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Computer Upgrade Time

Looking into the different versions of Vista...

Seems like Vista Business would be the best choice. Home Premium really hasn't much to offer, only the Media Center stuff, which I guess is hardly needed as there are gazillions of third party programs out there, which do the same or more, right? Do I really need something other than WinAMP and VLC?

One question is coming up with all the talk about 32bit and 64bit, though. It seems like you get only one of the versions (usually the 32bit one) when you buy the software. Only Ultimate comes with both versions out of the box. Question is... can you get a Vista Business with both 32bit and 64bit somehow without it being almost as expensive as Ultimate, anyways? Or will you have to choose one and live with that.

Having both versions would seem like a good idea, using 32bit now, and 64bit later in a year or two then.

Bye
Thanee
 

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I'm using Vista Enterprise at work, which is like Business with a few extra things, mostly behind-the-scenes kind of stuff like group policies and drive encryption.

Frankly, for my home computer, I'd have a hard time justifying anything more than Vista Home Basic. Aero sounds nice, but I've never even had the chance to use it (old gfx card on my work laptop) so it's not a real compelling sales point.
 

Vista versions are actually pretty simple, despite what the internet tells you

Vista Basic = No frills, just the OS. Runs the PC but doesn't have lots of the toys.
Vista Home Premium = Fancy Aero Interface, Home Media stuff like Photo albums & TV recording, Cannot join Windows Server Domains
Vista Buisness Premium = Fancy Aero Interface, No Media stuff, can joing windows server domains with all that implies.
Vista Ultimate = Has all the stuff in Home and Buisness, plus hard drive encryption and a few more games & doodads.

I generally reccomend Home Premium to most people who aren't running their own Windows Servers, with Ultimate for the folks who don't have a lot of budget pressure.

Honestly, if you are running a stand alone PC or even two or three PCs with shared hard drives there is no point in Vista Buisness as you won't be using any of it's added features.
 

drothgery said:
While probably good advice to a hardcore PC gamer, my Core 2 Duo T7200 laptop (2GHz/667MHz FSB/4MB cache) has been running 64-bit Vista for about six months without issues.
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My admittedly limited experience with Vista is that it will be a fine OS in a year or two when most of the games we play will have finally been properly adapted or are written specifically for it, but until then if you choose Vista prepare to have problems getting your CURRENT games to run. Just sayin'.
 


Thanee said:
The Business version has a few more options, which might come in handy in a few years, though, and I don't want to buy another OS then, like dual CPU support
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Just as an FYI, multiple physical CPU support is of very little value for all but a tiny handful of desktop users (those running some of the few applications that scale nearly perfectly with extra CPUs, and those running vast numbers of applications concurrently). Without radically changing how software is written, more than 4 cores on a desktop are going to be virtually useless, and quad-core CPUs are available now, so you don't need support for multiple physical CPUs to use them.

Me, I'm running Vista Ultimate @home because I've got an MSDN subscription.
 

Man in the Funny Hat said:
My admittedly limited experience with Vista is that it will be a fine OS in a year or two when most of the games we play will have finally been properly adapted or are written specifically for it, but until then if you choose Vista prepare to have problems getting your CURRENT games to run. Just sayin'.
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Possibly. But I play games on consoles, so this is a non-issue for me. Office 2007 works great, and with the approriate patches Visual Studio 2005 runs fine, and that's what's important.
 

Woah, Home doesn't support dual CPUs? It sounds like it doesn't support two physical processors, and most new computers are dual-core (one physical processor) at the moment. I'd really like some clarification there...
 

XCorvis said:
Woah, Home doesn't support dual CPUs? It sounds like it doesn't support two physical processors, and most new computers are dual-core (one physical processor) at the moment. I'd really like some clarification there...
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I think that's two seperate CPUs.

A new OS that doesn't support dual-core CPUs would be kinda silly these days.


@drothgery: Yeah, I know those aren't really useful right now... but who knows what comes in 2-3 years. And I do think Vista will stay around for a while.

Bye
Thanee
 

Intel will slash prices on July 22. Most noticeably Core 2 Quad Q6600 will be cut from $530 to $266. This is because AMD is releasing some new CPU:s, named "Phenom" in the third quarter, and Intels updated Core 2:s won't be released until the fourth quarter. Intel has been on the offensive the past 6-12 months with lots of price cuts to make life difficult for AMD, so this summer is indeed a really good time to upgrade. And the current DDR2 prices makes it that much sweeter. :)
 

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