good day, i bought a new computer a couple of weeks ago, it came with Vista, i do alot of music productions on my computer and this computer just can't keep up. After going on my music manufacturers website everbody recommended me getting rid of Vista. My old computer could keep up with my home recordings, it only had 896mb of Ram, this computer has 3gb of ram. but my old computer was xp sp3 and the new is vista. My question is........well first of all my last computer was xp sp3, but i don't have a disk for it, it was already on there. So the only xp disk I have is an old one given to me when I was in collge. and its sp1. So my questions is what repercussions is there between xp sp1 and 3? I really don't understand the service pack thing, i know it's probably updated and everything so if i go to xp sp1 is there a way to freely update it to sp3 or if i just keep it at sp1 will it operate slow, outdated, pick up virus easier? also i'm told i need to find all my drivers and everything for xp. do i need to put them on a cd or something or during install will it allow me to log online and look for the drivers? if a cd, what type of cd to i make in nero, a data or? thanks Gateway GM5626 dual core, 3GB PC2-5300 DDR2 Memory # 500GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive # 18x DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Burner w/ LabelFlash Technology # 15-in-1 Media Card Reader # 256MB NVidia GeForce 8500GT PCI-Express X16 Graphics # 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio # v.92 56Kbps Modem, 10/100 Ethernet # Six USB 2.0, One Firewire, Nine audio jacks, One Parallel, One Serial # Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 i wonder if i'll find drivers for all that when i downgrade......

as for sp3, you can download it and burn it to a cd, so that right after install xp sp1, you can update to sp3. That is always the first thing I do after a fresh xp install. Do it before installing anything else. next install the drivers for Xp, but before you do anything you need to be SURE, these drivers for your computer, for Xp exist, and they may not. Go to gateways web site, use the serial number on the side on your computer, and see if XP , drivers for everything exist. larry

I also noticed you have a SATA, hard drive, you will likely need drivers for that during the install. Do you have a way to get vista back if things go wrong?? larry

I have a number of comments to make. First off, you probably can't use the old WinXP sp1 CD because you don't have the licence or installation key. There may be some issues with drivers if you attempt to downgrade to WinXP. You are assuming that because your latest computer is newer that it should be faster. That isn't necessarily true. The comuter you just bought is a low end unit with integrated graphics. You didn't state what model your old computer is/was, so I can't compare. However, I don't believe the slowness you are experiencing will be cured by returning to WinXP. Post the model of your old computer. Below is a link to your new computer specs. http://support.gateway.com/s/PC/R/1...

Keep Vista intact. Repartition your HDD & install XP on the 2nd partition. Download the XP device drivers in advance...you can either copy them to a CD or thumbdrive, or just put them in a folder in another partition. Do the same for SP3. These will get you started: How to dual boot Vista and XP (with Vista installed first) Service Pack 3 nVidia 8500GT drivers Intel 945 Express Chipset drivers