Gaming OS Choices On Multiple OS Rig?

[Judaeus Apella]

Okay, to start off... I've decided to build a new desktop. BUT, right now it looks like we're between three operating systems. Good ole' reliable XP (love it), DirectX 10 supporting piece a sh*t Vista (if you want to game), and the unreleased Windows 7 for which there is a beta... and from what I've heard it's extremely stable and kicks Vista's @ss.

First thing is I've already decided I want it to have several OS's on it, since I need XP for stable normal use... and something that supports DirectX 10. So my options are Vista or 7 beta... since 7 isn't going to be out for a while and when it is, I'm sure it will be VERY pricy which means I won't be able to afford it anyway.

So this is my question, should the second OS for gaming be 32-bit Vista (costs $$$), 64-bit Vista ($$$), or Windows 7 (FREE!). I also need to know if anyone is trying DirectX 10 games on Win7 and how compatible they are. I don't even know how many, if at all any, motherboard chipsets are compatible with Win7 and XP.

I'm new to this whole DX10 thing, so I don't even know if those DX10 games require 32 or 64 bit.... I haven't looked into any of this yet cause I couldn't even begin to afford it up until recently.

So there it is. And I'm sure someone will find fault with this plan of mine and give me a bunch of reasons why, then this project is going to become even more complicated. :para: That’s what always seems to happen... lol

[tiro_uspsss]

I'd stick with XP for now & then dual boot between XP & W7 when it comes out. There are very few titles that make use of DX10 to the extent that its worth going Sh1tsta - might as well just pass on it & go straight to W7 :up:

[Jamesrt2004]

the win7 beta even comes with directx11 iirc !!!! i'd say go for xp + win7, make sure install games somewhere (different partition or something) else as its easier to upgrade to the newer betas etc :)

[moogle]

I'm new to this whole DX10 thing, so I don't even know if those DX10 games require 32 or 64 bit.... I haven't looked into any of this yet cause I couldn't even begin to afford it up until recently.

They just require one or the other. Whichever you choose either 32 or 64 bit the DX10 games just need DX10. Vista's quite stable I'd say. If you already got XP then stick with it in the meantime as DX10 just offers those better graphics but DX9 can be tweaked to look just as good.

[SoulsCollective]

How exactly is Vista "sh1tsta"? Do you actually have a reason, or is this just more reflexive Vista-hate?

Still, if you're not playing DX10 games, don't need IPv6 and are strapped for cash then stick with your existing copy of XP. If you want DX10 or just want to keep current without spending any more money, all reports I've read say that Win7 current builds are very stable and handle DX10 gaming just fine so that seems like a good option if you don't mind your OS being on a time-limit and in continuous beta.

Personally I see little point in dual-booting XP and Vista. XP does nothing that Vista does not, isn't any slower (unless you're running a machine from 2002) or more stable, and offers much better support for high-RAM, multiple-CPU environments as in all modern machines. It's really only feasible if you're running some hardware or software that is incompatible with Vista, but the hardware list is small and the software even smaller.

[Judaeus Apella]

Oh come on, every customer I talk to who has vista even the computer savvy nerds, totally hate it. Everyone we know hates it. They all tell me, that all it does is crash crash crash crash crash or there's always something wrong with it. Then one day this customer tells me that he changed his OS from Vista to Win7 and it has NEVER crashed even ONCE. Now THAT's impressive! And if it comes between a free OS and Vista... I'm taking the free one. I just didn't know if these DX10 games would run on Win7, thats all.

Now I just need to know what kind of mobo I need. :D If you wanna help go here -> http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=214056

[YukonTrooper]

XP 32 for main and Windows 7 Beta to mess around with until the full version is released. No point in going Vista now.

[jaredpace]

XP Pro 32 for the games, WIN 7 when you need dx10, or dx11

thumbs down for vista...

[funk32]

Oh come on, every customer I talk to who has vista even the computer savvy nerds, totally hate it. Everyone we know hates it. They all tell me, that all it does is crash crash crash crash crash or there's always something wrong with it. Then one day this customer tells me that he changed his OS from Vista to Win7 and it has NEVER crashed even ONCE. Now THAT's impressive! And if it comes between a free OS and Vista... I'm taking the free one. I just didn't know if these DX10 games would run on Win7, thats all.

Now I just need to know what kind of mobo I need. :D If you wanna help go here -> http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=214056

I havnt had any problems with my Vista 64bit and i have had it since it was released for retail, but yes Windows 7 runs alittle faster for what i have played with it.

[gr8golf]

Oh come on, every customer I talk to who has vista even the computer savvy nerds, totally hate it. Everyone we know hates it. They all tell me, that all it does is crash crash crash crash crash or there's always something wrong with it. Then one day this customer tells me that he changed his OS from Vista to Win7 and it has NEVER crashed even ONCE. Now THAT's impressive! And if it comes between a free OS and Vista... I'm taking the free one. I just didn't know if these DX10 games would run on Win7, thats all.

