Which is better Windows Xp 32 or 64 Or Vista 32 or 64 Please help

[exiag335]

Hello

Buying a MBP today. Want to put windows on it. I will use the windows side for
a little bit of stuff such as some games and maybe a 3d design app.

Which would be better and more useful now to have: Windows Xp 32 bit or 64?
Vista 32 bit or 64 bit?

Help please

 

[Bengt77]

Asked myself the same question but couldn't find a satisfying answer myself, so decided to take the dive. Couldn't be happier with Vista 64. It's running really smoothly and I honestly think it's a much better OS than XP, which I use all day at work. With the 64-bit versions of either OS, you'll also be able to take full advantage of 4GB of RAM. You'll only have 3GB available with the 32-bit versions.

 

[Stridder44]

Asked myself the same question but couldn't find a satisfying answer myself, so decided to take the dive. Couldn't be happier with Vista 64. It's running really smoothly and I honestly think it's a much better OS than XP, which I use all day at work. With the 64-bit versions of either OS, you'll also be able to take full advantage of 4GB of RAM. You'll only have 3GB available with the 32-bit versions.

x2. Vista 64 is awesome. Definitely go for it.

 

[SHADO]

It depends on how much RAM you have. If it's 4GB or higher, then definitely go for XP or Vista 64. If it's under 4GB, go for the 32-bit versions. Personally, I got so fed up with Vista sucking that I switched back to XP Pro. But this is not about my preferences, it's about yours. What are you going to be doing in Boot Camp? There have been numerous threads about this, perhaps you should search for them and see what they have to say.

 

[exiag335]

It depends on how much RAM you have. If it's 4GB or higher, then definitely go for XP or Vista 64. If it's under 4GB, go for the 32-bit versions. Personally, I got so fed up with Vista sucking that I switched back to XP Pro. But this is not about my preferences, it's about yours. What are you going to be doing in Boot Camp? There have been numerous threads about this, perhaps you should search for them and see what they have to say.

What is it that you didn't like about Vista? I have never used it before.

I will play games on the Window side.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

What is it that you didn't like about Vista? I have never used it before.

I will play games on the Window side.

I would use Vista 64-bit. I'm currently running Windows 7 64-bit Beta, and boy it is night/day difference compared to 32-bit Vista. Not exactly a fair comparison, but 64-bit wasn't too hard to install. And I had to go torrenting drivers, which you won't have to do. The unibody MBP discs have x64 drivers preloaded.

 

[10-Dee-Q]

hi, asking about same question here,
anyway hows the compability with games on 64 bit vista ?
and also i'm sure my MBP with 4GB of RAM wouldnt have any difficulties running vista 64 bit on bootcamp, but if i were to use fushion or parralel, will it be much slower than xp ?

i'm planning only to use my windows for gaming on bootcamp, and i also planned to use it for backing up my phone and sync it on fushion or parrarel
and i want it to be the same, what i mean is that i want my virtualisation to run windows on my bootcamp partition.

so can anyone suggest which windows is the best for me ?

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

Response in bold, didn't feel like typing it all out. It's too early (1 AM here) and I'm too lazy.

hi, asking about same question here,
anyway hows the compability with games on 64 bit vista ? Not a gamer myself, but see a lot of people using 64-bit Vista to play games.
and also i'm sure my MBP with 4GB of RAM wouldnt have any difficulties running vista 64 bit on bootcamp, but if i were to use fushion or parralel, will it be much slower than xp ? Not sure what you're trying to say, but Fusion and Parallels is NOT and NEVER advisable for gaming of any sort. It's emulation (or technically virtualization) so even a cheap laptop with Vista will pwn a top spec'd Mac Pro with Fusion or Parallels. Make things simple, use Boot Camp for games.

i'm planning only to use my windows for gaming on bootcamp, and i also planned to use it for backing up my phone and sync it on fushion or parrarel
and i want it to be the same, what i mean is that i want my virtualisation to run windows on my bootcamp partition. yes, just run the boot camp assistant, install windows vista ultimate 64-bit, and buy Fusion/Parallels. I recommend Fusion, since the company has corporate and business customers (translation, they're really good at this stuff). Then point Fusion/Parallels to the Boot Camp partition.

so can anyone suggest which windows is the best for me ?

I recommend justing using Boot Camp and NOT using Fusion/Parallels. Less hassle and you get better performance overall. It's easier to maintain. I also suggest Windows Vista 64-bit.

 

[XianPalin]

I recommend justing using Boot Camp and NOT using Fusion/Parallels. Less hassle and you get better performance overall. It's easier to maintain. I also suggest Windows Vista 64-bit.

I'd disagree with this, I get use out of both vmware and rebooting into boot camp. Vmware when I want to run a certain piece of software quickly, and boot camp for when I want to play games. They both have their uses and it's not really much hassle or maintenance. I'd say it's more of a hassle to reboot to boot camp if you have a bunch of things running and just need to run something quickly on your windows partition.

 

[KFujiwara]

If you have 4 GB of RAM, you will need the 64-bit Edition of the OS either way, since only those can utilize the full amount. On my previous laptop (which was returned before the return period expired) I used Vista 64 with 4 GB of RAM, and it worked pretty well. The only two things I didn't like were the User Account Management and the large amount of memory usage (roughly 2 GB running only the OS).