I'm planning a build for playing Skyrim and various other games, but I have come to a cross roads with the OS (operating system).


I am on a budget and the thing that is really killing me is the OS, obviously i wont even have a functioning computer without it so here is where i stand. I already have Windows 7 home premium 32bit OEM from when my HD crashed a few years back. I can either downgrade from my planned 8GB of ram to 4GB and use the 32bit OS i already have OR i can download Ubuntu 11.10 64bit for free.

Now then i am obviously running on 32 bit Windows 7 right now and am vary familiar with how it works with games (practically install and play), but how do games work with Ubuntu? I have heard it works and that it doesn't.

What would you guys recommend.

You needed to ask that question in here:

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1297566-the-community-tech-thread-no-110/

I think Ubuntu is even worse for games than Mac, Ubuntu is a terrible idea if you intend to game.

This is true. Invest in Windows for gaming until developers make more native Linux games.

Using Ubuntu/Linux you need to use an emulator such as WINE in order to play games, but do not expect to get a perfect gaming experience, if Skyrim(or whichever game you want to play) is supported at all yet.

Also, I DO NOT recommend using a Linux based OS unless you are tech savvy, although Ubuntu is probably the easiest of them to get use to.

k thanks guys, i ended up finding some videos that show how to do such things on Ubuntu and it seems like more of a head ache than i am looking for, and its not even guaranteed to work 100%.

So i decided to downgrade from the i5 2500k to the i3 2100 which puts me in budget to get Win7 64bit. Later when prices drop ill upgrade to the i5... or possibly the Ivy bridge.

The only high-quality Linux game I'm aware of is Amnesia, which is also available on Windows. It's a VERY good game. Special even. Playing it at night with headphones on will scare your pants off. It's uniquely frightening. It's so good that Gamespot did a review for a Linux game...

http://www.gamespot.com/amnesia-the-dark-descent/platform/unixlinux

I disagree on this step..although just take this as my opinion. You claim in your first post, that you got Win7 32bit, so why don't you use that, instead of downgrading your CPU?
For the "future" gaming, you could always just purchase the 64bit later, while you could have a much more powerful CPU right now.

here is the thing. I have both..actually I got 4 partitions on 2 hard drives: Win732bit/Vista /// Win7 64/Linux. I spend most of my time on the 32bit Win, just out of being used to it and most of my stuff is on this partition, and since my system is hindered by the lack of memory (I refuse to buy more DDR2 memory, instead I need an entirely new Mb/CPU/Mem combo), I couldn't care less about 64bit Windows.