Now I just need to know what kind of mobo I need. :D If you wanna help go here -> http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=214056

I've noticed a LOT of the users here @ XS are running Vista 64 bit and very happy with it. Win 7 will be better, but Vista is fine.

[HuffPCair]

Not true Vista is a great OS and WIndows 7 is going to be even better. Who ever you have talked to is running it on a crappy computer or has not even gave it a chance. Vista is awesome and I love it. XP 64 bit is probably the worse version of a 64 bit OS out.

[Judaeus Apella]

I'm going to use XP 32... I can do that on a 64 bit mobo right? RIGHT??? :eek:

[tiro_uspsss]

I'm going to use XP 32... I can do that on a 64 bit mobo right? RIGHT??? :eek:

:confused: theres no such thing as 32bit or 64bit hardware! :fact:

only software

the only time u need to 'worry' about 64bit & hardware is when getting drivers for ur hardware: if ur OS is 64bit, then ur drivers need to be 64bit

u dont see v.cards advertised as 64bit, do u?

comprendae? :up:

[jason str]

No problems with vista here either, i'm running 32 & 64 bit systems. Most but not all problems with the operating system are user error.

[Judaeus Apella]

I told you I was new to this. *sob* I don't understand this whole movement from 32 to 64 or how any of it works. :(

[HuffPCair]

Yeah I think Xp was a crappy call but it also saves you some money I guess if you had to buy a CD. I would def change over to a 64 bit os later on though specially for the RAM. I would look at WIndows 7 and see what you think. I love it so far but I also like Vista and its sad that all these people dissing it really have no clue what they are talking about

[zanzabar]

I told you I was new to this. *sob* I don't understand this whole movement from 32 to 64 or how any of it works. :(

on 32bit u can have 4GB of total system memory and only use 32bit and 16bit code with 64bit vista biz or ulti u can have 2TB of total system memory and u can use 16/32/64bit code

and vista is fine if u have the hardware for it and u are stable, if u are not really stable but can use XP then u wont be vista stable and will need to tweak it

[Speederlander]

Oh come on, every customer I talk to who has vista even the computer savvy nerds, totally hate it.

Vista is an outstanding OS, especially 64 bit. It's as fast as XP and more stable. Only people who lack the needed level of hardware suffer.

[viccan]

Vista is fine.. Its the lame ass idiots that either a buy a :banana::banana::banana::banana: cheap end Dell or Gateway. compaq Hp whatever, If you use quality components and know what your doing ( which is not like a rocket science degree or anything) your vista runs great.
The only crashes I get are a result of my pushing the envelope on my 2.4gHz quad to like over 4 ghz. but regardless you need a minimum of 2 gigs of ram at the least a fast dual core amd or intel chip a good MB no elitegroup or cheesy cheap $40 boards.... And dont get me wrong there are some good buys on some decent boards then there is cheap sh1t! People that knock vista usually have a gig of ram and the above or less. Ive been running vista 64 ultimate for over a year and would not look back... Is it different from XP sure it is do most people hate change you bet, everyone screams they want change and then they pucker their lil @ss's at the slightest change.. Point is Vista 64 anyways is a great OS and don't be fooled by the 90% of computer bimbos that plainly don't know how to configure an os or components properly and then b1tch about it!!!! Well theres my rant for the day good luck :)

[kiyka]

I absolutely love Vista.

It's much faster, better designed, easier to use than XP.

The first few months were hell granted but after drivers caught up Vista has been extremely good, stable, better.

[Judaeus Apella]

Just to be clear... I can have XP 32 and Win7 64... on the same system... right? When I switch back and forth to 64 when I want to play some games, I'll just add the extra ram. No biggie.

[tiro_uspsss]

Just to be clear... I can have XP 32 and Win7 64... on the same system... right? When I switch back and forth to 64 when I want to play some games, I'll just add the extra ram. No biggie.

yes u can switch, no u leave the ram in there all the time

[Judaeus Apella]

Why can't I just put the extra ram in the pc when I'm using Win7 and take it out when I boot up with XP??

[YukonTrooper]

Why can't I just put the extra ram in the pc when I'm using Win7 and take it out when I boot up with XP??
You can, but why would you want to do that? :confused:

[funk32]

ya that would be a waste

[Judaeus Apella]

Well you see, its like this. I have a nice photoprinter and enough ink for it to last me several years, if not a lot longer. I got tons of free ink for it when I was a cannon rep. Its an IP5000. Problem is, the drivers are ooold and not compatible with all these new OS's. Neither is all my versions of graphic art software, word processing software, and pretty much everything else I own and I DON'T have the money to replace that and definately won't for a looong time. I also have a whole shelf of games and I want to subscribe to an online gaming service so I can try all the games I've missed out on cause I couldn't afford them. Most of them are 32-bit only. So I need a system for that AND I need a gaming system for the 64-bit stuff.

