vista business vs. xp pro vs xp MCE

[monkey333]

i've been toying between the above 3. Pro's, con's let me know...
some gaming (ut3, nfs carbon) mostly for media though.
No experience with mce, worth it?
dare i suggest vista 64?

specs
amd 4200
2 gig ram 250 + 500 gig hd
x800xl vcard
digital tuner card (name escapes me now), thank capt morgan for that..

thanks
jason

 

[monkey333]

Bueller, Bueller?

 

[Bill Brasky]

I've only used vista business and xp pro. I'm currently running vista, and it's very nice. I'm having a flawless experience besides a minor driver issue between lenovo and nvidia. Between those two, I'd recommend vista in a heart beat.

If you don't plan on running 4 gigs of ram x64 won't do you any good.

Wait, is a "digital tuner card" another name for sound card? If so I don't think it will work in vista, however I'm not even remotely sure. I just remember hearing folks complain about vista not supporting sound cards that worked in xp. Do some googling to find out whether your hardware is compatible.

 

[monkey333]

Sorry, an ATSC Tuner for television.

 

[Bill Brasky]

Originally posted by: monkey333
Sorry, an ATSC Tuner for television.

It should be fine. With specialty hardware like that, I'd recommend going to the manufacture's website and making sure they have vista drivers for your product. This is probably unnecessary, but I like to make sure all my current hardware will work on a new OS before I buy it.

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: monkey333
Sorry, an ATSC Tuner for television.

You should go with Vista Home Premium or Ultimate, then, to take adavantage of Media Center.

 

[tdawg]

Originally posted by: loup garou

Originally posted by: monkey333
Sorry, an ATSC Tuner for television.

You should go with Vista Home Premium or Ultimate, then, to take adavantage of Media Center.

Yep, Vista Business and XP Pro don't have Media Center included. Of course, that doesn't keep you from using 3rd-party solutions.

Vista's Media Center is very clean and slick, in my opinion, plus Vista Home Premium is usually cheaper than Vista Business. If you need all the business features, you'll have to go with Vista Ultimate to get everything that's included in both Vista Business and Home Premium.