Well, some time this week my latest new presents will arrive for my PC...A Core2Quad 6600, 8800GTS card, 2Gb DDR2 800Mhz Ram and a 500Gb SATA 2 Hard Drive...

I intend keeping XP on my existing 400GB SATA 1 hard drive, and I am going to do a nice fresh install of Vista on the new SATA 2 drive...mainly because I want to get DirectX 10 installed pretty soon to really use my new card

The big question is...

Should I go for Vista 32 or Vista 64?

I know that the biggest drawback is the lack of decent drivers for 64 bit (well..there aren't THAT many good ones for 32 bit either! )
but would it be better to get 64 bit now and be prepared, or stick with 32 and wait to see what happens?

Vista 32 bit or stay with XP 'till next year (at minimum).

I know, it's anticlimatic, but you're just shooting yourself in the knee if you go for Vista 64 bit version.

Yeah use a 32-bit OS for now.

I'm sticking with XP until 2008 like spankmeyer says... because SP1 patch for Vista is expected in Q1 2008 (not new features, just bug fixes, etc)... and that is when DX10 is expected to really hit the market. A fresh/new install of Vista for the new year is what I am planning to do. Still, I don't like Vista anyways... it's just a "cool" glamorized/glittered version of XP, it's nothing special, it really isn't. If you want raw speed and performance on your desktop/apps, use XP. Gaming in XP vs. Vista is really an even comparison I'd say. Some people report better performance in XP still, and some report better performance in Vista. It's really no big deal, and at best, only 10 FPS gained or lost either way. But I have a very similar system to what you ordered Bladey, and I can say that you WONT be complaining about FPS @ max graphics

Atm I use 64-bit XP, and it runs fine (absolutely no issues), but Vista 64-bit runs into tons more issues with software at the moment.... it's best to avoid it. The only reason I use 64-bit is because I want the most out of my 4gig of RAM.... that's all.

I'm running Vista x64 and i can find drivers for everything other than my webcam, which isn't for any version of Vista - the only problem i've got is nVidia drivers sucking wang, but i'm dealing with it.

TBH i can't see why you wouldn' get Vista x64

FTR Vista IS slower, even with the memory patches going in SP1 - SP1 will NOT make Vista slicker than XP, but it will be half way to XP's speed...

Quote from Tweaker :

........ But I have a very similar system to what you ordered Bladey, and I can say that you WONT be complaining about FPS @ max graphics

Knowing me I probably will....I haven't got a new-fangled wide-screen TFT monitor (with locked resolution!) yet..I am still running a 21" CTX Ultrascreen CRT..with a max resolution somewhere the other side of massive

*IF* this new box will run Oblivion at 50fps at max resolution with everything maxed out...then I'll be very happy indeed

At the moment I'm getting 170fps (in race...drops to maybe 70 at start with a full grid) at 1600*1200 in LFS....wonder if I will hit the 300fps mark?? :P

With that lot you might be able to break 1000 fps on low detail, as my PC's GFX held me back in the search for rediculous FPS at 515 iirc, your PC should be double that speed