So -
I tried to install Vista. For the most part, i actually suceeeded.
It booted, after a semi-lengthy install. *THIS* time i actually managed to not format my storage drive ( 200gb of stuff lost? no thanks. already did that once. ) So after the few reboots and formats and whatnot i begin to try it out and configure it. I’ve already done this once on my PC at work, so i’m fairly familiar with the controls now. First order of the day were audio drivers - they were the only ones besides the webcam that werent installed automatically - which was a bonus. Off i toddled and after a mistaken download or two, i got the right ones. Lunch time came around and i decided to take a break and drive off to buy a few more gb of ram to satisfy the RAM-hungry Vista. ( huzzah. 3gb now. )
After installing some of the basics ( Firefox, Thunderbird et al ), i decided to install EVE, and all its related things. After loading up eve after a successful install, a few minutes in-station and my PC locked up. I thought it might have been the ram, but i double checked the RAM settings - yup, was running at 667 as per usual, and it detected 3gb. Oh well, i continued on and thought it as interesting snippet. Long story short, it happened again. Itunes didnt crash the machine - though the app was terminated somewhat cleanly by Vista. A bit of googling about pointed the finger at the onboard Realtek soundcard. A bit of a bummer, i thought. Flakey drivers causing all sorts of havoc. Continued into the afternoon and attempted to find a fix for it - but alas. Reinstalled XP, and will consider buying a dedicated soundcard to test with at a later date. Audigy 2 sounds like it might be the go, but i hear tell of similar missing features in Vista for Creative cards also.