i currently have vista and i dont really like it. I was wondering if it was worth installing Xp on my new comp. (will this increase the fps rate and make life easer?)

Well, as you mention fps I assume you are talking frames per second in games. In most cases is Windows Xp faster in games. The selling point for Vista and games is of course DX10, but there seems to be extremely limited advantage (at this point) with DX10 and the games are very few and far between that utilizes DX10, and even those who do, can be tricked to give you the same effects in DX9.

Personally I would say, if you are going stick with Windows you might as well keep Vista on your machine as that is the future for MS. They are not going to invest any real development (if any) in XP. SP1 is shortly being released for Vista which is said to contain performance improvements.
All that said, if you have got a spare copy of XP and you prefered XP over Vista it might be worth installing it.
Bearing in mind that MS seems to force developers to release Vista only releases.

Forgot to mention, one good thing to do with games is to have dual boot system. One boot for your everyday stuff and one for gaming (which you keep extremely clean to minimize any resource hogging)

I'd stick to the advise of jonisaksson just dual boot the system.it pays a great deal!!

make life easier.. hmm... tbh I've found that Vista (apart from it's Driver deficiency problem) is a better operating system than XP because it is a bit more transparent and actually tells you what is going on with your system far more than XP did without some serious rooting around in system settings.

how do i duel boot (explain 4 a noob) ?

here is a pretty good site to help with dual-boot (even shows some screenshots)
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10877_11-6157570.html

windows vista compensates for computer dummies.. It confirms everything you try to do.. "Are you sure?" "are you aware this is dangerous" etc..

Stay with XP.. Your computer will also run faster with XP installed..

In my opinion the prompts don't compensate for much, since people get used to just not even reading and just click."yes, yes, install virus oh wait!" In my opinion the only reasons to switch to Vista are if you need >3GBs or RAM or reeeaaally want DX10.There may be others but those are the only I can think of right now

In my opinion the only reasons to switch to Vista are if you need >3GBs or RAM
That would be Windows Vista x64 in that case

There is of course Windows XP x64 aswell, works a treat if you have lotsa RAM...

Very plain and simple. XP.

i prefer older versions because they have less bugs

So i think u should go XP

Thank you Per Hansson, I failed to specify the very important x64 detail. I unfortunately don't always convey my thoughts completely. The only reason I would count out XP x64 is I'm guessing Vista x64 will be supported better in terms of drivers and compatibility since it's the successor to XP. Also if I'm getting a system with >3GB, then personally I would want all the bells and whistles Vista has.

My two cents...for gaming use XP...for other things u can use Vista...which i believe the Dual boot suggestion would be the correct answer..

As everyone has said, XP is the best for gaming, but Vista is better for work, so a dual boot is a great option. Vista is a better work OS. You can get the job done easier and more efficiently than XP. It is also faster doing these tasks if you have a decent PC. But XP is less of a resource hog, therefore games run faster. Another note, you probably won't notice a difference in FPS between XP and Vista if you use Vista with 2GB+ of RAM and a Dual Core CPU.

To tell you the truth everyone complains about Vista. But the truth is that most of the problems people are encountering are either because they don't know how to manage it properly or their hardware is too old and not fully supported by the OS. I have 2 desktop PCs at home and a laptop all running Vista Ultimate and I haven't a problem at all.

Vista is just not properly designed for newcomers and unexperienced users.

woa so dual boot is havin 2 windows in a com? Cool! but i would recommend Vista though coz it supports directX10 and it's the future of gamin xD

To tell you the truth everyone complains about Vista. But the truth is that most of the problems people are encountering are either because they don't know how to manage it properly or their hardware is too old and not fully supported by the OS. I have 2 desktop PCs at home and a laptop all running Vista Ultimate and I haven't a problem at all.

Vista is just not properly designed for newcomers and unexperienced users.

I agree with everything you said. I also have Vista Ultimate on few PCs and had no problems whatsoever. Yeah some of my software didn't work properly at first but got it to work through updating. Obviously some software usually less known and faily old wont be compatible at all.

Vista is just not properly designed for newcomers and unexperienced users.
I think the opposite - It's perfectly suited for newcomers. I believe It is not designed for people who are already used to Windows XP (unexperienced users might fall into this category).

If you stand back a moment and look at Vista from a new user perspective, it makes a lot of sense. It's very searchable and clickable... Links and buttons use more 'natural language' and so on.

