new HTPC - Vista64 or XP?

[Locutus]

Hi,

Im going to build a new HTPC to run with XBMC :grin:. I ordered the following components:

SilverStone Lascala LC20 black (SST-LC20B)
Biostar TA790GX A2+, 790GX (dual PC2-8500U DDR2)
AMD Athlon X2 4850e Sockel-AM2 boxed, 2x 2.50GHz, 2x 512kB Cache
Scythe Zipang (SCZP-1000)
2x MDT DIMM 2GB PC2-6400U CL5 (DDR2-800)
Samsung SpinPoint 2,5" M6S 320GB SATA (HM320JI)
Seasonic S12II 430W ATX 2.2 (SS-430GB)
LG Electronics GGC-H20L SATA bulk ( I know BR is not supported yet )


but I am not sure which OS i should use. Can someone tell me on which OS XBMC runs best?
And I just want to know where it runs best now if its going to be better with vista in a few
month there is no problem to switch to vista then.

thx Locutus :;):


and I already have the MS MCE Remote ( Model:1039 ):
http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/5498.jpg

[xbs08]

imo XP

[Tension113]

I have both XP and Vista installed on my Htpc.. With Vista, I was getting crashes and lockups almost constantly.. Just browsing the menu's would lock it up.. Didn't make sense since it all seemed pretty random.. Start xbmc, select movies, crash, restart xbmc, select movies, and it works..

Started using Xp instead maybe 2 months ago and have yet to see Xbmc crash.. Maybe it's working better for Vista lately, but for me, it was a huge difference when I tried it..

[erikss0n]

Boot times might be of importance and there XP wins!
Unless you do some heavy tweaking with vlite...

[quebert]

I dual boot XP & Vista - on Vista I'll admit I had some weird problems with XBMC at first, it not respond and have to be closed 4 or 5 times in a few days, and some of the movies were badly out of sync. I reinstalled, and knock on wood so far it's been good. I have a C2D with 2 gigs of memory and once my PC is booted it's pretty quick.

Once XBMC is loaded I notice zero difference, I know some remotes have an easier time in Vista, but honestly both should be about the same when you're in XBMC.

[supernoman]

I vote for Vista just for more driver support for my setup. I couldn't get HDMI audio working in XP properly to my receiver. XBMC stability is about the same for me in either setup. It crashes occasionally. I even have it set to be restarted on every sleep/resume and it still manages to freeze up after watching several MKVs. It's still in beta and I haven't been able to reproduce it regularly enough to post a bug log.

[Broads]

I have been running vista 64 fine, no problems... That is except for the 64bit driver problem with the remote, doesnt seem that there is a event ghost plugin for 64bit vista just yet. So if you're going vista and need more than the standard button presses, go vista 32.

[lemik]

if you want to make use of the extra ram that you are installing then you need to go for 64bit otherwise windows will only use 3.5gb of your ram (that includes any ram on your graphics card)