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seladore

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 28, 2008
17
0
I am going to be installing some version of Windows on my Penryn Blackbook, in order to play Morrowind.

Questions:

1) XP or vista?
2) OEM or full version? (Bear in mind the >£100 difference)

Let me know your thoughts
Thanks
 
Buy XP as soon as possible! Microsoft will be killing supply of XP (CDs bought in store) in June.
 
I may be the only one who suggests Vista.

when i first got my mbp, i installed xp and after the first reboot it crashed and never got it running again...

after a few hours, i decided to install vista and so far it's been working great! sure i'm not saying vista rules, coz it surely doesn't... but, it perfectly fits my needs and looks a little bit better than xp...

ohhh and finally, i know most people will tell me: i've got xp working great... i know, my friends too... i just don't know why it happened to me, but really, i could only use it ONCE. after that, it completely broke.
 
I may be the only one who suggests Vista.

when i first got my mbp, i installed xp and after the first reboot it crashed and never got it running again...

after a few hours, i decided to install vista and so far it's been working great! sure i'm not saying vista rules, coz it surely doesn't... but, it perfectly fits my needs and looks a little bit better than xp...

ohhh and finally, i know most people will tell me: i've got xp working great... i know, my friends too... i just don't know why it happened to me, but really, i could only use it ONCE. after that, it completely broke.

I have had the same experience with XP Pro on my MBP. It ran for a while then crashed. Wouldn't run unless in safe mode. I then reinstalled Windows and it crashed on the first reboot. The same Windows partition continued to work fine under Parallels and is still running through a transition to Fusion. Since this is a work machine, I am still running Tiger, so another Windows install would require setting the date back or waiting until we get the OK to move to Leopard. Even if I can fool Bootcamp beta into running again, we don't have the OK to run Vista yet either! Since I don't run games on a work machine, I don't really worry about whether Bootcamp is working as long as I can run Windows.

My home Mini, on the other hand, has been running Windows XP Pro under Bootcamp since it first came out and has survived also being used for Parallels, a CPU swap from CD to C2D, an upgrade to Leopard, and a transition to Fusion. I mainly use XP under Fusion, but do occasionally use Bootcamp to play games.

To answer the OPs question, XP Pro OEM is still my preference, especially if you think you will ever use it with Virtualization as well. The XP virtual machine can be given as little as 512 MB of RAM if you have 2 GB total, or 1 GB if you have 4 GB total and still run well. The only advantage of a full license is support and somehow I think Microsoft will use the EFI with BIOS emulation rather than full BIOS as a reason to not support you, so you might as well go with OEM and look to other Mac users for support.
 
For 32-bit then XP-OEM is your best bet, for 64-bit i can only recommend Vista. Personally i prefer Vista to XP though. I know it is slower, but it's worth it for that silky smooth interface!

Also people never mention all the new things in Vista which are quite nice. Small little additions that you can't really quantify but just make using a computer a little easier and better.
 
I am going to be doing the same thing and will be using XP, mostly due to performance.
 
If you need DirectX 10, vista is your only option. If that's the case, buy Home Premium or Business. Ultimate is a waste of money unless you need all the features of Windows.
 
Vista is slower unless you have lots of RAM, althou it is better to install XP now i would recommend you get vista just because its the future and you will get more support then if you had XP.
 
Thanks everyone, I have installed XP OEM.
Two more questions, then:

1) Windows seems oddly stretched, or the resolution is odd. It this because of widescreen? (I Haven't installed the various drivers yet though, I hope this resolves it)
2) Is there any way to hide the extra drive on my OS X desktop?
 
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