XP for anyone that is interested.