XP vs. W7

Ok, so I'm working on a new build. Trying to be informed, prepared, make the wisest choice. After doing my homework, I was left a bit jaw dropped with the horror stories. I'm wondering if I should just say screw it and run back to ol' reliable XP.

What research did I do? I basically went to various sites checking the reviews, including Microsoft. I was left horrified with the oh so many horror stories of Windows7. Good thing I checked though, I found out starter is an absolute joke. And home will cap off your ram at 16gb, which is ok for now but how about down the road? So I figured just shell out the few dollars and go Professional. And then came the controversy over the retail and oem, and all the horror stories on either side, as well.

So I entertained just shelling out for XP Pro on ebay. Wow! It's just as expensive as W7 Pro. Is that because everybody knows it's just as good or better? What gives?

As you can see I'm a bit torn. Throwing my hands up in the air and throwing this to the wind of Tom's Pros. What do you all say . . . any input is welcomed. Thanks.

What horror stories? I've been running win 7 ultimate x64 since it came out. Other than a slight learning curve coming from XP (less if you have vista), it has run flawlessly. Not a single BSOD. All my games and other software run fine. As for 16 gig of ram.... by the time you actually need 16 gig of ram, it will be time to upgrade your computer anyhow. Why be stuck with a 10 year old OS that will be EOL (end of life) soon? Get 7 home premium or better.

Don't worry about the ram limit. By the time there are applications that are complex enough not to run well on 4--8 gig of RAM, Windows 9 will be out. And probably so will the next generation or 2 of RAM technology which means that the fancy DDR3 system will be what the P3 systems are now.

Plus you'll have issues filling over 16 gig of RAM in most motherboards anyway without spending tons of money on 4 gig sticks.

There are 0 issues with using OEM as long as you are not planning to move this Windows build to another computer later on. That and support from MS is the only things you are giving up. Functionally, OEM and any retail package are the same, only the license terms differ.

Plus ebay OS licenses are iffy, way too many are either outright fakes or cracked or illegal in some way.