New PC build.

[YourGrandpa]

Well I'm putting together a new PC and was wondering what you guys thought of going Vista 64.

New Specs..

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor.
ASUS Striker II NSE LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 790i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard.
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel.
BFG Tech BFGEGTX2801024OC2E GeForce GTX 280 1GB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0.

I have various other odd components like a Razer Barracuda Sound Card and Z Board. I'm concerned about Vista 64's support for my components and ability to perform on this PC.

[AmIdYfReAk]

You shouldn't have an issue with it to be honest...

There is nothing there that Cant/wont/dosnt have support for a 64bit O/S

[YourGrandpa]

I hope not.

[Foo]

some legacy games won't work. Apart from that should be golden.

[AmIdYfReAk]

For that there are always wrappers like Dosbox and etc... that'll solve most issues.

the other ones can be solved by enabling Compatibility mode... it works great in vista actually... i was surprised.

[YourGrandpa]

Well, everything seems to be working fine. But not after quite a bit of trouble shooting (no fault of Vista 64).

For some reason the RAM voltage didn't detect properly and a damaged copy of 3DMark destroyed my DirectX. So after a lot of application freezing and screen tearing I did some research. I found that the RAM voltage had to be manually set to 1.8 volts. This obviously fixed the freezing, but it wasn't until I reinstalled Vista 64 that I discovered that DirectX had been damaged by 3DMark.

[AmIdYfReAk]

"performance" ram sets itself low..

So you need to set the timmings and Volts on there own..

Mine defaults to 1.8V and i need to take it to 2.0V to get it to play nice at 4-4-4-15.

i would have mentioned that before, but i figured you'd have already known.

[YourGrandpa]

The simptoms of freezing and video artifacting in 3D apps. lead me to believe it was a video card issue. I even called BFG tech support, they agreed and RMA'd the card. I then pulled out the 280 and installed my 7900. The artifacting seemed to go away, but the freezing didn't. That's when I started looking for the other problems.

Oh well, so much for BFG tech support. However, I do have another 280 on the way. I'm debating on wether or not to keep it and SLI .

[AmIdYfReAk]

Pfsht, consider your self lucky that they will send you a card before you send in yours when you RMA...

they wont do that over the border... it sucks.

[YourGrandpa]

No, no. I had to give them a credit card number to send me the card first. Then I'm suppose to send mine back in order to get the money credited back to my card.

[AmIdYfReAk]

No, no. I had to give them a credit card number to send me the card first. Then I'm suppose to send mine back in order to get the money credited back to my card.

i understand that, but what i was getting at is that service is not available here... thats all.

i was out of a Card for a little over 3 weeks because of it.

[YourGrandpa]

i understand that, but what i was getting at is that service is not available here... thats all.

i was out of a Card for a little over 3 weeks because of it.

Really? Wow, that sucks. Service with BFG has been good for me. Though I've only had to return a card once. I bought a card from ebay that didn't work and sent it back for a new one.