The Graduates

OK, I've lived with a 5 year old computer for a while, dealing with more lag than most have to handle. But after getting a Blue-screen CTD last night, I am realizing it is time to suck it up and get a new rig.

My question to all you computer savvy guru's: Should I get Vista, or Windows XP, both of which are offered from where I am going to order the computer (cyperpowerpc.com). I have heard of a lot of people not liking Vista (it is a memory hog and uses lots of your RAM, etc., etc.) But I have heard that it uses the RAM better than XP, so even if it is using 1G of your 4B of RAM, you are still better off than using XP. Being a complete idiot on computers, I just don't know. So...what is the consensus? Is Vista the suck as much as the whispers out there say it is? Or has it been worked on since by MS and works better now?? All opinions welcomed...thanks folks...

For one thing security-wise, a motherload of viruses already exist native to XP, but so far there is only a limited number for Vista.

On the other hand performance wise, I believe that XP is still better than Vista, and that you could tweak them further.

Personally, I still prefer XP over Vista.

Not that I've actually tried Mac or Unix OS's.

I've been using Vista for about a year and a half now and I think it's fantastic. It is very stable and has yet to crash on me. My drivers/hardware works great, system is stable, and everything runs as it should.

It does use a lot of memory and it's suppose to use memory better, but I can't verify if it uses memory better. On my laptop with my standard applications running (Eve, Word, Firefox, Thunderbird, anti-virus, random stuff), I'm usually using 1.2 GB out of 2 GB. But if you think about it, so what? If you have 4 GB of RAM, it's there to be used. Using 2 GB out of 4 GB is just as fast as using 0.5 GB out of 4 GB.

It also can be slow to boot and shutdown. But with the myriad of programs and utilities running, I can't say if it's Vista being slow or just having so many programs being slow. However, the sleep function works amazingly now. My laptop can go to sleep within 10 seconds and can return from sleep within 2. Because sleeping is so great, I probably only power cycle my computer about once a week or two.

I really don't get all the anti-hype that Vista receives.

Microsoft officially stopped selling Windows XP on June 30th.

So your days of buying a PC with XP are numbered.

Hmm, two different opinions so far.

Another plus, I believe DirectX10 (or whatever that is called) is only for Vista? Was thinking of buying Chrysis, which I hear looks great under Dx10.

I believe cyberpowerpc mentioned something on their site about continuing to offer XP because so many customers really do NOT want Vista. But you are right Ronan, sooner or later...

But that is another of my concerns with Vista. It seems MS puts out one crap OS that nobody likes, then the next one is better and/or gets more acceptance...then a new crap one comes out and the cycle continues. And I've heard from an IT friend of mine that MS is working on the next OS after Vista and it is suppossed to rock, and should be out in only a couple years? So if that is the case, I'm more tempted to stay with what works on this rig, skip Vista, and wait for the next OS to roll out hoping MS has made a better product this time. But then again, Dx10, the point about new viruses for Vista are rare still, etc....God what a pain in the ass it this all is for a computer ignoramus like myself.

If you're getting a new computer, I'd say go with Vista.

Dunno if its required but get alot of ram, 4 Gb. Heard its almost a must to have over 2Gb for everything to run smoth.
I my self got 4 and no problems with vista so far.

+1 for the Vista on 4GB and no issues-crowd.

Thanks folks...and yes, was DEFINITELY going with 4G of RAM, whether or not I'm doing Vista...

You need 64bit system with Vista64 to use more than 3GB of Ram. If you run a 32bit system and having 4GB ram or more, then it will only use around 3.2GB. Consider that also

Ghan Tylous wrote:You need 64bit system with Vista64 to use more than 3GB of Ram. If you run a 32bit system and having 4GB ram or more, then it will only use around 3.2GB. Consider that also

Aww yea forgot about that, i myself got the 32-bit version and then had to get the 64-bit one sent from microsoft in germany (live in sweden).
It was free exept the for the 10 euro mail fee, BUT it took freaking 3 weeks!

Ghan Tylous wrote:You need 64bit system with Vista64 to use more than 3GB of Ram. If you run a 32bit system and having 4GB ram or more, then it will only use around 3.2GB. Consider that also

Is that including what is being used for Vista itself, since there should only be about 3GB left over after Vista anyways? What about XP, will it not be using the full 4GB of RAM either? God I hate this stuff, why can't it be easy???

I don't know the specifics, but from a technical standpoint, 32-bit XP should only be able to handle the same amount of RAM as 32-bit Vista can. From googling around, the upper limit seems to be about 3.2 GB RAM.

Will programs/games that are designed for good-ole' regular 16-bit Windows XP work on a 32-bit OS like Vista?

Highly depends on the program. For the most part, I would say yes.

MS has gone to great lengths to try have as many programs backwards compatible.