My intended build is as follows: Asus board - nVidia 750i chipset Intel Q6700 2.66GHz @ 1066FSB (how much would the Q9400's 1333FSB help me over this one?) 8GB Corsair 800MHz 750GB Seagate 7200RPM Two GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB cards (cheaper than a single GTX 260 currently) 1000W modular powersupply (no extra cords restricting airflow, which is a concern) Fans involve 2 120s and an 80 along with a fan controller in one of the 5" bays. I might drop an expansion slot fan in as well if it will fit with the cards. My questions for the community are: If I drop Vista 64 Ultimate on this box, what sort of issues am I bound to see while gaming? Am I going to suffer more incompatibilities than it's worth for the 8GB of memory? How is the 64 bit driver support for nVidia working lately? What are the DX based development concerns when using Vista 64? Is it time for me to bite this bullet? [Edited by - Vendayan on November 7, 2008 12:33:44 PM]

I'm not using windows so i can't help you there but DUDE how much did you spend?

$1250 is what I'm looking at before tax. Shipping is $30 for everything.

That's counting the cost of Vista as well.

If you want use more that 3 of those 8 GB RAM you have to bite the bullet.

Quote: Original post by Rattenhirn
If you want use more that 3 of those 8 GB RAM you have to bite the bullet.

Correct. 32 bit Windows has some issues even getting up to 3.8 GB of ram. If you want to be using all that ram, you are going to need a 64 bit OS.

I've been running Vista 64 for well over a year now, and I've had very few problems with it. Just about any program or game that can run on XP can run on Vista 64. You might have some problems with very old (win 95/98 era) games.

Quote: Original post by Moe

Quote: Original post by Rattenhirn
If you want use more that 3 of those 8 GB RAM you have to bite the bullet.

Correct. 32 bit Windows has some issues even getting up to 3.8 GB of ram. If you want to be using all that ram, you are going to need a 64 bit OS.

Pretty sure the OP was asking whether he should use Vista 64 + 8 gigs or RAM, or Vista/Xp 32 with 4 gigs - based on whether Vista 64 would cause a lot of compatibility headaches.

Unfortunately, I have never used Vista 64, so I can't provide an answer.

Vista X64 is a very good gaming and game development platform. Outside some minor issues in Visual Studio itself (Locals window does not exist on X64), the development experience is very good.

I have not encountered a single reasonably modern (think "published within 5 years") game that wouldn't run in X64 - if not out of the box, at least with only a little tweaking and/or patching. I have no experience with heavy DRM:d games as I refuse to install or play this variety, but the NX feature of 64-bit processors as well as the signed driver requirement of the OS itself could cause some trouble in this scenario due to preventing DRM drivers from messing up your system (which is how most of DRM software works).

Nowadays, the drivers are good and stable for (again, reasonably modern) hardware.

I've been using Vista almost full-time in both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors since the late betas.

Quote: Original post by swiftcoder

Quote: Original post by Moe

Quote: Original post by Rattenhirn
If you want use more that 3 of those 8 GB RAM you have to bite the bullet.

Correct. 32 bit Windows has some issues even getting up to 3.8 GB of ram. If you want to be using all that ram, you are going to need a 64 bit OS.

Pretty sure the OP was asking whether he should use Vista 64 + 8 gigs or RAM, or Vista/Xp 32 with 4 gigs - based on whether Vista 64 would cause a lot of compatibility headaches.

Unfortunately, I have never used Vista 64, so I can't provide an answer.

That's very much the case. I'm well aware of the memory restrictions posed by a 32 bit OS. I just want to know the side effects of breaking that barrier.

I like hearing these encouraging things about Vista 64, but I work in what's primarily a linux house here, doing web development with (don't hate me Washu) *ahem* java. So the sort of feedback I hear from the people who do work with Vista 64 is usually full of nothing but "!@#$ it, why can't this monstrosity work as well half as well as my Mac or at least as well as XP!"

I've heard a lot about issues with flash player most notably as well as with other apps, and -tons- of issues in the beginning about game incompatibilities. I just want to know if I'm going to find any similar headaches or issues developing with DX10.

I also plan to commit this order here in about 3 hours so if anyone can see anything wrong or questionable with the specs I'm building here let me know. Especially if I should be going for the Q9400 in order to get the 1333FSB, or if I'll be shafting myself by buying 2 9800s instead of a single 260. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Most game incompatibilities are a result of the developer assuming full access to all the files of the target computer.

Vista differs from XP in this scenario in that it does not grant full access to system files and registry without elevation by default, even for admin account; in XP, a process running under admin account (an extremely common pattern) could do all kinds of evil stuff without ever asking the user. Vista has several techniques to prevent this kind of troubles, and they work quite well now.

If you're developing new software and actually take into account the user permissions, you will have next to no problems with Vista (and D3D10). D3D itself is very stable on Vista.