Windows XP 64 to Vista Ultimate 64, several Q's

[Mbiker72]

Ok, Ive read and read and read, but get conflicting stories. I currently run XP Pro 64 and use Solidworks 2008 Pro and games such as Far Cry 2, Crysis Warhead, COD:4, COH, and CS:Source. I have been given a copy of Vista Ultimate 64 and im tempted to try it.

1st Question: Will I notice any significant difference in performance with any of these programs? If yes, which way?

2nd Question: I currently have two SATA drives, one of which is purely a file storage drive (music, videos, pictures, files, etc.) and the other is my OS drive which has two partitions. One has the XP, and the other is just about empty. If I were to want to dual boot, what is the best way to go about it? Aka, which partition/drive should i install Vista on in able to succesfully dual boot.

3rd Question: (sorry, i know this is long) Will I be able to access the files on the storage drive from Vista once installed, or are they only accesible through XP?

Thank you in advance for the help, I could really use some educated opinions on the matter. :bang head

[shadin]

1st Question: Will I notice any significant difference in performance with any of these programs? If yes, which way?

I didn't see much difference in performance either way between XP x64 and Vista Ultimate x64. I've never used Solidworks, but I can't imagine a reason that performance would change there, either.

2nd Question: I currently have two SATA drives, one of which is purely a file storage drive (music, videos, pictures, files, etc.) and the other is my OS drive which has two partitions. One has the XP, and the other is just about empty. If I were to want to dual boot, what is the best way to go about it? Aka, which partition/drive should i install Vista on in able to succesfully dual boot.

I'd definitely keep the operating systems on the primary drive. In fact, you should be able to format that second partition and simply install Vista there if it has enough free space.

3rd Question: (sorry, i know this is long) Will I be able to access the files on the storage drive from Vista once installed, or are they only accesible through XP?

Vista uses NTFS just like XP. You'll be able to see the drive from either operating system.

[jdf_warrior]

With 4gb of ram you wont notice a big difference in performance. With anything less you prob would because Vista tends to eat up a lot more ram (superfetch and all that crap). I think a base install of XP uses 300-400mb of ram after boot, where my Vista install typically starts at 1gb+.

[TheCheat]

With 4gb of ram you wont notice a big difference in performance. With anything less you prob would because Vista tends to eat up a lot more ram (superfetch and all that crap). I think a base install of XP uses 300-400mb of ram after boot, where my Vista install typically starts at 1gb+.

Lets make a note that superfetch is NOT a bad thing. It actually tries to utilize all the ram you have by loading freq. used apps into memory... allowing them to launch much faster.

Also be sure to disable UAC once you get it installled. W7 actually allows you to set how annoying er... 'helpful' UAC is... Vista doesn't have such an option.

Thecheat