Vista Information
Windows Vista
Vista, has to be one of the most controversial Operating System releases in a long time. Many of the doubters are people with strong technical backgrounds, whilst the lovers are awe struck by the new interface.
Here is a little guide, to try and help you choose, whether or not to choose the Vista route.
The four main variations of Vista are:
Vista Basic
Vista Home Premium
Vista Business
Vista Ultimate Edition
Vista Basic
This is a stripped down, bare bones edition of the new OS. It doesn’t include the Aero Interface, Doesn’t include the Media Centre, so there really is no point in having this over XP.
Vista Home Premium
This is perfect for the digital home user. Including the intuitive Aero Interface with Windows Flip and Media Centre, it will probably fulfil a competent home users needs.
Vista Business
Business Edition is one of the first windows offerings suited specifically to business users. This includes certain things over and above Home Premium designed for better integration into small to medium sized businesses.
Vista Ultimate
Basic, Home Premium and Business rolled into one! If you want everything, then you want this edition of Windows Vista.
The Concerns…
The first point of concern is Microsoft’s recommended specifications. This is because Vista is an amazingly resource hungry piece of software, so you need the hardware to match.
Microsoft has outlined the following Minimum specification:
- 800 MHz processor and 512 MB of system memory
- 20 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space
- Support for Super VGA graphics
- CD-ROM drive
STOP! We think that you should completely forget the above specification, so don’t get any ideas…There are a number of things alarming about that specification. Firstly, you won’t get anywhere if you have only a CD-Rom drive, you’ll need to go to the Microsoft website, and order a special set of CDs, as Vista, is primarily sold on DVDs. The processor spec, system memory, hard drive size, is just not enough to get Vista moving, you’ll be so disappointed.
Microsoft then show us a ‘Recommended’ specification, which…just isn’t good enough either. Take this advice from experience; selling Vista Laptops and Computers, we know just how Vista loves system resources.
- 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
- 1 GB of system memory
- 40 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space
- Support for DirectX 9 graphics with:
WDDM Driver
128 MB of graphics memory (minimum)
Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware
32 bits per pixel
- DVD-Rom Drive
- Audio Output
- Internet access (fees may apply)
Those specifications aren’t all that much better than the ‘Minimum’ requirements. So it’s not really all that crazy to suggest you really do need something much better to run Vista smoothly.
Here is a breakdown of our ‘Minimum’ recommended specification:
- 1.8 GHz Dual Core processor (32-bit or 64-bit)
Dual Core processors are better at managing memory, plus can achieve far better, faster results.
- 2Gb system memory
Vista eats ram. As an example, one of our Acer Laptops, with only 1GB of ram, sitting on the desktop alone, sits with 55% used.. 2GB is the minimum that we would recommend.
- 160Gb hard drive with at least 40Gb free
Gigabytes are needed for Vista to pagefile and generally run smoothly. Bigger hard drives are relatively cheap nowadays, plus we’re sure you’ll want to save all you pictures, videos and music! Just imagine how quickly you’ll fill up a 40GB hard drive!
- Support for DirectX 9 graphics
DirectX 10 graphics cards are not quite up to scratch yet, whilst DirectX 9 cards are at their peak.
- Minimum of 256Mb of graphics memory
With a dedicated graphics card, you get dedicated graphics memory. This does all the fancy stuff, like Aero, Flip, Gaming, Photo Rendering etc. The more the better, so look out for GDDR2 or GDDR3 speed graphics ram. Once again, cards can be relatively cheap in relation to performance and gains, so why substitute for inferior products??
- Network support, Wired or Wireless
Wired provides a better connection, and at 100mb is a lot faster too. A Network socket, is vital for some broadband routers, or if you want to connect your PC and Notebook together for example. If you don’t want wires, then a Wireless card could be integrated into your machine.
- DVD-RW drive
You need a DVD drive to load the Vista DVD. We’re also pretty confident that you will want to save all your pictures onto a DVD so that you could play them back on your TV via a compatible DVD player!
- Audio Output
Pretty much speaks for itself, however HD is the next era in Audio for computer systems, so why not look out for that!
Broadband Internet
Does anybody still use dial-up? Yes, they do. Broadband has become cheap, it’s fast and you’ll love it. No waiting to dial up, No constant disconnecting and No waiting for ages for web pages to load. Updates for Windows products get bigger and more frequent, so you’ll need a decent connection, to stay up to date, with as little fuss as possible.
Brief Overview:
- 1.8 GHz Dual Core processor (32-bit or 64-bit)
- 2Gb system memory
- 160Gb hard drive with at least 40Gb free
- Support for DirectX 9 graphics
Minimum of 256Mb of graphics memory
- Network support, Wired or Wireless
- DVD-RW drive
- Audio Output
Vista is new, so not every program will work with it, nor will old peripherals such as printers, scanners etc. So be prepared to have to buy new ones of those too.
Some programs (Quite a lot actually) are incompatible. Although there is a compatibility mode to trick the program into thinking it’s running on a different OS, there are still programs that will refuse to run at all.
Just make sure you do your research and you’ll be fine. Don’t get sucked into buying something that is cheap, and below our recommended specification, as you won’t be getting what you want, and, need.