new OS suggestions?

Badger_grr · 24 Apr 2008 at 14:19

Hey guys, I got fed up with xp and decided to install vista ultimate32bit however the performance is quite shocking really. Im wondering if its due to only having 2gb of ram but it always seems to freeze and stop responding when doing basic things. Would another 2gb of ram help? Or should I look to another OS.

The machine is used predominately for media, downloading and browsing the net and some autocad, 3dstudiomax and some media encoding. Dont really play games so Im wondering if theres a better OS out there that can handle most of the above stated. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Burnsy2023 · 24 Apr 2008 at 14:31

It should run fine on 2GB. Do you have any problems with your RAM or HDD? Memtest and chkdsk methinks

Burnsy

TheVoice · 24 Apr 2008 at 14:33

As said, 2GB is plenty for Vista, you shouldn't be experiencing performance issues. Are you using the latest/most stable drivers for your hardware? A lot of people seem to just sit with the generic Vista drivers which, although providing good functionality, aren't going to be as stable or up-to-date as the proper drivers.

bledd · 24 Apr 2008 at 14:35

windows update yourself (might take a few times to get all updates)

disable defender real-time scanning, don't install av, and use tweakuac to stop the annoying nature of the uac warnings (don't disable it, just silence it), disable system restore

^i wouldn't agree that it's 'plenty' 2gb in vista is like 512mb in xp, double the ram and you'll get a very nice boost

TheVoice · 24 Apr 2008 at 14:39

I'm running my laptop on 2GB and it's perfectly smooth. Also had my desktop on 2GB until recently and it never showed any performance issues at all. Adding another 2GB (to get 3.2GB due to 32-bit) has made no particularly noticeable difference whatsoever, as far as general usage is concerned.

More RAM is of course nice (and easily affordable) for more demanding purposes like gaming etc, but 2GB certainly seems plenty for 'normal' usage (whatever that may be!).

SiHH · 24 Apr 2008 at 14:45

Why did you get fed up of XP out of interest ?

Badger_grr · 24 Apr 2008 at 15:01

i dunno really i spose i just got bored of it and wanted to try something new. Even though i had bare virus and spyware protection it used to still get so many popups and spyware. Moved to vista coz it was spose to have better security and i liked the style of it. Im sure 4gb of ram would help on the autocad/3dstudio side of things but yea i thought 2gb was enough for vista.

Gonna do some disk and mem checks, see what shows up. What are the best programs to use for doing so?

1337z0r · 24 Apr 2008 at 15:13

Try and get 4GB I notice my system slowing down with only 2GB. Make sure you get 64bit though apparently it is a lot faster than 32bit, I have not noticed the difference yet though maybe because I only have 2GB of ram.

bledd · 24 Apr 2008 at 15:17

spyware & popups are from user habits only

install..

spybot s&d, update, immunize
spywareblaster, update, immuzine

firefox, with adblock plus and easylist subscription

scooby555t · 24 Apr 2008 at 15:20

running vista 32 2gb or ram and everythin is spot on

Ethics · 24 Apr 2008 at 15:25

If you don't game why don't you try a Linux distro?

I'm sure you could get better performance and it's multimedia functionality is amazing.

Bit of a learnign curve though.

Oops, will be a problem wit hautocad and 3D MAX unless you run the windows versions in it

uv · 24 Apr 2008 at 15:56

Badger_grr said:
Even though i had bare virus and spyware protection it used to still get so many popups and spyware.

That's your fault, not the OS's

Stop downloading pr0n, smileys, keygens and screensavers, and watch your computer miraculously work perfectly without any AV or spyware protection

Sul · 24 Apr 2008 at 15:59

1337z0r said:
Try and get 4GB I notice my system slowing down with only 2GB. Make sure you get 64bit though apparently it is a lot faster than 32bit, I have not noticed the difference yet though maybe because I only have 2GB of ram.

Out of interest, does 64 bit really make much of a difference at the moment when most applications are still 32 bit?

Badger_grr · 24 Apr 2008 at 16:09

uvmain said:
That's your fault, not the OS's

Stop downloading pr0n, smileys, keygens and screensavers, and watch your computer miraculously work perfectly without any AV or spyware protection

Dont download any of that sort of stuff and i only use clean torrents for downloads.

Badger_grr · 24 Apr 2008 at 16:11

Ethics said:
If you don't game why don't you try a Linux distro?

I'm sure you could get better performance and it's multimedia functionality is amazing.

Bit of a learnign curve though.

Oops, will be a problem wit hautocad and 3D MAX unless you run the windows versions in it

do you mean dual boot and just run those programs in standard windows?

i will look into this linux distro.

thanks

uv · 24 Apr 2008 at 16:12

Badger_grr said:
Dont download any of that sort of stuff and i only use clean torrents for downloads.

Of course you do. You don't even need to be connected to the internet, it's all the spyware fairy's fault!

Badger_grr · 24 Apr 2008 at 16:16

uvmain said:
Of course you do. You don't even need to be connected to the internet, it's all the spyware fairy's fault!

odd

Ethics · 24 Apr 2008 at 16:34

uvmain said:
Of course you do. You don't even need to be connected to the internet, it's all the spyware fairy's fault!

You seem awfully confident of his habbits...

Who knows who he shares a house with, or where they come from.

No protection is just stupid, there was a big thread on it a while ago, and a story recently of a domain getting re-registered with a porn site and legit banners, to a legit site were now full of all sorts of nastiness. Just because you don't visit such things is no excuse, nor is your idiocy in believing yourself above it all. Everyone connected to the internet should show responsibility for protecting themselves and others.

*No personal attacks*

Yeah dual boot is one option, the other is to use a program like WINE to run it in a layer ontop of the distro, people have mixed success with it though.

uv · 24 Apr 2008 at 16:40

Ethics said:
You seem awfully confident of his habbits...

lol, cheers..

I wasn't stating that I knew which sites he visited, or that he needed no protection. My first post stated that getting spyware and virii is not the fault of the OS, but the user.

I'm fairly sure MS didn't write code into XP specifically to find, download and install spyware

Feel free to prove me wrong though!

*edit* And you might want to remove the sweary, this is a family forum

Badger_grr · 24 Apr 2008 at 16:50

Ethics said:
You seem awfully confident of his habbits...

Who knows who he shares a house with, or where they come from.

No protection is just stupid, there was a big thread on it a while ago, and a story recently of a domain getting re-registered with a porn site and legit banners, to a legit site were now full of all sorts of nastiness. Just because you don't visit such things is no excuse, nor is your idiocy in believing yourself above it all. Everyone connected to the internet should show responsibility for protecting themselves and others.

No offense, you just come across as a bit of a *No personal attacks*.

Yeah dual boot is one option, the other is to use a program like WINE to run it in a layer ontop of the distro, people have mixed success with it though.

agreed, I happen to share a house with 3 other lads from uni, who frequently use my pc so could be a load of complete crap on here ha. Anyways cheers mate, I will have to have a look into all this.
Lets stop talkng about spyware as the original reason for this post was nothing to do with it however I don't believe my user habits have changed and since moving to vista I've noticed a massive decrease in spyware and pop ups and whatnot and I only know my experience, not shoulds and shouldn'ts.