Opinions on this new system? (Gaming) Need a suggestion for OS.

[TheVrolok]

Broke down and am ordering from IBuyPower.com simply because I just don't have the time/energy to spend tracking rebates/shipments from multiple online purchases. This is the first time I won't be building a new rig for myself in .. jeez, a decade or so? Since I ordered a P200 Pro w/ 64mb RAM from Gateway!

Anywhere, here we are:
Case ( [New !!!] Nzxt Lexa Blackline Gaming Tower Case w/420W Power Supply Black )

Power Supply ( 620 Watt -- Enermax Liberty DXX Power Supply SLI Ready )

Processor ( [=== Quad Core ===] Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 (4x 2.4GHz/8MB L2 Cache/1066FSB) )

Processor Cooling ( [New !!!] iBUYPOWER Liquid CPU Cooling Fan System Kit --- [for INTEL CPU] )

Motherboard ( eVGA NForce 680i SLI Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0 Dual PCI-E MB )

Memory ( 512 MB [512MB X1] DDR2-800 PC6400 Memory Module Corsair-Value or Major Brand )

Video Card ( NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT 512MB w/DVI + TV Out Video )

Hard Drive ( [Special !!!] 200 GB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 8M Cache] )

Flash Media Reader/Writer ( 12-In-1 Internal Flash Media Card Reader/Writer Black )

Operation System ( Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium )

Warranty ( Warranty Service Standard 3-Year Limited Warranty + Lifetime Technical Support )

Sub Total: $1,320.00 shipped.

Notes:

I've already got 4GB of DDR2 800Mhz RAM and a WD 500GB SATA HDD for my slave drive which is why I've not listed a 2nd HDD and downgraded the RAM to 512 (the prices to upgrade RAM were ridiculous). Also, I'm going to pull the optical drives out of my current system since I don't need another 18x DVD burner sitting around. What do you guys think? How much do you think I'm overspending not doing it myself this time around?

 

[TC91]

i dont think you are really overpaying since there is windows home premium included, as well as the warranty (dont know if you would need it anyways), and the liquid cooling system.

 

[TheVrolok]

Should I go with Vista Home Premium or back to XP? Both would be 64 bit versions (I'd want XP x64 instead of the vanilla XP 64 bit?). Is there really a point in going to Vista? Also, since I downgraded the RAM to 512 (min allowable by the site) can they even install Vista since the min req is listed at a gig? Perhaps I should just have them not include an OS and pick up and OEM copy of Vista on my own?

 

[Fraggable]

Personally, I can't imagine paying the same price for XP, a 7-year olf OS over Vista, an OS that really works fine for home users on a decently fast system. For gaming, it has a very minimal impact on performance over XP and the new features are well worth it. Even the little things like native DVD burning make life so much easier.

 

[gorobei]

1) parts if bought ala carte, come out around $1200. So for $1300 you're paying roughly $100 extra for the 3yr warranty and tech support.(nowhere close to the gouging dell and hp offer, so you're not bad off there. usually the big names give you the cheapest m/b and ram possible, so the EVGA board is a nice option. If it's vista oem, then you are paying $200 over)

2) OS: since this is a game system, you might as well go for 64bit vista. Home premium should be fine. Just understand that vista will be crap shoot when it comes to drivers/peripherals and current games will perform worse than XP. But games will eventually require dx10 and more than 2Gb of ram, so you might as well get Vista now rather than have to buy two OS.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: Fraggable
Personally, I can't imagine paying the same price for XP, a 7-year olf OS over Vista, yada, yada...

^ What he said!

Vista HP rocks! And, this is just the start of it...

XP isn't going anywhere except the orphanage!

The only reason I can see for buying XP is if you're running outdated hardware, like a Gateway P200 Pro w/ 64mb RAM...

 

[TheStu]

Or if you are running SLI and 2 monitors, nVidia's drivers still aren't there (which is their fault, not Microsoft's obviously). So that would be a reason. Maybe your games/software is not yet compatible with Vista (or never will be). That would be another reason. Maybe you are a benchmarker and want that 3-5% of benefit that you will get in the scores from not running Vista.