Re: What version of Windows is best (does it matter?)

That's a very broad answer without asking any specifics!

I'm happy doing all my encoding and video production on several Vista Ultimate machines (with a Server 2008 Standard system I use as a backup rendering node as well). It's a misconception that Vista is any slower than XP similar configured. If you turn on indexinx and have a ton of files, it'll be more active the first few days as ait builds the index, but that service is paused when doing anything CPU intennsive. Also, if you're using the Aero Glass GUI, all the on-screen rendering takes place on the GPU, not the CPU, making it much more responsive to user input when under heavy load, and better yet, it keeps the UI from stealing cycles from whatever you're readering.

Vista is also optimized for NUMA architectures for multi-socket systems. This means it'll offer a nice performance boost versus XP on AMD 2+ socket systems, and Intel's forthcoming Nehalem platform (shouldn't matter for your current Xeons).

The key is to run an OS that supports all of your hardware and software. The CS2 suite had some issues for me on Vista, but CS3 has been rock solid for me; I don't have any software I use anymore that has issues on Vista.

So, Raymond, what software do you run on your system? Any unusual hardware?

Also, XP Service Pack 3 has been out for a few months now, and it's be fine for me as well. It's not nearly the leap forward that SP2 was (which was almost as substantial a release as a new OS, but just for free and without UI changes). But probably worth installing if you don't have any software that doesn't support it.

Ben Waggoner
Principal Video Strategist, Silverlight
Microsoft Corporation

Compression Blog: on10.net/blogs/benwagg/
Compression Classes at Stanford and PSU: on10.net/blogs/benwagg/21622/