[Barleypopmaker]

I am building my first PC and have all the components for my first basic system. I am looking at what operating system to buy and would like to go with Vista Premium. I am just wondering first of all if my system would do OK with the 64 bit version, or if it even makes any difference for my use. I don't do any heavy gaming but mainly use the PC for school work, business, and multi-media. My Motherboard is a MSI K9N2G Neo-FD AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 8200 ATX AMD Motherboard and I have an AMD Athalon 64 X2 5000+ brisbane 2.6GHz dual core. I have no extra video cards, just what is supplied by the mother board. My hard drive is 320GB and has the standard IDE connector, not SATA. My ram is the dual channel 2GB (1GB each) variety. Again, this is no super charged system, but something for the family. So any advice on the 32 or 64 bit versions would be apperciated. If all I need would be more RAM that wouldn't be a big deal, but if the stock video card or processor would be strained I will go with the 32 bit.

One more question.

Since the Wife will be using the computer too, I want to stick with Windows because it is what she is comfortable with. I think I will take my old PC and install Linux, but can I network the 2 systems together?

Thanks, Jason

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No real choice these days: XP, Vista or some flavour of Linux. 2Gb of RAM is plenty for each operating system.

For schoolwork and stuff, 32-bit Vista will be fine. Office wise you'd be wise to look at Office 2007 but Office 2003 does work on Vista. Any earlier versions are not guaranteed.

Networking: Yes, easily.

[Neil Jones]

No real choice these days: XP, Vista or some flavour of Linux. 2Gb of RAM is plenty for each operating system.

For schoolwork and stuff, 32-bit Vista will be fine. Office wise you'd be wise to look at Office 2007 but Office 2003 does work on Vista. Any earlier versions are not guaranteed.

Networking: Yes, easily.