hi guys, my b-day is coming up so i am building a new gaming rig as follows: (dont laugh i got all this for under 400) AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 1GB DDR 400 (dual-channel) Foxconn 6150 (socke 939) 120gb sata WD caviar drive DVD-RW NEC 16x (all formats) DVD-ROM NEC (16x) I have a copy of xp pro from my old system but i am wondering whether i should install the trial version (180-days) i have of windows xp x64, i have read that driver issues are a big problem but most of these reivews are from months ago, should i run the 32-bit or go futre ready with 64-bit os? A lot of ppl seem to think that waiting for vista(ive been waiting for years) but i think m$ screwed vista I am only going to play far-cry(has a 64-bit patch) san andreas (???) and office 2003 any ideas? thanks darin Darin Luckie

64-bit is still generally speaking not the OS to use for gaming. Some games run fine on it, but many don't. Even the games that run fine don't generally run faster than in 32-bit. People say wait for Vista because how Vista is designed, you will actually see performance increases in 64-bit if developers program their apps right. In the meantime, stick with 32-bit. "Milk was a bad choice!"

Switching to x64 Pro is like switching to Windows NT. Basically, not a good idea from a gaming standpoint. When (if?) Vista is released, it will take advantage of properly-programmed 64-bit apps, but as it stands, x64's lack of 16-bit app support (a dumb idea if you ask me) just alienates too many programs and processes.

Forgot to mention... Ironically, most of the drivers and programs that have compatibility issues with x64 Pro are Microsoft ones. Something to think about.

Don't invest in x64, invest in a video card

thx guys i will install windows xp pro sp2 until i can get a (stable) version of windows vista (right now im testing 5365 which isnt that great, to say the least) I honestly ont thihnk i will be in a hurry to get vista for anothre few service packs at least seeing how much has changed and how m$ has failed with many promises thx guys and far cry runs amazingly fast with all settings on high on my system the integrated Nvidia card is amazing it uses 128 mb virtual and 128 mb system ram leaving me with 862, ut i aint in a hurry and i can always get more when needed I love my foxconn case and modo they are beautiful along with my fast sata HDD and athlno 64 3000+ Thx once again guys Darin Luckie

I have windows X64. My systems runs without any problems today. In the early days it was a pain in the arse. Regardless, I agree with all thats said....It does nothing for gaming and I have not seen ANY improvements over 32 bit XP Pro. So don't waste your money! Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 Corsair 512X4 2048mb 2X WD Raptor 74gb 10K RAID 0 250gb WD Caviar 2X 256 6800 GT WinXP Pro X64