Vista or XP 64?

It looks like I'm most likely going to get a gateway 172 FX some time this summer. The notebook comes with 32 bit Vista. I'm planning on dual booting with XP and I want at least one 64 bit OS to take advantage of the 4 GB RAM so I'm trying to decide what would be best to do. I could either buy 64 bit Vista for full price and 32 bit XP for $30 from my university or I could keep the 32 bit that comes with the laptop and get 64 bit XP. Which do you think would be the better choice?

 

x64 Vista hands down. See if you can get them to ship it w/ it instead of x32. If not, there are a few forum threads on how/where to download x64 vista- your 32bit key will work for it also, then you would just have to buy xp.

x64 XP is not a very good OS, imo.

 

Thanks, I already talked to a gateway rep and asked about my situation; they said they can't change any hardware/software configuration that's already there. I'll see if I can find a thread about downloading.

 

Yeah, definitely Vista. 64-bit XP is not very well supported at all.

 

Ok, I just checked this and it looks like you need microsoft's anytime upgrade CD, which is no longer free apparently. Are there any other options?

Or does the CD come with the computer?

 

See my clean install guide, which walks through the clean install and also has links to the other threads about downloading, as well as other ways to get the disc. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=120228