Want to get Vista; bit of a dilemma

TheVoice · 19 May 2007 at 14:26

Hi guys, hope you can help remove some of the confusion here and help me make the right decision.
I want to get Vista HP soon, partly so I know what's-what with the new OS, partly so I have something new to play with once I'm finished Uni for Summer (only a few days to go...), and partly because it's an inevitable transition anyway and I might as well be ready for it.

I had originally intended to get the OEM version, but this brings with it the issue that when I upgrade my system at a later date (possibly later this year or early next year), I void it.

An attractive alternative that I've recently found is the Educational Upgrade (retail) version. It works out at £48 incl. the Google Checkout £10 discount, which seems very reasonable to me. Also means that I would be able to change motherboards etc later on without worrying about Vista suddenly ceasing to work.

However, herein lies my problem. I'm reluctant to move completely to Vista. My PC isn't a powerhouse (Athlon64 X2 4600, 2GB of XMS RAM and an ATI 1800XT) so the drop in gaming performance when switching to Vista is going to be particularly noticeable to me (especially if I'm trying to run games at my LCD's native res - 1680x1050). That's why I'd prefer to do dual-boot install for a while, until Vista is nearer to XP's performance.

Now as I understand it, I could do a dual-boot with OEM, but not with the Upgrade version, correct? There's no way I can afford the Retail version of Vista HP so it looks like it's down to these two. Either way, I'm losing out somehow.

Anyone have any advice, or info that I may have got wrong/missed out, or am I just going to have to decide which path to take based on cost vs benefit?

Thanks a lot.

Burnsy2023 · 19 May 2007 at 16:37

TheVoice said:
Now as I understand it, I could do a dual-boot with OEM, but not with the Upgrade version, correct? There's no way I can afford the Retail version of Vista HP so it looks like it's down to these two. Either way, I'm losing out somehow.

Right I'm going to assume you have an XP OEM license, if I'm wrong correct me.

Firstly, you can't dual boot if you are going to use an upgrade version, but you can if you have an OEM version. But also, you will have the same restrictions on the upgrade version as you will on the OEM version because of the qualifying product. If you change the motherboard, then you'll void the XP OEM license and therefore won't have the right to use the upgrade.

If you can't afford the retail version, then either wait until you do a big upgrade and then get an OEM license or risk having to buy another license later on.

TBH, think whether you will benefit from a Vista upgrade and think whether you need it now, or if it's just a novelty.

Burnsy

marc2003 · 19 May 2007 at 17:06

TheVoice said:
My PC isn't a powerhouse (Athlon64 X2 4600, 2GB of XMS RAM and an ATI 1800XT)

god help the rest of us then.

gareth170 · 19 May 2007 at 17:23

TheVoice said:
However, herein lies my problem. I'm reluctant to move completely to Vista. My PC isn't a powerhouse (Athlon64 X2 4600, 2GB of XMS RAM and an ATI 1800XT) so the drop in gaming performance when switching to Vista is going to be particularly noticeable to me (especially if I'm trying to run games at my LCD's native res - 1680x1050). That's why I'd prefer to do dual-boot install for a while, until Vista is nearer to XP's performance.

u won't see a drop in performance. ati works great on vista.. i have similar specs as u. i have a 30" lcd monitor (2560x1600 Resolution) and the games still run fine..

TheVoice · 19 May 2007 at 17:37

Thanks Burnsy, that clears things up a bit. Yep, I do have XP OEM - should have mentioned that beforehand. I do want to switch to Vista but in all fairness, it's not an absolute requirement and I'm not gaining anything directly from doing it. But then, I doubt many people are.

marc2003 said:
god help the rest of us then.

Haha, sorry didn't mean it like that, but it's not much compared to a lot of the uber-rigs you see being discussed on these boards! Makes you forget that you actually have a nice machine sitting on/under/next to your desk.

iCraig · 19 May 2007 at 18:43

TheVoice said:
However, herein lies my problem. I'm reluctant to move completely to Vista. My PC isn't a powerhouse (Athlon64 X2 4600, 2GB of XMS RAM and an ATI 1800XT) so the drop in gaming performance when switching to Vista is going to be particularly noticeable to me (especially if I'm trying to run games at my LCD's native res - 1680x1050). That's why I'd prefer to do dual-boot install for a while, until Vista is nearer to XP's performance.

That specification is more than enough for Vista. Ultimate version ran smooth as silk on my PC (P4 3.06, 1GB DDR2, 7600GT)

It's not really going to be that noticeable. If your eye can tell the difference between 5-10fps then you should become a fighter pilot or something.

Tute · 20 May 2007 at 01:53

iCraig said:
That specification is more than enough for Vista. Ultimate version ran smooth as silk on my PC (P4 3.06, 1GB DDR2, 7600GT)

It's not really going to be that noticeable. If your eye can tell the difference between 5-10fps then you should become a fighter pilot or something.

I was going to say, that's a pretty mean PC even by today's standards - just because the 8800s are floating about doesn't mean the X1800s are bad cards, far from it in fact!

Plus Vista drivers for ATi are almost as good as the XP ones now, ATi have done an amazing job on them. Using the 7.4's here (latest version) with zero issues, no crashes, game bugs, lockups, nothing at all. :cool:

TheVoice · 20 May 2007 at 09:39

iCraig said:
That specification is more than enough for Vista. Ultimate version ran smooth as silk on my PC (P4 3.06, 1GB DDR2, 7600GT)

It's not really going to be that noticeable. If your eye can tell the difference between 5-10fps then you should become a fighter pilot or something.

Haha alright, it's just that 5-10FPS might mean the difference between 20fps and 30, which probably would be noticeable!

If the ATi drivers are looking pretty good though, then I Might just switch completely. There's nothing important that I can think of that'll stop working. Only app that springs to mind is my Abit motherboard's uGuru software probably won't work, so I won't be able to control fan speeds etc in Vista.

gareth170 · 20 May 2007 at 10:13

TheVoice said:
If the ATi drivers are looking pretty good though, then I Might just switch completely. There's nothing important that I can think of that'll stop working. Only app that springs to mind is my Abit motherboard's uGuru software probably won't work, so I won't be able to control fan speeds etc in Vista.

ATI drivers for vista are good...

speedfan works in vista and may work with your MB...

TheVoice · 20 May 2007 at 12:33

Thanks gareth. I'll give Speedfan a try at some point - my motherboard has a lot of fans (CPU fan, two 120mm case fans, and two small 40mm fans on the back panel for cooling the PWM/power thingies), so speedfan might get a bit confused. The BIOS has fan control options though so I'll see what I can do with that, it'll just be a shame to lose the ability to quickly change fan speeds/profiles with the front panel.

One more question I have: would I be eligible to get the 64-bit version of Vista if I get the Educational Upgrade? I've been reading a bit about the 64-bit version and it doesn't look like I'd lose anything (32-bit apps still run OK, I'm told), so as long as I can get appropriate drivers for my stuff, it'd be worthwhile, right? Is there any actual noticeable benefit in going with the 64-bit version?

Thanks for all the help guys.

gary996 · 20 May 2007 at 14:27

When i tried my version of Vista hp (upgrade) I quickly installed on a new hd i had. First I put xp pro on then vista. During the first stage of vista going on. It came up with a problem that it could not upgrade, so I let it go onto another partition. Then when it was all done it gave me the dual boot screen at the start up.