XP or Vista for my wife's new PC build

[kurt454]

Um. XP for now, it's noticeably faster than Vista.

And then, in about 3 months, upgrade to Win 8 Pro for $39.99:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6065/windows-8-upgrade-will-cost-just-3999

This^

But if you don't wish to pony up forty bucks, go with Vista 64.

 

[Gs dewd]

Vista and you'll be fine with 4gb of memory. I have 3 of my 5 rigs running 4gb of memory and the do really well with it. ! is running win vista, 1 running win7, and the other under Ubuntu. All never max the memory out and don't even come close to it. I could run them with 2 gb and they would be fine.

 

[piasabird]

It will take forever to load all of Vista's 100+ Updates. Might find someone that will give you an old copy of Vista For free. Win 8 might be fun to play with you can download a preview version for free. Although saving data may be an issue. You could try it out to see what it is like before you decide if you want to purchase it. It is not a finished product yet.

 

[pantsaregood]

Windows Vista and Windows 7 will run pretty happily on 512 MB of RAM. It isn't ideal, but it works better than Windows XP did on 128 MB.

The OS at idle with only Microsoft Security Essentials and Explorer running will use around 325 MB of RAM. Task manager will usually list your used RAM at around 75%, but that's just SuperFetch at work. NT 6.x will use about 75% of your RAM at all times, whether you have 1 GB or 16 GB. SuperFetch is just designed to load things into RAM to speed up launching them. XP just lets unused RAM sit there, doing absolutely nothing.

At 1 GB of RAM, Windows Vista and 7 shouldn't ever choke.

EDIT: Also, Vista will probably just be flat out faster than Windows XP on that CPU. Windows XP is awful at scheduling for multicore systems. It generally just throws everything on the first core unless you specifically tell it not to.

 

[whitewolf094]

The OS choice (XP 32 or Vista 64) is down to spare licences and a tight budget. She uses her computer for basic apps/Internet usage, Flash games and old games (the most advanced one she's playing is Settlers - Rise of an Empire).

Spec-wise I think it'll be fine with either OS (parts are already on order):

Intel Pentium G620
4GB DDR3-1333 single-channel
ASUS P8H67-M PRO

Hardware we're re-using:
Seagate 500GB 7200.12
Samsung DVDRW
Cheap-and-cheerful 500W PSU that I intend to replace with an Antec HCG-400.

IMO:

XP advantages:
Faster to start up than Vista
She is currently using it (so she won't whinge about differences)
More free RAM for her to gobble up by leaving browsers open for way too long

XP disadvantages:
Not long until XP no longer gets security updates*
I'm sure a more modern OS would be better suited to newer hardware, maybe driver support too?

Vista advantages:
Faster app start times thanks to superfetch
Better new-app support (some apps don't support XP any more)
>4GB RAM support

Vista disadvantages:
Slow start-up and settle-down times**
It's a bit different to XP and she'll probably whinge a little, though she has used it full-time before and got used to it / liked it well enough

* - My wife grudgingly lets me on her computer to do maintenance. Ideally (IMO) I'd get her on to Win7 because IMO it's the best of both worlds, though these opportunities are few and far between.

** - I'm thinking that she'll probably use her computer like I do mine - put it to sleep generally speaking rather than a complete shut down, in order to get fast resume times, so I think Vista will perform pretty well under these circumstances, but I'm not 100% sure.

NEITHER- WINDOWS 7,far superior .

 

[Mem]

Vista for sure between those two.