Dual Boot suggestion

Im looking for advice on a dual boot configuration? My current PC is a Gigabyte P35 board, Q9650, 4gb CORSAIR XMS2, 500g Seagate HD, 8800 GTX gpu, Vista 64. I thought that this would be completely sufficient for a small home studio but Im always having issues with pops an crakles and other things while recording/mixing. Ive tried playing with buffer size and sample rates with no luck. I now that it could be a handful of things causing this but I want to give this a shot, for other reasons also. So my question is: Should I load a completely stripped down version of Vista, which I own, onto a new drive or should I go with Xp, which I do not own and will have to purchase?

Install XP SP3 for now, and then wait for Windows 7 to come out. Vista sucks anyway. ESPECIALLY for audio.

I bought a computer that came with Vista Home Premium preloaded. It lasted about 3 weeks, then i wiped the drive and went back to XP. Dont regret it one bit(or 6db, whichever you prefer). :)

I've Nlited XP64 a-la Dux. It flies. My system is a little aged now: Athlon 9500 quad core, Gigabyte mobo, 4 drives, 8gig of ram, Fireface800. ReaperX64, Jbridge. No complaints here.

Hey Lazz, All of the above suggestions are great. In addition, I would Google your motherboard in relation to DPC spikes and see what you find. IIRC certain gigabyte motherboards (especially of the p35 variety) had issues with DPC spikes. Try this proggie: and check your results. If you're getting spikes I believe certain bios versions might correct this behavior.

Im using a Delta44 with the MAudio ASIO drivers. As for my original questions, Ive been looking into WinXp and seems as though it doesnt see or use more than 3-4gb of ram. Are you guys experiencing this and is there a work around cause I just picked up 4 more gb's of ram that I intended to use in this system???