Buy Vista?

[westihockey09]

First off, I was thinking about purchasing the home basic version of Vista. Should I? Second, if I do should I buy the 32 bit Vista version or should i buy the 64 bit Vista version? Why?

My Rig:
Asus A8N5X Mobo
1gb of Corsair ValueSelect Ram
80gb @ 7200rpm Seagate Hardrive
eVGa 7600GT KO PCI-E
Creative Audigy Sound Card
AMD FX-55 @ 2.6ghz.
Lite-On 16x CD/DVD-RW

Thanks In Advance,
Westi

 

[Mellman]

AFAIK you get the 64 and 32 bit versions in the same package? Initially they were going to do 64 or 32...but from what i've heard lately its all in the same box.

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: westihockey09
First off, I was thinking about purchasing the home basic version of Vista. Should I? Second, if I do should I buy the 32 bit Vista version or should i buy the 64 bit Vista version? Why?

My Rig:
Asus A8N5X Mobo
1gb of Corsair ValueSelect Ram
80gb @ 7200rpm Seagate Hardrive
eVGa 7600GT KO PCI-E
Creative Audigy Sound Card
AMD FX-55 @ 2.6ghz.
Lite-On 16x CD/DVD-RW

Thanks In Advance,
Westi

Wait until there's some kind of reason to buy Vista, and when you have more ram. Vista blows nuts for gaming at the moment, and 1GB is the bare minimum of memory for Vista, let alone to game on. Check back in about a year, SP1 and more polished drivers should be on cue, along with a trickle of actual DX10 games.

 

[westihockey09]

Bump

 

[Arkaign]

There's better things to blow that money on, like RAM! Jeez, if you game, Vista is NOT for you, at least not yet, and probably won't be for about a year.

 

[mechBgon]

The only version of Vista that arrives with both 32-bit and 64-bit versions in the package, is Vista Ultimate in the retail-boxed version. If you buy a retail-boxed version of Home Basic, Home Premium or Business, then you get just the 32-bit disc in the package, but the 64-bit disc can be ordered from here if you'd prefer 64-bit.

If you buy OEM, then you commit to 32-bit or 64-bit at the time of purchase. What you buy is what you can use.

Either 32-bit or 64-bit Vista will be more secure out of the box than WinXP, and make it more practical to routinely use a non-Admin user account for resistance to exploits, viruses and spyware, if you're interested in better security at the expense of the ease of use of of-course-I'm-an-Admin-what-else-would-I-be?- operation.

The 64-bit version of Vista has additional security features (you can read an overview here, scroll down a bit to 64-bit Security Features). It can handle more RAM. Its compatibility with old software and possibly drivers for old hardware could be issues.

In any case, if you want to see if your software will be OK on Vista, run the Vista Upgrade Advisor and see what it reports. It notified me that my old image-editing software was going to have Issues (which it does) and that my antivirus wouldn't work (but as it turns out, there's an update from the antivirus company that fixes that).

 

[dkkruse]

There is no reason to upgrade now unless you are getting a new system. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I have Vista, and there are plenty of annoying things about it along with incompatibilities.

 

[cheapherk]

If you buy it buy it, do not by Basic or Business.

Think twice before buying it. I did and this weekend, I'm going back to XP.

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: cheapherk
If you buy it buy it, do not by Basic or Business.

Think twice before buying it. I did and this weekend, I'm going back to XP.

QFT! As of 2-14-07 XP >>>>>>>>>>>>> Vista (all)

 

[Solema]

First off, if you're gonna buy Vista, spring for the Home Premium vs. Home Basic. Secondly, research Vista and its improvements over XP. If you are satisfied with the improvements (many are, including myself) then get Premium.

 

[slpaulson]

You might want to wait until creative and nvidia have some decent drivers released.

 

[hardcandy2]

I would suggest buying from Staples,etc that may have some specials going on for Vista. And then keep it until you are ready to install.
As an example, I got Vista Home Premium Upgrade from Staples with a free 1GB USB drive and used a coupon. Paid $149 which is not much off but at least the coupon knocked off the taxes and saved me $10. Plus I got a USB drive. And free shipping.
I imagine there will not be many specials later on.

 

[frostedflakes]

Vista has some improvements over XP, but it's not $200+ better. The only reason I'm running it is because I was able to get a copy through my school for nothing, so I figured what the hell. But until you have a compelling reason to upgrade (DX10 gaming, for example), I'd just stick with XP. Last I heard nVidia Vista drivers were kind of crap, so until that gets sorted out gaming performance is going to take a hit.

 

[Griffinhart]

Nvidia drivers are problematic for some games, perfectly ok for others. EverQuest2 and Company of Heroes run faster for me under Vista than they did under XP. The Battlefields run pretty close to the same. It sounds like OpenGL games are the ones that are getting the significant performance hits.

Sound drivers haven't seemed to be an issue for me. I'm using Creative's Beta drivers for my X-FI Extreme Gamer card w/ the Alchemy drivers as well. I haven't seen any problems so far.

Regular Desktop use seems a bit snappier for me than it was in XP. Especially after Superfetch did it's magic.

As for Versions, It all depends on what you want for features.

Home Basic doesn't have the new UI Which I honesly like a lot. It also doesn't have the Media Center stuff. But, unless you have a TV tuner, I don't think it's needed.

Home Premium has the new UI and Media Center. So if you are into the HTPC thing like I am it's the minimum to get. But, if not, the UI is the only real reason to consider it.

Business edition has a lot of really useful features that just aren't on the home versions. Shadow Copy and Previous Version are an example. While this version has Aero, it doesn't have the Media Center stuff.

Ultimate has it all.

 

[Coldkilla]

Don't buy it. Wait till Summer. I'm reformatting. I had too many problems with Vista.