# Purchased Core 2 6600 Quad - did I screw up?



## kooley (Aug 18, 2007)

Hi everyone,

I ordered the following system and now I'm wondering if i made a mistake...and if i did how bad was the mistake.

I have read that many people have issues with vista (software issues )...and this machine comes loaded with vista. I do some audio recording with adobe audition- and I use photoshop CS2 and I intend to try some video editing to create video podcasts in the near future. I also use MS office, dreamweaver and bunches of other apps.

HOW BAD ARE THESE SOFWARE ISSUES?

I had planned on removing vista and installing xp...but now I hear that the extra ram that I purchased (an extra 2gb for a total of 4gb) is useless with xp . IS THAT TRUE?

So how bad did I screw up? All comments appreciated. Thanks! K

Here's the system - I purchased it from dell mainly because I like their next day in home service which I have used before and found EXCELLENT. As a non techie...to me, this service is invaluable)

Intel® Core™ 2 Q6600 Quad-Core (8MB L2 cache,2.4GHz,1066FSB), english 
Operating System Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium Edition 
Memory 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 4 DIMMs 
Video Cards 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT- DDR3 
Hard Drive 500GB Serial ATA


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## 1 g0t 0wn3d (Jan 31, 2007)

Yep they installed 64 bit mostlikely and in xp it will not help much i have not found a program i have used that does not work with vista...


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

Actually it was 32-bit since Premium comes only in 32-bit to my knowledge. 

What I would do is reinstall XP and take out two of the sticks. Make sure you take out the sticks in the same color slots so you still have dual channel. Then, keep the extra sticks as known good spares.


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## kodi (Jun 30, 2004)

If you are not having problems don't do anything
If it ain't broke don't fix it
You will hear all sorts of rumors about problems with Vista and if you look you will find just about as many with XP
Vista is a top operating system and don't believe anyone that tries to tell you different
Go by your own personal experience with it.
I have had Vista installed on my computer for over 12 months from the beta days and run photoshop cs3 /office 2007 and about 30 other programs with absolutely no problems.
You may take a bit of time to adjust to the different layouts etc in Vista but they are simple enough to learn 
Stick with Vista and in a couple of months you will be pleased you did


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

I dont see where you made any wrong moves at all ??????????



Vista has a service pack 1 due out very soon, stability should be greatly enhanced at that time


unless you are having problems, I would sit tight

If you want to load Win XP >>>> I would do so on another hard drive then you could use both OS's

Win XP wont go bonkers with 4 gig installed memory, it just doenst use that much


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## kooley (Aug 18, 2007)

Hey thanks so much for those pointers everyone!

Now I'm thinking that I may give Vista a try. And as suggested by linderman, I may load XP onto an external HD.

I am really hoping that I won't have too many conflicts with Vista. i have been doing a bit of searching and many people seem to have probs. with Adobe audition 2.0 with XP for example - and on my machine (Currently XP sp2) it works great. 

So now when kodi says that he's never seen a prob with vista ...I wonder if I will, instead of just assuming that I will.

So a few more questions if you don't mind - can vista home premium edition take advantage of the extra 2gb ram that I purchased?

and if I do load xp onto an external

1) can vista home premium edition take advantage of the extra 2gb ram that I purchased?
2) can I just use the disks I have from my current machine or am I supposed to buy a new xp OS - that's just silly right??
3) when I want to load up xp from an external...excuse the complete ignorance, but how do i do that? 
3) Can I run both OS at the same time...Like loading Adobe audition from XP on the external and then something like Photoshop from the Main HD running vista...or is that just playing with fire?

This forum is great BTW!
Thanks - K


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

Yes, Vista can address more than 4 GB even in 32-bit mode. I forget the max it can address. I believe XP 64-bit can address 16 TB of RAM if that helps (yes, thats right I posted 16 TB).

You can dual boot XP and Vista, which would probably be a good idea if you want to try out Vista and maintain the stability of XP. You will first have to make a second partition and then format it from within XP setup to a dual boot though.


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## magnethead (Mar 18, 2006)

yea i would say dualboot vista and XP 64x so you can use all 4 GB of RAM. (or does 64x not detect 4 either?)


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## kodi (Jun 30, 2004)

Audition runs fine on my computer in XP and Vista, as I said before go with your own experiences just because SOME people have problems not all will, like XP's service pack2 a lot of users had problems but the majority didn't.
Unless your bios lets you boot from USB you won't be able to use the external to boot XP
Install the drive load XP on it and then get a program called Vista boot pro (its free) it will let you choose operating systems at boot


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

Kodi is very correct ray:


you cant run an OS off an external hard drive >>>>> MS doesnt like the thought of that :4-thatsba


you can install another hard drive internally would be my preferred method, then there is no chance one OS can wreck the other.

you can alos; as Matt has suggested >>>>> partition your drive into two chunks >>>>> run vista on one chunk and XP on the other ????


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## pharoah (Aug 28, 2006)

as far as the quad i agree with everyone else.you didnt mess up,and it will futureproof you a bit.


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## Nik00117 (Jan 8, 2007)

Wait for SP1, a good friend of mine who has insider knowledge a lot of times said that SP1 will make vista far more stable then even XP.


They even got a fix out to reduce the ammount of ram used. Therefore taking one of the biggest hardware pictures outta the picture.


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## kooley (Aug 18, 2007)

Thanks again everyone,

The computer should get here next week - so I'll post back then, or if anyone else has good advice, always appreciated.

Thanks so much!

K


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## kooley (Aug 18, 2007)

Thanks again for all the help here!

My experience to date has been very good with Vista and I have NOT seen any serious problems at all.

Thx

K


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

Good to hear. :smile:

BTW I checked and I was way off with the RAM values. Vista 32-bit can address 4 GB of physical RAM as can XP 32-bit. XP Pro 64-bit as well as Vista Business and up can address up to 128 GB of RAM. Home Premium 64-bit can address up to 16 GB and Home Basic 64-bit can address up to 8 GB.

The 16 TB comes from the maximum addressable page file I believe (if someone knows I am incorrect here please correct me).


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## 1 g0t 0wn3d (Jan 31, 2007)

TheMatt said:


> Good to hear. :smile:
> 
> BTW I checked and I was way off with the RAM values. Vista 32-bit can address 4 GB of physical RAM as can XP 32-bit. XP Pro 64-bit as well as Vista Business and up can address up to 128 GB of RAM. Home Premium 64-bit can address up to 16 GB and Home Basic 64-bit can address up to 8 GB.
> 
> The 16 TB comes from the maximum addressable page file I believe (if someone knows I am incorrect here please correct me).


I think i heard that they said that would be not to uncommen an amout of ram when vista bites the dust.


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## linderman (May 20, 2005)

I have read vista *32 bit *does no better with 4 gig of ram than does XP 32 bit ???????


64 bit versions of both OS's will use more ram with pleasure


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## 1 g0t 0wn3d (Jan 31, 2007)

Yeh i ment 64 bit maybe sp1 may help?


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

Both Vista and XP have the same RAM limitations in 32-bit mode, so they both use the RAM. Vista might be more RAM heavy though.


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