New computer soon?

I’m moving soon and anticipate that I will have ethernet strung into my room again. My desktop hasn’t been plugged into anything really for the better part of a year. It’s also not exactly new. I was borrowing it from while living in CA, and then bought it off him. It may become a headless unixoid file server. So, I’m planning on getting a new game machine. It will, of course, run windows (vista or XP most likely). But I’m not sure which features are most important. I tend to run multiple programs simultaneously, and keep lots of tabs open in my web browser. So, currently, I’m thinking that RAM (a gig or two), dual (or quad) core, and a good graphics card are the priorities. And, of course, a nice 17+” LCD screen. Anything else I should think about? I understand I have to get XP pro to make use of multicore processors? Should I bother paying for Vista?

4 thoughts on “New computer soon?”

  1. Vista = No, no no no, no no no, no. Wait 6 months to a year for DX10 graphics support (chips AND drivers) to settle out, as the new UI is a hog. Other performance is also supposedly not really up to snuff. I also read horror stories like, 4 gigs RAM if you want it to run well.

    I’m not sure that you really need XP pro to use multicore processors. Maybe check a benchmark run on Tom’s Hardware or something, and see what they’ve got installed to run the tests?

    1. Been running vista for a couple of months now (see if you can bum a msdn copy like I did) and while it is more of a pig, it hasn’t been horrible or anything. I need to see if I’m running more than I should, but I’m at something like 400 MB used after all my resident stuff is loaded, while XP was around 200 MB, and running 64-bit can’t be helping with that. I can’t say I really have noticed any improvements except that the ~10 second delay for windows genuine advantage has gone away. It’s making me want to upgrade to 2 gigs of RAM though.

      I have heard that tablet and media center support is much improved, if you were planning on exploring either of those options.

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