Man of Honour
- Joined
- 5 Oct 2008
- Posts
- 9,007
- Location
- Kent
Hi all. After having Vista Business x64 installed on my main pc for over two weeks now and running as the default OS I thought I'd give my personal opinion on Vista. Not all I have to say is good, so if you are a vista fanboy who sees it as a totally angelic OS then don't bother posting. I won't listen to you. I have had enough of all those Vista worshippers blasting anyone who has problems in Vista. It works differently to previous Windows versions, so of course there will be problems, get over it. At the same time however, I don't want any vista haters to start slagging it off, unless backed with good reason 
Anyway, what I have noticed goes as follows.
1) Superfetch. Can be a bit annoying when the machine is left overnight, and it decides to make my hard disks tick all night. The computer is generally quite quiet, the hard disks aren't! It doesn't always do it though. It did it all of the first night that it was left, but hasn't seemed to do it since. However, does anyone know how to limit the times that Superfetch can sort the data on the hard drive, so it only does it at daytime for example?
2) Running Applications. Doesn't really do anything that XP didn't. It has DX10, but to be honest I have never actually seen any difference between dx10 and dx9. It runs fairly enough, but if anything XP 32 bit *seems* faster. Compatability isn't as bad as when I last tried the OS (pre-SP1 I admit), but there are a good few applications that still don't run very well. Old software is what normally has a problem though not more modern software, so for most users compatability won't be a problem.
3) Stability. So far this seems to be where Vista shines. It seems to be rock solid (more so than XP) and also copes far better with multiple applications. My multiple cores seem to be harnessed better as well.
4) Looks. It does look much nicer than XP and is more fun to use.
5) 64 bit vs 32 bit. 64 bit Vista all the way. It supports more memory than the 32 bit variant. It's apparently more stable.
Conclusion:
Vista is a nice OS and if you have a 64 bit capable CPU, and do not already have an OS, you should go for the 64 bit version. The 32 bit version really is a waste of time. If you have a 32 bit cpu or already have XP, stick with XP. It's still good by today's standards and on most computers will run faster.
They really shouldn't have made 32 bit vista, complete waste of time imo
Anyway, what I have noticed goes as follows.
1) Superfetch. Can be a bit annoying when the machine is left overnight, and it decides to make my hard disks tick all night. The computer is generally quite quiet, the hard disks aren't! It doesn't always do it though. It did it all of the first night that it was left, but hasn't seemed to do it since. However, does anyone know how to limit the times that Superfetch can sort the data on the hard drive, so it only does it at daytime for example?
2) Running Applications. Doesn't really do anything that XP didn't. It has DX10, but to be honest I have never actually seen any difference between dx10 and dx9. It runs fairly enough, but if anything XP 32 bit *seems* faster. Compatability isn't as bad as when I last tried the OS (pre-SP1 I admit), but there are a good few applications that still don't run very well. Old software is what normally has a problem though not more modern software, so for most users compatability won't be a problem.
3) Stability. So far this seems to be where Vista shines. It seems to be rock solid (more so than XP) and also copes far better with multiple applications. My multiple cores seem to be harnessed better as well.
4) Looks. It does look much nicer than XP and is more fun to use.
5) 64 bit vs 32 bit. 64 bit Vista all the way. It supports more memory than the 32 bit variant. It's apparently more stable.
Conclusion:
Vista is a nice OS and if you have a 64 bit capable CPU, and do not already have an OS, you should go for the 64 bit version. The 32 bit version really is a waste of time. If you have a 32 bit cpu or already have XP, stick with XP. It's still good by today's standards and on most computers will run faster.
They really shouldn't have made 32 bit vista, complete waste of time imo
