XP 64 or Vista 64

[Niclo Iste]

I'm about to reconfigure my whole computer and I need a 64 bit OS for the sake of more usage of memory. I'm keen on getting XP 64 but I keep hearing from people it's not worth it. Thing is the people I hear that from aren't the best source of information in general. However I don't see why I want Vista as I don't think it's justified because I don't like the interface much AND I am not in the mood to read up on the 184 flavors of vista to see which one I want/need. Suffice to say I wanted XP Pro for the administrative control on my system.
So what do you all suggest?

[NooNoo]

Vista x64 sp1
Simply because many vendors have produced vista x64 drivers, but not xp x64. You need to check which drivers you need.

As for the vista interface, it's quite easy to make it look like XP

[Matridom]

i'll vote for vista here also. As NooNoo said, more companies are making Vista drivers now than XP drivers, specially in the 64 bit arena.

In regards to your other 2 points, for home users, go with home-premium or Ultimate. You will be happy with either. Finally in regards to the interface, it's my understanding that Windows 7 and future OS's down the line will be using the Ribbon interface and will not allow you to go back to the classic look. So might as well get used to it sooner rather than later. Besides, i found that once i got used to the new interface, I liked it more than classic XP

[NooNoo]

It's a real shame that people make up their minds about the ribbon before they use it. There are one or two things I would do to it to make it better, but on the whole, things are much better organised.... for one the icons (for the most part) are bigger and it's therefore harder to misclick.

[BOB IROC]

I would definately go Vista64 over XP64. Having used both I find that there is much more support from Hardware and Software for the 64bit flavor of Vista than there was/is for XP64.

[Niclo Iste]

Thanks for the input everyone. Looks like I'll have to pony up 300 dollars for an OS. How the heck did we go from 99 dollar operating systmes to 300+ dollar ones?

I just thought of this:
How well does Vista play with other OSes on a multiboot system?

[BOB IROC]

Thanks for the input everyone. Looks like I'll have to pony up 300 dollars for an OS. How the heck did we go from 99 dollar operating systmes to 300+ dollar ones?

I just thought of this:
How well does Vista play with other OSes on a multiboot system?

Couldn't you just buy OEM Vista to save a bit of money? Ultimate $199 or Business is like $160 I think.

Also I have not done a multiboot with Vista and usually prefer to do a virtual machine using a free VM Client such as MS Virtual PC 2007 or Virtual Box which is an Open Source VM client that I have not tried yet, but this one states it can provide USB support through the VM

http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/VirtualBox

[NooNoo]

No problem multi-booting - just follow the axiom "oldest first". 50GB is the minimum you want if you are going to have all the bells and whistles for a vista partition.

[Guts3d]

I have been running 32 and 64 bit XP simultaneously on my quad core for a long while now, and I prefer the 64 bit over the 32 bit version for stability and memory use. I have Vista Ultimate 32 bit, but haven't broken down and bought 64 bit... yet...

[Gabriel]

Vista 64 all the way - being using it for quite sometime and have no particular problem.
BTW I just love my new (3 monthes) computer - works like a dream:
E8400
8Gig ram
2X500 Seagate (Raid0)
ATI 4850 GPU
Antec Sonta 3 case

[Niclo Iste]

Thanks for the input everyone. I got Vista Business 64 bit and am reinstalling everything as we speak. I appreciate the advice and guidance on this decision.

[NooNoo]

If it isn't sp1, install that first!