I’m testing a 2.60 gigahertz AMD Athlon 64 FX Dual Core system right now, and while I’m sure everybody would be wowed with benchmarks - you’ve probably already seen ‘em elsewhere. I’m here to report my personal findings and feelings. Yes, I “feel” that personal computers should be more personal. It’s not just about the bits these days!

• Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. A8N32-SLI-Deluxe Rev 1.xx
• BIOS: AMI 1303 (07/13/2006)
• PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-111D ATA Device
• HDS724040KLSA80 (400.09 GB) [Hard drive]
• WDC WD1500ADFD-00NLR1 ATA Device (150.04 GB) [Hard drive]
• NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX
• Marvell Yukon 88E8053 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller
• Realtek AC’97 Audio

I wound up getting quite a few true blue screens in Windows Vista when the system arrived (pre-configured). I tried to do a non-destructive upgrade to the latest RC1 build of Windows Vista, but that process didn’t take. I decided to, at that point, wipe the drive(s), install Windows XP, and then Windows Vista after that. Now I can easily dual-boot between both OSes.

I flashed the BIOS to the latest version from ASUS, and I believe every Windows driver is functioning properly (in both XP and Vista). Everything seems to be working fine - to the point where I’d be confident to dual-boot between XP and Vista on other capable machines in my household.

FWIW, ReadyBoost / USB sticks do not work in Windows Vista on this PC - they’re unrecognizable by the system bus, I believe. No idea why, but that’s a problem I ran into before my first BSOD. I’m a bit disappointed; ReadyBoost really boosts performance my Vista laptop. USB sticks work fine in XP on this PC, FWIW - so it’s likely a Vista driver limitation for the moment. NVIDIA has been snail-slow at prepping for Vista.

The system (down to the BIOS level) does not recognize more than 3GB of RAM in the machine, though it has 4GB inside of it. It wasn’t reporting more than 3GB before the BIOS flash, so I’m not sure what setting needs to be flipped before I can see the full 4 gigs of memory. I have the same problem on my regular ol’ XP desktop (on another PC), so I’m thinking I’ve missed a setting somewhere.

The DVI ports on the video card are too close to one another; I can only connect one monitor at a time, as my DVI cables are (each) apparently a hair too wide. A single screen will have to do for now.

Network performance in both XP and Vista seems wonky, but I’ve heard that one should never (ever) install nVidia’s nForce software if at all possible. I’ve been an “ATI guy” for at least a couple of years now, and I’ve never owned an nForce board - or an AMD machine. I’m sure there are a few quick tricks and hacks I’m gonna need to learn before too long.

On the new box, Vista seems to be telling me that the audio driver isn’t compatible, but audio works fine - and I even downloaded updates for the AC97 driver through Windows Update. May be a cosmetic hiccup in the code. I have a 5.1 speaker system here, but it only has black, orange, and green cables for it (not sure why, though - it’s from Creative). Everything still sounds great!

I’ll be installing games onto Vista next: FEAR, Oblivion, D&D, and AutoAssault - as well as the final (?) version of MS Flight Sim X. I have a wired Xbox 360 controller, so I should be good to go. The only thing I’m missing is those sweet new Microsoft wireless desktops that aren’t due to ship until Q1.

[tags]amd,pc,ati,computer,nvidia,asus,dvi,oblivion,personal computer,geforce,windows vista,dual core,fx 60,asustek,a8n32,ac97,fear,autoassault[/tags]