New Vostro, should I get xp or vista business?

Tar.Aldarion

Opinions?

MrVostro

Anyone i know uninstalled vista and went with XP on new laptops and PCs.

And they are all in IT.

Vista is a dog of an OS.

majiktripp

X...P... All the way.
You can always upgrade easily if you so wish , downgrading (driver and hardware compatibility) can cause issues sometimes.

Black Swan

Hi Tar!
It really depends on your rig's capacity? MS says 1 gig memory is enough, but that's bull, cause it slows your machine down (or so say friends of mine). I run Vista Ultimate on 2 gigs and I hardly know its there except at bootup.

I've been running Vista since February 2007, and at first it was a real pain, with a lot of patches, updates, and a couple of crashes. Have not had any OS system problems in recent months. Aside from memory requirements, the real problem seems to exist with apps you were accustomed to use with XP2. There are compatibility problems with many programmes, and that's changing very slowly.

On the otherhand, new apps designed with Vista in mind may run fine; i.e., I ran VB2005 on XP2 and occasionally had problems, while VB2008 runs clean and fast on Vista.

In the short term a lot of users will recommend XP2, but it is questionable how long MS will support XP2 (with any enthusiasm posing OS security problems), cause they want users to move to Vista. Sure, you can buy XP2 now, but then you will have to buy Vista later (additional cost).

If you walk through the major electronic retail chains in the USA (Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, Office Depot, Office Max, Fry's), it's hard to find a computer without Vista preinstalled. XP2's are normally close-outs and sold at a discount while they last. You can still order XP2's on custom order machines like Dell, but USA retailer's typically don't carry them anymore on their shelves. So the trend is away from XP2.

kaimera

Personally, I have no probs at all with Vista Bus on my vostro. Runs great, no compatibility issues [well, since a gpu driver update on day2].

Get it with Vista, try it out; you can always install xp if ya don't like it.

kaizersoze

Get it with Vista business and if you don't like it, the licence also entitles you to downgrade to XP Pro. Best of both worlds.

http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PageIndex=4&SiteID=17&PageID=4&PostID=2781666

Personally I have and never had any problem with Vista.

Tar.Aldarion

Thanks guys. I rang my gf this morning to read these replies out to me when I was in bed and then order the laptop. :P
I sent away my old laptop to be fixed and since that has xp on it that will be a back up in case my project and compilers don't work etc.
I worked on all the flavours of Vista for a company for 3 months and I know how slow it is to upgrade software, and there will be a lot of bugs. Something that also swayed me is that I have heard there is now a program that strips away a lot of unnecessary stuff out of vista and makes it use less space and RAM, if I need that.

I heard downgrading is hard but it's good to know that I get an XP Pro licence too.


As for ram, it is coming with 1x1024 and 1x2048, I take it this means that ddr2 will not worka dn that I should sell the 1gig and buy another 2 gig?


Thanks!

AlmightyCushion

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

As for ram, it is coming with 1x1024 and 1x2048, I take it this means that ddr2 will not worka dn that I should sell the 1gig and buy another 2 gig?

Yeah that would be the best thing to do. Shop4memory have a 2GB stick for around €50/60. Do you have a link for that tool that will strip things out of vista?

majiktripp

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Do you have a link for that tool that will strip things out of vista?

Here ya go
http://www.vlite.net/about.html
Replaces XP's nlite tool.

Tar.Aldarion

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Yeah that would be the best thing to do. Shop4memory have a 2GB stick for around €50/60. Do you have a link for that tool that will strip things out of vista?

Do tehy ship from Ireland or America? I get redirected to .com.
Maybe komplett would be better if it is america?

How much could I get for the gig, like 20 or 30e?

kaizersoze

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

Do tehy ship from Ireland or America? I get redirected to .com.
Maybe komplett would be better if it is america?

How much could I get for the gig, like 20 or 30e?

They ship from Kildare. '.com' is their correct address.

Rowley Birkin QC

Ive been thinking of doint that with the memory too,a mate is looking for a 1gb stick too so its all good.

Can someone point me to where I would get a 2gig stick to replace the 1024 stick.

Its a vostro 1700 running vista. Im not up to speed with DDR and all that so which one should I get?

Cheers.

Soundman

bigkev49 wrote: »

Ive been thinking of doint that with the memory too,a mate is looking for a 1gb stick too so its all good.

Can someone point me to where I would get a 2gig stick to replace the 1024 stick.

Its a vostro 1700 running vista. Im not up to speed with DDR and all that so which one should I get?

Cheers.

Depends on whether you have another stick in the laptop besides that 1GB stick you are looking to get rid of.

If there is no other stick then go for either of these but if there is anotehr one then go for the one that has the same speed and specs as the one in your laptop:

http://www.crucial.com/eu/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=E73DB1EEA5CA7304

http://www.crucial.com/eu/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=E4F0247FA5CA7304

Rowley Birkin QC

Sorry theres 3gb RAM total, 1x2048 and 1x1024 and it can take a maximum of 4gb.

A mate is looking to buy a 1024 stick so I thought I may as well upgrade it.

Tar.Aldarion

So what is the ram you get with a vostro? Any link to a 2gig stick of it? :P

Soundman

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

So what is the ram you get with a vostro? Any link to a 2gig stick of it? :P

Check my post a couple before yours. Those are for the Vostro 1700 though.

kaimera

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

So what is the ram you get with a vostro? Any link to a 2gig stick of it? :P

crucial.com wrote:

Each memory slot can hold DDR2 PC2-6400,DDR2 PC2-5300 with a maximum of 2GB per slot

For the vostro1500.

shop4memory have free shipping [and lifetime warrenty] so check prices on both them & crucial.com

Krsnik87

Read this on the Dell Forums... Looks like runs in DDR2 perfectly, the first 2 gb anyway. The upgrade to 4GB is still worth it for the price...

"Starting with the Intel 965 chipset, there is a new flex mode that allows asychronous memory to operate in dual channel mode up to the level of the smallest module on the bus. In this case of a 1 GB and a 2 GB chip, the full 1 GB of the 1 GB chip and the first 1 GB of the 2 GB chip will operate in dual channel mode. The last 1 GB of the 2 GB chip will be single channel.

I would not worry about the insignificant speed loss on the remaining GB at that point. You are still better with that extra GB in most situations. The only time you will ever be able to notice that speed difference is with artificial testing programs like SiSoft."

Tar.Aldarion

kaimera wrote: »

For the vostro1500.

shop4memory have free shipping [and lifetime warrenty] so check prices on both them & crucial.com

Cool thanks, I'll have a look.

sweetie

I'm thinking of installing XP on my new dell 1721. I find web browsing and even using windows media player is really slow. Is it recommended to completely remove vista or can I install XP alongside it (dualboot.)

thanks