New Build - 64 Bit Vista Home Premium OEM

[djnsmith7]

As the title reads, I'm doing a new build & would like to upgrade from XP Pro SP2 to Vista 64...

There are a lot of people on both sides of this upgrade fence, so I wanted to start my own thread to get today's latest & greatest opinions...Things change every day...

In terms of gaming, I play BF2 & what from I've read, there haven't been many obstacles in getting it to run on 64...

My concerns, like anyone else doing this upgrade, are related to the driver nightmares so many people complain about...I know SP1 hasn't been released yet, but how is the driver support today?...

Your thoughts...


Hardware Setup:


ASUS P5N32-E SLI
E8400 (upon release)
4 GB OCZ DDR2-800
Raptor HDD
2900XT (for now, but will probably upgrade to 2 8800GTs soon)
Enermax 500W PS

 

[Noema]

I've been using Vista 64 for about 6 months now.

So far, it's been working well. Game performance is very similar to XP, a wee bit slower but the difference is almost unnoticeable. The OS is fast and stable. I don't think I've had a single crash, or BSODs. I'm running 4GB of RAM with no problem.

As far as 'driver nightmares' are concerned, I've had no problems either. There's only one device I own which is not supported in 64-bit (Vista or XP), and that's my Line 6 GuitarPort. That's indeed a PITA, because it forces me to boot back to XP whenever I want to play guitar :| It's worth noting that I was able to use the device with no problems inside a XP virtual machine with VMWare Workstation, but I was using the trial which expired after a month...it worked great...alas I still don't feel ready to put down $190 for VMWare and I've returned to booting back to XP when necessary. But it's a possibility if you want to go 64-bit and there's some unsupported hardware you can't live without.

 

[JustaGeek]

In my experience, gaming is faster and smoother in Vista 64. I am not playing BF2 though...

Just remember to remove 2GB of RAM, leaving just 2GB for installation, or Vista will NOT install.

Apply all the Updates and Hotfixes, including the "over 3GB hotfix" from Microsoft, and only then put your remaining 2GB in, for your total of 4GB.

Good luck!

 

[Noema]

Originally posted by: JustaGeek

Just remember to remove 2GB of RAM, leaving just 2GB for installation, or Vista will NOT install.

Yes...I had forgotten about that one.

 

[JustaGeek]

Originally posted by: djnsmith7



Hardware Setup:


ASUS P5N32-E SLI
E8400 (upon release)
4 GB OCZ DDR2-800
Raptor HDD
2900XT (for now, but will probably upgrade to 2 8800GTs soon)
Enermax 500W PS

Make sure this motherboard supports the E8400 - the 650i chipset MIGHT NOT SUPPORT IT!

Check with ASUS first.

 

[djnsmith7]

Very cool...Thx for the heads up on the 2GB vs the 4GB during initial installation...

One other question, mainly for confirmation...I read in another thread that just like with my OEM XP Pro disc, I will be able to use the 64 Bit disc again (using the same MB) if my HDD or system crashes & I need to do a reinstall...Is this correct?

I've done this a few times with my XP disc & the worst thing that happens is I have to call in my activation...Other than that, the XP disc has worked like a charm, regardless of the number of HDD's I swap out in my system...

 

[nerp]

Your activation experiences in XP and Vista should be very similar.

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: Noema
I've been using Vista 64 for about 6 months now.

So far, it's been working well. Game performance is very similar to XP, a wee bit slower but the difference is almost unnoticeable. The OS is fast and stable. I don't think I've had a single crash, or BSODs. I'm running 4GB of RAM with no problem.

As far as 'driver nightmares' are concerned, I've had no problems either. There's only one device I own which is not supported in 64-bit (Vista or XP), and that's my Line 6 GuitarPort. That's indeed a PITA, because it forces me to boot back to XP whenever I want to play guitar :| It's worth noting that I was able to use the device with no problems inside a XP virtual machine with VMWare Workstation, but I was using the trial which expired after a month...it worked great...alas I still don't feel ready to put down $190 for VMWare and I've returned to booting back to XP when necessary. But it's a possibility if you want to go 64-bit and there's some unsupported hardware you can't live without.

Try VirtualBox. It's 64-bit native, and free.

 

[Noema]

Originally posted by: Pabster

Try VirtualBox. It's 64-bit native, and free.

Cool! I had no idea it existed...I looked it up and sounds promising...

