The saddest thing i'll ever have to ask.

[meton_magis]

I am building a new computer (evga nforce 790i mobo, intel 2.5ghz core 2 quad, 4 gb or ram (untill i can afford the 8 gb) and 2 geforce 8800 GTS SSC GPU's) and am debating on which version of M$ winblows i have to install (for gaming only, i swear.) i'm going to have to get vista because i'll have to buy it eventualy anyway, but i'm wondering if i need 32 bit or 64 bit. obviously to make use of the extra hardware i'll need 64 bit, but if it's just for games, will i be able to play all my old games that were made for 32 bit windows? i've avoided the question so far, but the time has come for me to spend money for crappy software so i can play the games that i bought. unfortunatly i dont know too much about this kinda thing. i've seen internet articles about there being problems, but i can't tell if it was just vista being new, or what.

thanks in advance.

[jayd512]

Hi there, meton_magis!

First, I don't think you *have* to get 64-bit OS to make use of the hardware, especially if it's ust going to be a gaming rig. 32-bit Vista can handle dual-core processors just fine.But if you do decide to go 64-bit, it will still run 32-bit games, so no worries.
And IMHO, if you're looking for top performance for your game sessions, I wouldn't even go for Vista... Personally, I stuck with XP. What with the release of SP3, XP will have at least another 2-3 years of support life. And Vista takes enough of your system resources just to idle, that it'll actually degrade your game play as a whole.

Hope this helps!!!

[bigtomrodney]

Well for the extra RAM I'd say that maybe go 64-bit as PAE doesn't really cut it. If you're going to stick with XP though I'd agree with jayd512 and say stick with 32-bit.

[meton_magis]

thanks for the reply. i decided to get the 64 bit basic home edition of vista. i'll have to get it eventualy, so i may as well pay for it now, as it was only 10$ more then XP 32 bit, and i'll get to use all the ram.

thanks for the reply anyways.