Which Windows to install just for games?

[Ichigo]

What is the most practical version to buy, based solely on games? For all other purposes, I will remain in OSX.

 

[TheStu]

What Mac do you have? If you have a new Santa Rosa MacBook Pro, then maybe Vista since that graphics card can take advantage of DX10 and so can Vista. If not, then XP should be fine.

 

[MyThirdEye]

XP

 

[Ichigo]

I have an SR MBP.

 

[Boo Boo]

xp

 

[bearxor]

Vista Home Basic - Drivers are more mature for XP now, but Vista has gotten a lot better and you'll be able to take advantage of DX10 in the future. Since it's just to boot in to for gaming, you don't need anything higher than Home Basic. Home Premium gets you MCE and the Aero interface.

 

[Ichigo]

Also, I've read some benchmarks showing the 64-bit versions of Vista to be faster for games. Since I don't need the iSight camera or anything like that in the Vista boot, does this seem a good idea?

 

[secretanchitman]

32 bit xp pro. cant go wrong.

 

[ShawnD1]

Get XP. Most games work pretty good in Vista but there are still a few bugs.

In the future, be sure to check Valve's latest hardware survey. According to that survey, 90% of people are using Windows XP, 8% use Vista. Guess which one will have the best support.

 

[Ichigo]

There should be no reason why I need to get XP Pro, right? Home shouldn't be lacking any features for my particular purpose?

 

[ShawnD1]

You will need Pro if you do any of the following:
-are part of a domain
-use software raid
-use Remote Desktop server

If you don't use those, Home will do just fine.

 

[Noema]

XP Home or Vista Home Basic (I'd recommend the latter but XP Home will do just fine).

 

[Noema]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1
You will need Pro if you do any of the following:
-are part of a domain
-use software raid
-use Remote Desktop server

If you don't use those, Home will do just fine.

Well, Software RAID is pretty much out since it's a laptop, and joining a domain wouldn't be really necessary since he'd be using Windows just for games.

As for Remote Desktop, there are free alternatives like Logmein which will do just fine.

 

[Ichigo]

See, that's the thing. I've used Vista on my desktop. It's fine. Since Vista Basic 64 and XP Home are the same price for me, I'm just trying to figure out if the slightly more futureproof (I use that term loosely) 64-bit Vista is worth using over what will likely have the least issues.

 

[teclis1023]

the 64 bit Vista just isn't ready, nor will it boast significant performance benefits for you. Go 32 bit and save yourself a lot of headaches.

 

[Noema]

I wouldn't say Vista 64 'isn't ready', but I do agree that, unless you have 4GB of RAM or more, there's no point to Vista 64-

 

[secretanchitman]

yeah...pro offers nothing more than the name and hardly any more features. home will do just fine.