I've had some issues with Vista. I do a lot of computer repair work too and I've seen some pretty quirky things, but it works pretty well for the most part. XP is still very usable and will be for some time. The argument of DX10 still applies, but it is being muted by projects that have managed to get DX10 working on XP computers. (http://www.technospot.net/blogs/download-directx-10-for-windows-xp-from-alky-project/)

As far as downgrading from Vista to XP though, I think it is too much work. Unelss you have a REALY important application that requires XP, don't do it. Get used to Vista and you'll thank yourself later when apps and games quit working on XP and you have to upgrade again... You'll already be familiar with it.

vote for XP :)

i have vista now but i do prefer xp alot more ive had nothing but problems with vista

I have xp and there's nothing wrong with it.

I have Vista and there's nothing wrong with it.

Vista just requires more from a system

memory
graphics (this has to work with Vista more than it did with XP)
drivers

2 or 3 year system should be able to handle Vista, just you might have to beef up the RAM to 2GB.

Otherwise everyone going to have to make the switch or just keep on running XP until you're ready to do so.. I only know of one corp American insurance company is going to through a battle now to implement Vista Business and Office 2007 into their domain environment. Taken them 1 year of model office testing now and they're still going at it.. To much in-house software that doesn't work with Vista.

I am testing out Office 2007 with my systems, also testing Vista on other system to see how it goes..

Imagine a company that has well over 300 apps they use. Now imagine around the begining of last year was when XP has been certified for most of the apps. This is a place i work for...and the place b4 where we push out the PC;s we started configuring Vista PC's and now things are starting to change. I'll do my Vista thing in about another 1-2 years.

I've never had any problems with Vista since I've been using it, and when I have it's usually been hardware releated on my end.

Like some have said above, the main problem with Vista is users hardware setup. I've been round PC World a few times and looked at the PC's running Vista in there and they only just barely can run Vista, so naturally if you're going to buy Vista on one of them computers, it's not going to run well at all.

Vista on a mid to high range computer can run well and with a few tweaks with programs such as Vista Manager, it can run well with little problems. UAC (the security popups) can get annoying but they can be turned off, and UAC should only really be used if you don't have your own firewall. (If you do turn UAC off, then remember to turn off security alerts in Security Centre as well!)

I have a Windows XP and it works perfectly if you don't start speaking about games...

I'd go with XP, I've heard Vista has a lot of problems.

XP all the way, i dont like the way vista uses so many resources.

XP all the way, i dont like the way vista uses so many resources.

SuperFetch service, my friend. It's how Vista is made to work and it looks bad at first, but when you read about it, it all makes sense.

I guess. Im still not used to it. It always seems to block this or ask this or not allow this or that. i guess im jsut used to doing whatever i please in XP without any notice or block. seriously the first thing i disabled when i got vista as the UAC. my god its annoying, ticked me off so much.

I personally prefer xp :)

I guess. Im still not used to it. It always seems to block this or ask this or not allow this or that. i guess im jsut used to doing whatever i please in XP without any notice or block. seriously the first thing i disabled when i got vista as the UAC. my god its annoying, ticked me off so much.

If you turned that off, you get no more prompts for confirmation than you do in XP.

just put xp on it until windows actually starts doing something with Vista

If your a newbie and never used windows go vista. If you like to get work done and understand windows go XP.

how do i duel boot (explain 4 a noob) ?
Actually you never "duel" boot. A "duel" is two men fighting to the death (or thereabouts) with a pair of chosen weapons.

Now "dual" booting is accomplished by installing two operating systems on different partitions of the HDD (or 2 separate HDDs).

This thread is a must read; http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic76345.html

If your a newbie and never used windows go vista. If you like to get work done and understand windows go XP.

I don't really understand that statement. Can you explain why you said that? I can maybe extrapolate that you mean the more complicated something is, and if you learn it, the better off you are. I don't think that is a very good argument and is counterintuitive. So please, set me straight on what you meant.

Vista absoulutly fine. Everything went bad after a new mobo... reinstall, everything is fine. THERE IS ONE VEERY IMPORTANT THING: Vista reccomended system ram is 2 GB. Any less and you'll have a slow system. 512 Mb for vista won't do it.

I have Vista and even run games that say they may not be compatible with it without any trouble at all.

It's still pretty much more DRM with a bunch of "Windows" dressing. (Aero Glass). Great pun huh?