Which OS for gaming. XP Home or Professional??

[pipes1243]

I'm working on a new rig and salvaging some of the parts from my Dell 5150. Since I can't reuse the OS from that computer, which OS is better for gaming, XP Home or Professional Edition and why? If it matters, the new parts I want to purchase are listed below. All this should be compatible right? Feel free to say what you would change on the parts not purchased yet, and I'm tight on $$. Thanks for the input.

Motherboard: ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP (not purchased)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131196

Case: Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower (not purchased)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129021

PSU: FSP Group ATX350-PA ATX 12V (v 2.2) 350W Power Supply (not purchased)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817104901

OS: (not purchased)
XP Home or Professional

Processor, and Heatsink:

ZALMAN CNPS9700 LED
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835118019 (I'm looking to start overclocking. not purchased)

Pentium D 930 (From the Dell, and maybe upgrading when $$ is more available)

Hard Drive:
Something 160gb (from the Dell)

Graphics Card:
PNY - Verto GeForce 8500 GT (From the Dell)

Memory:
PNY - 2-Pack 1GB PC2-5300 DDR2 Memory (Is this Overclockable??)

[Khalil]

For gaming XP Pro of Home is exactly the same. Save your money and go with XP Home.
You might want to consider Vista for DX10, many new games play better with it, your weakest link will be that D930 Over heating CPU, a core2duo would be a much better choice as soon as you can get one. Vista Home Premium will do the trick nicely.

You chose about the best brand PSU but I would go with a bigger PSU like this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817104954 or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151040

[Kov-Ice]

If you're simply gaming and using the computer for basic use, Home is perfectly fine. Professional is oriented toward office use and security.

Windows XP Home Edition * Contains basic support for security among multiple users. * Built-in support for peer-to-peer networking, but only for up to five computers. * The backup utlity is not installed by default, but is included on the CD. Windows XP Professional Edition * Includes extended support for security between multiple users on the same machine. * Better support for peer-to-peer networking, plus support for joining a "Windows NT domain." * The backup utlity is installed by default. * The Professional edition includes the following components not found in the Home edition: o Administrative Tools (in the Start Menu and Control Panel) o Automated System Recovery (ASR) o Boot Configuration Manager o DriverQuery o Group Policy Refresh Utility o Multi-lingual User Interface (MUI) add-on o NTFS Encryption Utilitiy o Offline Files and Folders o OpenFiles o Performance Log Manager o Remote Desktop o Scheduled Tasks Console o Security Template Utility o Taskkill o Tasklist o Telnet Administrator * Provides support for multi-processor systems (2 or 4 CPUs), Dynamic Disks, Fax.

[glc]

I wouldn't buy that PNY when you can get Corsair dirt cheap. I'd get DDR2-800 if you are planning on overclocking and/or a processor upgrade later.

XP Home is fine.

Instead of buying that expensive case and a separate power supply, look at the Antec Sonata 3. It comes with a top line 500w power supply.

[Khalil]

I agree totaly, those Sonata cases are very nice, you won't get the big lights in the front like the 900 but it is just as nice of a case and like glc suggested save yourself some money. Corsair, Kingston and Crucial are about the best Ram you can get, I did have a few problems in the past with PNY Ram and their RMA and support is very slow.

[pipes1243]

The ram I already have, it came from the Dell. I know it's not the greatest, but will that be enough for the time being? I'm thinking I'm going to get Visa Home Edition. I'm probably going to get the FSP Group SAGA+ 450R ATX12V 450W Power Supply if I stick with the Antec Nine Hundred. I realize that the case I chose is expensive, but how will the Antec Sonata 3 work with air flow? It looks like there isn't much room for flow, or will the heat sinks take care of getting the heat away? Is there a heat sink that is a bit cheaper then the ZALMAN CNPS9700 LED that will work the same with overclocking?

And if I get Vista Home this is what I'd need right? What's the difference between 64, and 32-bit?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116202