Which Vista?

TonyC · 23 Jul 2007 at 13:35

I've been holding off on "upgrading" to Vista, as I wanted to see it settle. Not sure if it is the right time - what is the general opinion?

I use my pc for 2 things -

By day I am a web designer with numerous apps open at any one time. An example would be - Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Illustrator, Cuteftp, Outlook, IE and FF.

By night I have been known to play games.

My system is pretty new:
Intel Core 2 6600 @ 2.4Ghz
3 Ghz, 2GB Ram
Geforce 8800 GTX

I'm interested in going to Vista, and possibly to create a dual boot set up (XP Vista) but have the following questions:

1. Pros and Cons of Vista when run as work and as play.
2. Which Vista Version, Home or Expert, normal or 64?
3. If 64, is that because my cpu can cope with it? Are there increased software or hardware compatibility problems with the 64 version, or is it just a case of getting the one that matches your hardware?

Look forward to your comments,
Tony

iCraig · 23 Jul 2007 at 13:39

If XP does everything you need already, there's no real reason to upgrade.

TonyC · 23 Jul 2007 at 13:55

Really?

I thought Vista offered increased user experience, performance and DX10 for games?!

Memphis · 23 Jul 2007 at 13:57

TonyC said:
I thought Vista offered increased user experience, performance and DX10 for games?!

Not yet.

iCraig · 23 Jul 2007 at 14:01

Performance is debatable. Some benchmarks show XP as a better OS for games, whereas some show no difference.

Direct X 10 isn't anything special yet.

I don't know what increased user experience is. XP is easy to use, looks decent and has plenty of features and is a very compatible platform for third party enhancements, which allow you to customize and tweak the GUI. Apart from wishy washy effects and a pretty but pointless flip3D, I don't see what Vista offers over XP that's worth forking out and swapping the OS for.

Participant · 23 Jul 2007 at 14:03

Very soon all these XP lovers will realise that they're missing DX10 and that (at least when SP1 comes out for Vista shortly) Vista is actually a better OS than XP.

My only advice is that you should get Vista Ultimate x64 asap, but be prepared to have to upgrade some of your developer applications for compatibility.

iCraig · 23 Jul 2007 at 14:06

Robbie G said:
Very soon all these XP lovers will realise that they're missing DX10 and that (at least when SP1 comes out for Vista shortly) Vista is actually a better OS than XP.

Vista has the potential to be a better OS than XP, and will undoubtedly become one. But for now XP can do the same as Vista essentially, and is more compatible with third party software and applications. It's logical to stick with XP for now.

UniqueID · 23 Jul 2007 at 16:36

no games can really use dx10 as far as i know, and it'll take a while for game developers to catch up anyway, IF the PC games market ever takes off again.

Pukk@pie · 24 Jul 2007 at 09:36

I took the plunge and upgraded last week to Vista Home Ultimate 64bit, looks great, some nice new features and all my existing games have worked without a hitch.

Games i play:
Eve online
FM07
Civ IV
Counterstrike
Call of Duty 2

lazarus · 24 Jul 2007 at 11:58

I just got vista64 premium pre-installed with a new machine after using XP for years. It's not all that bad or different from XP apart from sometimes IE7 suddenly show up with a error message that IE7 has stopped working. I don't know what causes it but after a restart it's sorted. A pain in the butt at times, one day when I have plenty of spare time I might just reformat/install the os myself.

Only advice I would give is make sure you can get 64 bit drivers for you bits and pieces of hardware before deciding to buy vista 64 and check your much needed software is going to work on it. Even my new motherboard needed updated drivers cos the cd supplied with it was for 32 bit, also I ended up buying a modem/router cos my old D-Link 200 adsl modem would not work and there were no 64 bit drivers for it.

I did see a list of software somewhere that works without any problems on vista 64 , unfortunately I can't remember where.

1337z0r · 24 Jul 2007 at 14:18

Vista could be a better OS than XP yes, but anytime soon no. XP has everything everyone needs accept DX10. I hope when SP1 is out that they fix a lot of thing's in it. I dual boot XP and Vista now and I prefer XP a lot more.

Final8y · 24 Jul 2007 at 14:30

1337z0r said:
Vista could be a better OS than XP yes, but anytime soon no. XP has everything everyone needs accept DX10. I hope when SP1 is out that they fix a lot of thing's in it. I dual boot XP and Vista now and I prefer XP a lot more.

I find it highly annoying when people think they can speak for me.
I will never go back to xp for anything and i don't own a DX10 card.
So maybe XP have everything you need & more but it certainly does not for me.

iCraig · 24 Jul 2007 at 14:31

Final8y said:
I find it highly annoying when people think they can speak for me.
I will never go back to xp for anything and i don't own a DX10 card.
So maybe XP have everything you need & more but it certainly does not for me.

Out of interest, what does Vista allow you to do that XP cannot?

Final8y · 24 Jul 2007 at 14:37

iCraig said:
Out of interest, what does Vista allow you to do that XP cannot?

There are lots of examples on the OcUK forums of what some of the features/things Vista can do out of the box which requires lots of 3rd party SoftWare & hacks/patches to get the same function from XP which i don't like doing.
Also its not always about what can be done but how you have to go about doing it.

iCraig · 24 Jul 2007 at 14:41

Surely you can summarise and list a few things Vista can do, that XP cannot? Seeing as you said Vista does things for you that XP can't, you must have some examples

UniqueID · 24 Jul 2007 at 15:18

Surely you can summarise and list a few things Vista can do, that XP cannot? Seeing as you said Vista does things for you that XP can't, you must have some examples

erm.. its erm.. better? shinier? i dunno ask me the next time vista demands me for critical updates, i'm too busy trying to authenticate my non-vista drivers..

Final8y · 24 Jul 2007 at 17:15

iCraig said:
Surely you can summarise and list a few things Vista can do, that XP cannot? Seeing as you said Vista does things for you that XP can't, you must have some examples

Im not going to repeat what has been said before already in these forums.
Use the search feature.

snowdog · 24 Jul 2007 at 17:26

iCraig said:
Out of interest, what does Vista allow you to do that XP cannot?

Speed, xp is damn slow in normall windows usage compared to vista, it can't use ram as it should.
Stuff like media players, folders, ectetc start a lot faster than in xp, infact they start intstantly, while in xp, it takes upto 5 seconds sometimes in big folders, wich for me, is highly annoying...
For me superfetch alone is a massive reason to just go vista, xp is just too stupid to use RAM.

Burnsy2023 · 24 Jul 2007 at 17:50

Better multimedia experience with better task scheduling, better I/O priortising and a lot more. It's a lot better at doing core OS functions.

Burnsy

iCraig · 24 Jul 2007 at 18:30

Final8y said:
Im not going to repeat what has been said before already in these forums.
Use the search feature.

So you can't actually think of a unique positive aspect of Vista, despite you saying that Vista didn't certain things for you that XP cannot ? I see.

The reason I ask is because I haven't come across anything so far which Vista has that XP doesn't or isn't capable of having. Sure, Vista looks nicer and has a few nifty things, but worth the money over XP? Not yet IMO.