Ah Wolfhunter has now joined the city lights dimming club!
I know about the biiiiiiiiiiiiigggggggggg powersupplies. I popped a 1000watt Toughpower 4 rail monster in this rig. So I can run all the junk I want.
Yep the 64 bit version really unleashes things.
If you run into any issues, getting things up and running you can go here:
http://www.blackviper.com/
good reads here:
http://www.start64.com/index.php
and some quick tweaks here:
http://pctuneuptips.com/tips/vista_tweaks/?ref=insert
Now, a couple little things you may want to do, if you don't already know about them, or do them.
User Account Control.
Go to User Accounts in Control Panel, and look for the option to turn it off. It sspeeds things up for you.
Also, in XP the old DEP (Data Execution Prevention) could cause problems with software and games. In XP it was easy enough to go to the Windows boot.ini file and edit it to turn DEP off completely, but I have looked for it in the windows folders and files to no avail, so if you have problems with some games, you may have to add them to the DEP list, and tell windows to ignore this program.
You may even find some older games work great on Vista with no additional programs or fiddling to get them going. EAW loads fine in the native Vista format, with no issues for me.
Also, if you want a cheap version of windows to load up, just go to the local big computer retail store, and buy a second harddrive, usually a good deal is on the bargain table, as an extra storage device, and ask the salesclerk for an OEM version of Windows. I paid like $120.00 or it may have been an even $100 for an OEM version of Vista Home Premium. which saved me around 100 to 150 bucks of the top compared to a boxed shelf version. Plus it doesn't have the extra junk the boxed versions can have.