I'll try it out today! Thanks!

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: Noema

Originally posted by: Pabster

Try VirtualBox. It's 64-bit native, and free.

Cool! I had no idea it existed...I looked it up and sounds promising...

I'll try it out today! Thanks!

IMHO the better product (much!) of VirtualBox and MS Virtual PC and Virtual Server is the MS products. Try those. Free now too, IIRC.

 

[Noema]

Unfortunately Virtual PC doesn't support USB devices in the guest machine...so that one's out.

Haven't got a chance to try VirtualBox...I installed the app but haven't created an XP install yet. I'll do it on the weekend and report back on performance with my Line6 hardware

 

[TheVrolok]

I put Vista x64 Home Premium OEM on my new machine.

Q6600
Asus P5N32-E Sli Plus
8800GT
4GB A-DATA DDR2 800
WD500GB

No problems whatsoever with hardware. I also didn't know about the 2GB limit for installation.. but I installed fine with my 4GB installed.

 

[LightningRider]

I wish Line 6 would make a driver for my PodXT Live already. I'm really diappointed in their support. You'd think they'd have some sort of ETA or something at least by now!?

 

[XBoxLPU]

Originally posted by: JustaGeek
In my experience, gaming is faster and smoother in Vista 64. I am not playing BF2 though...

Just remember to remove 2GB of RAM, leaving just 2GB for installation, or Vista will NOT install.

Apply all the Updates and Hotfixes, including the "over 3GB hotfix" from Microsoft, and only then put your remaining 2GB in, for your total of 4GB.

Good luck!

I had no problems installing Vista with 4Gb of memory from the start

 

[Mem]

My concerns, like anyone else doing this upgrade, are related to the driver nightmares so many people complain about...I know SP1 hasn't been released yet, but how is the driver support today?...

Your thoughts

Excellent in my case,50+ games installed on my Vista x64,all my hardware is working without problems plus I have full driver support for all my hardware so can't complain at all,it's like being back on XP for me(XP owners take that as a compliment ).

I keep saying this but I'm one very happy gamer/Vista user .

 

[XBoxLPU]

Originally posted by: Mem

My concerns, like anyone else doing this upgrade, are related to the driver nightmares so many people complain about...I know SP1 hasn't been released yet, but how is the driver support today?...

Your thoughts

Excellent in my case,50+ games installed on my Vista x64,all my hardware is working without problems plus I have full driver support for all my hardware so can't complain at all,it's like being back on XP for me(XP owners take that as a compliment ).

I keep saying this but I'm one very happy gamer/Vista user .

Same here

 

[djnsmith7]

What about going up to 6 or 8 GB of RAM? Any issues there? I know it seems overkill, but whatever...I'm just curious who's done it without issues...

 

[Noema]

Originally posted by: LightningRider
I wish Line 6 would make a driver for my PodXT Live already. I'm really diappointed in their support. You'd think they'd have some sort of ETA or something at least by now!?

Yeah...they've been really bad at this. They've been promising the drivers for over 18 months now...no ETA, they haven't given us any news about it. It's ridiculous.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: djnsmith7
What about going up to 6 or 8 GB of RAM? Any issues there? I know it seems overkill, but whatever...I'm just curious who's done it without issues...

The issues with 4GB was (an installation problem) then only with some motherboards,ie ones that use Storport miniport driver,Vista Window updates fixes the problem .


Link to info.

Error message when you try to install Windows Vista on a computer that uses more than 3 GB of RAM: "STOP 0x0000000A"



SYMPTOMS
When you try to install Windows Vista, you may receive an error message that resembles the following:
STOP 0x0000000A (parameter1, parameter2, parameter3, parameter4)
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
This problem occurs if the following conditions are true:
? The computer uses more than 3 GB of RAM.
? The computer uses a storage system that is running the Storport miniport driver.
? The computer uses a controller that uses 32-bit direct memory access (DMA).

 

[JustaGeek]

Without getting too technical and scientific about it, the main thing is to be aware of the issue.

This one is just one of many that might prevent a successful installation of Vista 64.

If you have 4GB of RAM and receive the above message, you just have to remove the extra memory - that's all.

 

[akers]

As djnsmith7 asked, I am also interested in 8GB of RAM. I do a lot of digital photography and video editing. I have a Q6700 Extreme running at 3.2 so I think I have the horsepower to run it.