Can someone tell my the pros and cons of XP Pro 64 bit versus Vista Ultimate 64 bit? I’ve never used Vista, but I’m not afraid of it or anything.
I have a hardcore gamer friend that claims Vista is junk for gaming compared to XP, but I don’t know. I’ve also heard people say things like “Anyone who isn’t a complete retard can use Vista just fine”, etc.
I would stay away from 64bit XP. There’s very little benefit and I have heard of all sorts of hardware compatibility problems.
Vista should be fine for gaming, especially if you are willing to do a little bit of tweaking. If you want XP, go with the normal 32bit version. You won’t get to use all 4gigs of RAM, but the difference is not likely to be noticeable.
I’m sure someone with more knowledge of Vista can offer some specific recommendations…
Now that I’m moving into a 64-bit processer machine, I’m wondering how one is able to utilize that supposed 128GB RAM threshold that 64-bit OS’s are supposed to recognize…I’m thinking that the maximum RAM I’ll ever really be able to put into the four slots would be 8GB, at 2GB per stick.
Are there larger than 2GB RAM sticks? How big do they get?
They sell 3 and 4 gig sticks.
Don’t bother, my friend has 8 and he’s never even gotten close to using all of it, ESPECIALLY since it’s DDR2. My new computer only has 12 gigs because DDR3 likes being installed in sets of 3.
Edit: In fact, some poorly coded games start getting wonky around 8 or so, Age of Conan had a notorious issue with freezing and write-to-memory errors with people that had high amounts of RAM.
Since DDR 2 is the RAM my machine uses, is that the type of RAM I’m stuck with forever? Unless I change my motherboard/processor?
Given your motherboard, I’m 90% sure the answer is yes, but don’t worry about it. 4GB DDR2 is really good, in fact 8GB DDR2 is bordering of overkill in this day and age, so it should be good for a good few years.
Edit: But if you do choose to get more, make sure you do it in pairs, that’s (how I learned at least) the system plays nice. With DDR2 RAM you want your system to be outfitted with 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, etc. If they send you your motherboard’s instructions with your system it usually has a guide as to what slots you should put your RAM in and in what order.