Vista or XP?

Definitely stick with the XP. Vista has many bugs and many good games/programs don't even run properly on a Vista Computer. Plus with vista, you have to learn everything all over again. But with XP you know where everything is and how to "manuever" around on the computer.

Vista is a much better OS than the soon to be extinct XP, If you are going to buy a new system then I myself would want one that will stay current, The XP OS will be going the way of the dinosaurs in the very near future, As far as softwares that are vista compatible you will find that the software makers will be getting onboard and eventually then finding software for the older XP will be hard to find, Steve has an exelent answer too, Those who condemn the Vista OS have not been much into the vista scene and are die hard XP fans, I loved the old XP OS but after having vista and actually learning about it I much prefer the Vista, But ultimatly this will be your decision to make and I wish you the best,,

SG

OMGosh... even Linux Heads weighing in on this. Umm- split decision in my book. Vista is like the new kid at school, everyone wants to get to know em cause they are mysterious,... or kick thier butt for being the new kid and not knowing the pecking order! I Like Vista, with a but... My early experience with it were not great. ZoneAlarm wouldn't work on it, only found 2 virus proggies that could handle it... And it wanted to do things its own way. Upmh! It has gotten better. But it is a hungry beast, that likes a LOT of resources. I suggest you look specifically at the games you play and wanna play and see what those forums have to offer. XP DOES have a lighter footprint. If you are getting a marginal 'start up gaming' system in Vista, I would pass. THINK it through. do you need or want Vista? Investigate any future add ons you might be tempted to make to it, and see if they'll play nice with Vista. Yes, XP is going to eventually stop recieving support. But thats not any issue till your new machine is about outdated, anyway. By then these guys will have talked you into Linux... Hee hee hee..... See ya on Warcraft!

Get Vista, it'll make better use out of your "really good" gaming PC's specs

You'll have no problem playing games.

The only games you might have trouble playing is old DOS games. But XP has trouble playing those, too so it doesn't really matter.

Games will perform just as well as they do in XP if you have a decent computer. And you say it's a really good computer, so you should have no problem.

Edit:

Why the thumbs down? Just because you had problems with Vista when you FORCED your buggy, unsupported drivers on it and got problems doesn't mean everyone else will.

Vista may use more RAM, but it makes better use of it than XP. This feature is called "Superfetch"

Taken from the MS website:

"A new memory management technology in Windows Vista, Windows SuperFetch, helps keep the computer consistently responsive to your programs by making better use of the computer's RAM. Windows SuperFetch prioritizes the programs you're currently using over background tasks and adapts to the way you work by tracking the programs you use most often and preloading these into memory. With SuperFetch, background tasks still run when the computer is idle. However, when the background task is finished, SuperFetch repopulates system memory with the data you were working with before the background task ran. Now, when you return to your desk, your programs will continue to run as efficiently as they did before you left."

Also, if you have a 64bit processor, you should go with Vista 64bit. I hear games like Crysis and COD4 perform better on a 64bit OS

Vista has not implemented an acceptable framework for gaming. If that is the primary purpose of your new computer don't even consider Vista. Do some independent research yourself and see how many favorable articles you find on Vista in a gaming environment; there are none. And be sure the computer you buy is XP compatible, some shipping with Vista do not support drivers for XP.

Stick with XP, they ahve not finalised the drivers for Vista and have only now come out with SP1 for Vista, there will be one or two more before it's as stable as XP.

Windows Vista!

Some new games require DX10 which is available only on Vista so if you really want these games at their full capabilites you need Vista. Otherwise stay with XP, it's much lighter on the system so everything and especially games will run much faster.

Stick with xp, vista sucks

My opinion, I like XP ! I am not really liking Vista too much!