Windows XP or Windows 7 for my Machine?

[cusconillow]

Alright so I just got a bunch of new hardware and I'd like to get it all working and make a working computer out of it. Just a forewarning: I am not that technologically-knowledgeable.
My Hardware:
Mobo: ASUS A8n-SLI Deluxe (nForce4 Chipset)
Graphics Card: EVGA E-GeForce 8800 GT (512-P3-N802-A1)
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 FX-53 (2412Mhz)
RAM: Total of 1GB installed (Can increase)

I'm trying to figure out what would be the best operating system for me. I want to be able to play modern games and do everyday tasks on this computer. Unfortunately, there are no Windows 7 drivers for the nForce4 chipset and I don't know enough to find some that would work. I figure XP would be a much safer and stable OS but it is no longer supported and is becoming outdated. I'd rather not be in need of certain software or something and it only be compatible with Windows 7 and above with no XP version.

So what would be the best option for me overall? And if the verdict is Windows 7, can you guys help me find the drivers and such for my system?

 

[dingo07]

Win7

 

[LightningStriker]

ya stick with windows 7,windows xp is now very old

 

[cusconillow]

Alright. Can you guys help me find drivers that will work for my motherboard in windows 7?

 

[dingo07]

well, that's not exactly new hardware... your best shot is letting Windows Update find the drivers if they're available

or get a newer motherboard that'll work with the other gear

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

While Windows 7 would be the ideal choice, I ran into a case with one of NVIDIA's bad chipsets that essentially proved to be wholly incompatible with Windows 7. I don't recall if it was nForce 3 or 4, but either way, if you have any way of returning your motherboard for one with any other chipset than Nvidia's, I would recommend doing that first, then I would recommend Windows 7 or 8. There is no benefit to going with an OS as old as Windows XP at this point unless you are after some sort of legacy support.

I also recommend, if you can't return or exchange the motherboard, before you activate a copy of Windows 7 or 8, make sure you install all of the drivers for the system, and that it can even boot up correctly without having a BSOD error. There is no point activating your copy of Windows on a motherboard that can't run it.

I do believe that you have no support for your nForce chipsets under Windows 7. NVIDIA pretty much abandoned their platform support years ago. The error I ran into prevented Windows from booting, and was unable to be worked around.

 

[turbolover22]

Check out this page that was posted a long time ago.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/1898-63-nvidia-nforce4-series-drivers-windows

 

[Askei]

To my best of knowledge windows 7 will take up lot of the 1gb ram you have, with my old pc my brother told me not to install win 7 on anything less than 2gb it won't be as smooth as a win xp runs. I think its fairly right. At start it might be ok since you having not much of junk, but slowly that 1gb ram will be clogged.

Ofcourse if you increase RAM then all is ok. I think 2-4 gb is a good deal probably.

Xp will in long-run run smoother if you are sticking with 1gb of ram (as it takes less ram). But go for increase in RAM for win7, since xp is obsolete now, you will not regret it.

Last but most importantly as bigpinkdragon have said, check your hardware driver compatibility, other things comes second.

 

[cusconillow]

Okay so I got the vista 64 drivers but my audio still isn't working.

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

If in the long run you can not find suitable audio drivers, there are plenty of low cost add-in boards that are fully compatible in Windows 7 or newer.

 

[cusconillow]

Could you post an example of one please?

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=sound+card+windows+7

 

[cusconillow]

Oh so just any PCI/PCI-e sound card would work?

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

Exactly! As long as your computer has the same interface type as the sound card you purchase, you should be fine. At this time, you're more likely to have Windows Vista / 7 support out-of-box for a soundcard than XP.