Which version of windows vista should i buy?

dvdbunny · 28 Jul 2008 at 01:01

Hi guys,

I have been gaming on a windows xp home edition PC for a while now and now want to get windows vista. I heard that you can buy windows vista home premium with vista media center. Other people say the media center comes built into every vista, so which one has it?

Also what is better right now for gaming and watching movies, 32 bit or 64 bit?

thanks in advance

mysticsniper · 28 Jul 2008 at 01:05

Home Premium is the better valued one to buy. 32 or 64 bit depends on how much memory you will be using. 4GB and over its got to be 64 bit

dvdbunny · 28 Jul 2008 at 01:12

thanks for the reply, do you know if all version of vista have the media center built in?

I will be using only 2GB of ddr2 ram, as i only got places for two 1GB slots anyway.

mysticsniper · 28 Jul 2008 at 01:16

I would have thought so, not sure about the Business one. I have the Home Prem one and that does have the Media center

TheVoice · 28 Jul 2008 at 01:19

Home Premium and Ultimate have Media Centre, the rest don't.

nikebee · 28 Jul 2008 at 01:42

dvdbunny said:
thanks for the reply, do you know if all version of vista have the media center built in?

I will be using only 2GB of ddr2 ram, as i only got places for two 1GB slots anyway.

You'll only be looking at Home Premium or Ultimate editions in that case, as Home Basic and Business don't have Windows Media Centre.

In which case I'd say just go for Home Premium the very few extras that Ultimate contains simply isn't worth the money for home use IMO.

Glaucus · 28 Jul 2008 at 01:45

I would go for home premium 64bit as long as you can find drivers for all your hardware.
If you have a legit xp key look around for the upgrade version. It can be found for only a few £ more than oem. But gives you the freedom of a retail license.

dvdbunny · 28 Jul 2008 at 01:52

AcidHell2

I have a legit xp key, but i don't understand what you mean? Am I right in thinking that because I currently have XP + service pack 2 then i can upgrade to home premium 64 bit for a few pounds more. How does that work, do i buy it from Microsoft online and get to only pay a few pounds more because i have a XP key and then do i type that key in for the online store to recognize and then download it from Microsoft's servers, is that correct?

Also how many versions of vista are there, and what are there names?

many thanks in advance

Glaucus · 28 Jul 2008 at 02:08

dvdbunny said:
AcidHell2

I have a legit xp key, but i don't understand what you mean? Am I right in thinking that because I currently have XP + service pack 2 then i can upgrade to home premium 64 bit for a few pounds more. How does that work, do i buy it from Microsoft online and get to only pay a few pounds more because i have a XP key and then do i type that key in for the online store to recognize and then download it from Microsoft's servers, is that correct?

Also how many versions of vista are there, and what are there names?

many thanks in advance

It's a few pounds more than the oem version. you can get the upgrade version for between £50-109 depending where you look, this gives you the freedom to upgrade mobo without buying a new license. I understand that you don't need xp installed, you just type the xp license key in when it installs.

There's
Vista home basic (no media centre)
Vista home premium
Vista Business (no media centre)
Vista Ultimate (doesn't offer most users anything they need over home premium)

Retail version come with the 32bit disck, you then go to microsoft website and order the 64bit dvd which costs around £7 for postage.
Ultimate comes with both 32bit and 64bit dvds
Oem, your stuck with either 32bit or 64bit depending which you buy.

dvdbunny · 28 Jul 2008 at 02:18

Sorry for all the questions

what is oem, is that just the disc no manuals? But exactly the same as retail in terms of what's on the disc?

Also does the home premium allow you to boot from a new computers dvd drive that doesn't have a current operating system installed on it?

Also is it possible to connect one computer to another computer and then boot home premium onto the other computer through one of my computers? I ask because the PC i want to install vista on does not have a dvd drive only a cd drive.

Also do you really need service pack 1 for home premium 32 bit? what difference does it make.

I take it service pack 2 has not been released yet?

Again sorry for all the questions, it's just really confusing with all the different versions.

Many thanks in advance

Glaucus · 28 Jul 2008 at 02:24

dvdbunny said:
Sorry for all the questions

what is oem, is that just the disc no manuals? But exactly the same as retail in terms of what's on the disc?

