Buying Vista? Get a guarantee

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It's not THAT bad!

For most people, you can look at Microsoft's basic requirements and get a pretty good idea. If you meet Microsoft's guidelines, Vista WILL run and, since most people own Windows XP Home Vista Basic is the right choice for you. Running the Assessment tool from Microsoft (or anybody else) will tell you if your graphics card is good enough for AERO -- and it provides links to the major graphics card suppliers if it is not.

Having (or being willing to buy and install) an AERO-capable graphics card needs to be the deciding facotr on whether to get Vista Home Premium instead.

Check your hardware vendor's web site for Vista drivers, or BIOS upgrades. Most of the time you won't need them but if you do, it's best to have them. You might need to visit your graphics, sound, and wireless card vendors for drivers as well. (I didn't need to with my six-year-old Dell Dimension 4100 but I did with my 18-month-old Dell Optiplex GX280!)

Some guidelines:

(0) There is NO COMPELLING REASON for any end-user to go out and upgrade to Vista just because it is there! The improvements are real but if XP has been serving you well, it will continue to do so through 2014. Wait until you buy a new computer wiht Vista pre-loaded.

1) Vista Ultimate offers the typical user NOTHING that they cannot get from Vista Home Premium. Unless you are a hard-core geek (you know who you are), you do not need Ultimate. And, if you DO NEED Ultimate, unless you bought your computing with Vista in mind, you will need to add hardware -- I promise.

2) If you are not comfortable with upgrading your OS, don't do it! Even though Vista's upgrade is dramatically simpler than in the past, the uninitiated should not try it on old hardware. (Brand-new Vista-Ready hardware with an upgrade coupon is a different story.)

3) 512MB is NOT enough RAM! It will work but it will take many MINUTES to boot up and load its cache. 1GB is good, 2GB is better. Past that, how much any additional memory buys you is not at all clear unless your applications are VERY DEMANDING.

4) Dual channel memory and a dual core processor (Pentium 4 w/ HT or better) makes a noticeable difference.

5) ReadyBoost works only with USB 2.0 and only with SOME flash memory. Until "certified" flash memory is available, this is a crapshoot.

6) Keep in mind that you could easily spend $250 (or more) to bring an out-of-warranty machine up to spec to meet Vista Premium-ready standards -- and you still have an out-of-warranty machine that could fail any day. It might be smarter to spend $500 on a brand new machine than $250 on upgrades for an out-of--warranty machine!

Posted by: mwagner@...   Posted on: 01/29/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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