Windows Vista Premium or Basic

[Joeygates]

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Edited in for clarification:
Please understand I'm really not looking for preference. Preference is relative to the person. I'm looking for more facts that the chart does not answer. To clarify, If Windows Vista Home Basic can do all of the things I listed in my original post, then I'm going to go with basic. I don't care about bells, whistles, and other aesthetics to be honest .
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I was wondering if I could get a rundown of what the benefit is of running Vista Premium vs Home Basic. I have a coupon that expires tomorrow. I can get basic for $49, premium for $79. Please, I'd like to avoid this turning into a "Its only $30 more". I've already spent too much on the PC and I'm pinching pennies right now.

So, what I'm looking for is what the benefits are of getting premium vs basic home. In other words, will premium only have bells and whistles like media center stuff? I'm thinking Basic might be the best way to go for me. I'm looking for and need to know if basic has:

- Readyboost
- Superfetch
- Affinity/priority for dual core systems.
- Dual Monitor Support (Thru vista, not 3rd party or video card apps)
- App Compat settings (I think it does)
- Direct X 10 for gaming
- Works with XBox Live eventually and XBox 360 controls.

I can't seem to get this specific info off of the Microsoft web site and I have until tomorrow to decide if I want to use my coupon or not.

I've also been to this link:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=34&threadid=1999401&enterthread=y

And I cant see that it differentiates on this stuff.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

 

[Joeygates]

Also, am I able to take my XP copy and leave it as one boot, then use my vista coupon copy with my original XP in another windows folder to dual boot XP and Vista? In other words, I have 1 XP disk, and will eventually have one Vista upgrade disk. Could I leave my XP install alone and use that disk again with the windows Vista upgrade to dual boot to vista and XP?

 

[Mem]

Vista chart here ,you'll need Home Premium edtion if you want to use your Xbox etc... so go HP.HP has some good things like Windows media centre and aero ,those two are worth it over basic version.

And what about fun? A major advance in Windows Vista Home Premium is the dramatically improved digital entertainment experience. Windows Media Center makes organizing and enjoying photos, music, DVDs, recorded TV, and home movies easier and more fun. Enjoy the entertainment on your PC or even on your TV in the living room with an Xbox 360 wirelessly networked to your PC. Windows Vista Home Premium makes it easier to burn your photo slide shows and home movies to a professional-looking video DVD that your friends and family can watch on a DVD player or PC whenever they like. Combined with unbeatable support for gaming and music, Windows Vista Home Premium delivers a complete home entertainment experience.

 

[nerp]

Get Home Premium, you won't regret it.

 

[LouPoir]

Originally posted by: nerp
Get Home Premium, you won't regret it.

Home premium is the way to go --

 

[Joeygates]

Well, I guess the XBox thing partly answers my question. I'm still curious if Basic has the others but if I cant play XBox live without Premium, then premium it is.

 

[Griffinhart]

Home basic doesn't have Aero or the Media Center App. Other than that it has all the same features as Home Premium. Basic has DX10, will work with Windows LIVE and will even support streaming media to the 360 via Windows connect (not media center extender).

That said, I've been recommending Home Premium to friends. Then again, you could always buy Home basic and bump it up to premium at any time (with no need to re-install) using the MS Windows Marketplace options. But, in the end that would be more expensive than just buying Home Premium right off.

 

[Joeygates]

Hmm. It looks like Griffinhart is saying that basic lets me use Live anywhere and Mem says no.

If anyone can clear this up, that would be great.

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Please understand I'm really not looking for preference. Preference is relative to the person. I'm looking for more facts that the chart does not answer. To clarify, If Windows Vista Home Basic can do all of the things I listed in my original post, then I'm going to go with basic. I don't care about bells, whistles, and other aesthetics to be honest .

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: Joeygates
Hmm. It looks like Griffinhart is saying that basic lets me use Live anywhere and Mem says no.

If anyone can clear this up, that would be great.

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Please understand I'm really not looking for preference. Preference is relative to the person. I'm looking for more facts that the chart does not answer. To clarify, If Windows Vista Home Basic can do all of the things I listed in my original post, then I'm going to go with basic. I don't care about bells, whistles, and other aesthetics to be honest .

I could be wrong but HP is worth the extra over basic IMHO anyway.

 

[Joeygates]

No offense, but I keep hearing that and like I said, all I care about is whether or not Basic does the list of items I have. Again, preference is relative to what matters to a person. I want as little bloat as possible.