Yes but it also has a limited license, if you change your mobo (other than a direct replacement due to hardware failure) you will have to buy a new copy.

dvdbunny said:
Also does the home premium allow you to boot from a new computers dvd drive that doesn't have a current operating system installed on it?

ALL version allow that, it's how you install a OS

dvdbunny said:
Also is it possible to connect one computer to another computer and then boot home premium onto the other computer through one of my computers? I ask because the PC i want to install vista on does not have a dvd drive only a cd drive.

No idea, you can always take the dvd drive out stick it in, install vista. Then put the dvd drive back in the other.

dvdbunny said:
Also do you really need service pack 1 for home premium 32 bit? what difference does it make.

it's best to get one which has the sp1 already on it, but it's not essential. You can download it for free and simply install it.

dvdbunny · 28 Jul 2008 at 02:32

Many thanks for your answers

so i can download the sp1 through the windows updater?

EDIT: Do you know if the dreamscene patch for home premium 32 bit works for SP1?

Also is SP1 working great and doesn't have any hardware driver issues for watching movies and playing games?

Glaucus · 28 Jul 2008 at 02:39

sp1 is great fixed many bugs. You shouldn't use a system without it.

IIRC Dreamscene is only available on ultimate which costs loads more.

dvdbunny · 28 Jul 2008 at 02:52

actually i have seen videos on youtube where they have a tutorial on how to get it running on home premium. I was just wondering if it works on SP1. But i wonder if that is legal anyway. I would rather stay legit.

EDIT: does dreamscene work on OEM versions?

nikebee · 28 Jul 2008 at 09:56

dvdbunny said:
actually i have seen videos on youtube where they have a tutorial on how to get it running on home premium. I was just wondering if it works on SP1. But i wonder if that is legal anyway. I would rather stay legit.

EDIT: does dreamscene work on OEM versions?

I would very seriously doubt that if you got Dreamscene to work on Home Premium that it would be anything but illegal.

Dreamscene is one of the features you pay more for Ultimate for is it not?

Burnsy2023 · 28 Jul 2008 at 12:42

AcidHell2 said:
I would go for home premium 64bit as long as you can find drivers for all your hardware.
If you have a legit xp key look around for the upgrade version. It can be found for only a few £ more than oem. But gives you the freedom of a retail license.

I'd just like to clarify something for you dude. The upgrade version does not necessarily give you the same freedoms that retail does. It is an extension of the rights that you get in the qualifying product to allow you to use a new version. So your rights are dependant on whether you upgraded from OEM or retail. If you upgraded from OEM you still wouldn't technically be able to replace the mobo as you wouldn't have a valid qualifying product. However, you would have effectively a Vista retail licence if you had an XP retail licence for example.

Burnsy

bledd · 28 Jul 2008 at 15:19

Dreamscene is buggy & cack anyway

Glaucus · 28 Jul 2008 at 16:14

Burnsy2023 said:
I'd just like to clarify something for you dude. The upgrade version does not necessarily give you the same freedoms that retail does. It is an extension of the rights that you get in the qualifying product to allow you to use a new version. So your rights are dependant on whether you upgraded from OEM or retail. If you upgraded from OEM you still wouldn't technically be able to replace the mobo as you wouldn't have a valid qualifying product. However, you would have effectively a Vista retail licence if you had an XP retail licence for example.

Burnsy

Thanks burnsy,never knew that.
If you typed in an xp oem, would you have to phone to activate. I know it would be against the eula. But it's good to know such things.

jas72 · 28 Jul 2008 at 16:22

I too am in the same boat

On this site Premium 64bit is a good 20% dearer than Basic for that you get a funky desktop (themes are freely available) and a media player (only useful if you have xbox 360 no?) otherwise you can get tversity for free.

If that's the only difference then I'd rather save 20% unless someone can come up with a more compelling reason to buy premium.

Glaucus · 28 Jul 2008 at 16:31

jas72 said:
I too am in the same boat

On this site Premium 64bit is a good 20% dearer than Basic for that you get a funky desktop (themes are freely available) and a media player (only useful if you have xbox 360 no?) otherwise you can get tversity for free.

No media centre is great and so useful, especially if you ever think you might rip your dvd's to hdd.

Look here for the difference, amount of ram and other stuff

http://cybernetnews.com/windows-vis...ic-home-premium-business-enterprise-ultimate/