Building System-Ned SOme Advics

[Not Your Raven]

EDIT: Great , Now everyone will think I'm an idiot cause of the title :p


I posted already on another site, but I would like some second opinions.

This is my Newegg cart, comes out to about $2200, which is a good budget for me.

XION Hydraulic XON-566TB Black with Blue LED Light Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

BUYING TWO Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) ST3250620AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

SAMSUNG 226BW Black 22" 2 ms (GTG) DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail

EVGA 768-P2-N831-AR GeForce 8800GTX 768MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail
OR
the ATI Direct X10 card (R200 XTX)?

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail

Logitech X-530 70 watts RMS 5.1 Black Speaker System - OEM

BUYING TWO Patriot eXtreme Performance 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model PDC22G6400LLK - Retail

EVGA 122-CK-NF66-T1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i Ultra ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6600 - Retail

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium DVD - Retail

Does this all work out? I think I have a copy of XP that I can use on the second hard drive. I will make sure to install Vista with only ONE hard drive plugged in so it doesn't corrupt the other one (it tends to do that).

I know Vista sucks, but XP sucked at first, and I have some faith in Microsoft. I can always dual boot with ubuntu again.:)

Also, I am waiting till mid June to buy this stuff, so do you think the R200 HD XTX ATI card is a better option than the 8800?

Advice is very much appreciated.

[rond36]

I think I have a copy of XP that I can use on the second hard drive. I will make sure to install Vista with only ONE hard drive plugged in so it doesn't corrupt the other one (it tends to do that).
Do you plan on switching the drives when you want to change operating systems?
If not don't remove the drive with XP on it because Vista will need to write its boot-loader to the MBR and its boot files to the root directory of the XP drive. There will also be drive letter and primary/active partition (you are only allowed one) issues that can't be resolved without a full reinstall of Vista with the XP drive in place.

To duel-boot Win XP and Vista, XP must be installed first and then Vista second.

There are two ways to install Vista once XP is installed, the one that you choose depends on how you want your drive letters arranged.

If you want both XP and Vista to have the same drive letter C: (but not on the same partition) boot to the Vista DVD and install it on an empty partition, that partition will become C: when booted to Vista but when booted to XP it will revert back to the letter XP gave it.
Note: Having XP and Vista with the same drive letter is very confusing for me because I have 10 partitions and it is hard to keep track of a drive letter that changes.

If you want XP to be on C: and Vista on D: (or any other drive letter except A: or B: ) no matter which OS you are booted to you need to boot to XP and insert the Vista DVD and run the Vista setup from XP.