One day I'll buy some cheap parts to make a small XP rig for all that stuff, and set it right next to my Gaming rig. But right now I don't have the money. So this is a temperary solution for a few years. Understand my situation now?

So, what I want to know is... temporarily... Am I able to install XP 32-bit AND Windows 7 64-bit all on the same system? The rig I'm getting is a huge stacker, so it won't be hard to get into it and add the extra ram when I'm playing games. Its not a big deal for me. I don't mind doing that at all. :)

I just want to know if it is possible to have those two OS's on the same rig. Thats all.

I'd also like to know if its possible to tell the system to boot using one OS or the other when it starts, and depending on which OS I choose it uses a different drive?

[RPGWiZaRD]

Dualboot with XP and W7. That's what I'm doing but I'm still not a huge fan of W7/Vista, mainly cuz at least for me games run slower and I wouldn't call my setup some old ancient rig so would be nice how you define "crappy computer". I'm using 32bit XP and 32bit W7 because there's no driver support for 64bit kX Audio drivers yet, perhaps 64bit might be faster but Vista 64bit when I tested it out to see if it would run faster than 32bit it wasn't any noticable difference at least.

I've got 2x 15GB partitions for OS here where I only got OS + some apps installed. Games etc are on another partition. 15GB is enough if you slipstream the OS's with nLite/vLite which I've done for XP and W7. I think having small OS dedicated partitions is clever so you can format/delete/move around the partitions whenever you want without loosing your important stored files.

[SoulsCollective]

Dude, I think you're missing the point slightly - you can leave your full amount of RAM in all the time, you don't need to remove RAM to run a 32-bit OS. When you boot up your Win7 64-bit, you'll see your full amount, but when you boot up your XP 32-bit it'll simply not recognise or use the full amount, merely as much as it can handle, no need for you to physically remove RAM every time, it won't break with more.

As for your basic question, yes, of course, it's easy to set up dual-booting. To simplify the process you need to install XP first and then Win7 later, as otherwise XP will overwrite the Win7 bootloader with it's own, which cannot recognise Win7, while the Win7 loader recognises earlier MS OSes.

Yes, it's also possible to tell your system to boot from one or the other when it boots up, this is the default setting. After your system POSTs, the bootloader will kick in and present you a choice of operating systems to boot into, it's just a matter of choosing which one you want to start. Both XP and Win7 will recognise all your attached HDDs, but each will set the partition/HDD it's installed to as the C:\ drive for that session, so you can't accidentally overwrite system files of the other OS.

[kiyka]

As for 32bit games they are backwards compatible on an 64bit system.


It's not a one or the other gig. Most applications are 32bit based they still run on a 64bit OS same with most all games.

32bit Windows cannot see past 3.5gigs of RAM but you can have more in the system and still run the 32bit OS it just won't recognize the extra RAM.


So you don't need to swap RAM sticks just leave them in all the time, you don't need two gaming rigs or partitions for 32/64bit games either.

[SoulsCollective]

As said above, it's not 32-bit games that are the problem here, the problem is specific hardware and software that does not have Vista or 64-bit drivers.

[Judaeus Apella]

Yeah... what he said. All of my graphics software, printer, and scanner are ALL 32-bit ONLY. They will not work with Vista, period. :( Sucks...

And actually... there's a lot of games that won't work on 64 bit systems. I like classic games... stuff from the 90's as well as the new stuff and everything in between. Just subscribe or test out one of those online gaming services with a limited free subscription and you'll find nearly all the older games won't run on 64 bit. Its better to use those services in the cases where you just want to play the games and not use mods, otherwise you'll spend hundreds of dollars on these old little games... which is quite stupid given the other option.

And I'm glad I can boot on different drives. :D I like that! Does it matter if one is a raid stripe and the other isn't?

Love the Shodan Avatar. :D

[Big Lar]

"And I'm glad I can boot on different drives. I like that! Does it matter if one is a raid stripe and the other isn't?"

Shouldn't matter at all as long as you don't have 2 OS's on the Raid allready. I have a dual boot with Vista x32 and Server x64 both on the same Raid card striped and it runs great.

Larry

[Bobsama]

You CAN run Win7 32-bit, ya know. On my main (this E2140@3ghz system), I run Windows Vista HP64 and Windows 7 64. Just install XP on the system, and after you're all installed (leave a ~40gb partition at least), then you can install Win7 32-bit or 64-bit. I'd suggest 64-bit, though if you have 4GB RAM it won't make MUCH of a difference (as 32-bit apps use up to 2GB on their own).