Let's face it, Windows Vista has caused some people headaches. Vista, like all Microsoft releases, has been met with varying reviews. People like XP, or so they say. I can remember when Windows XP was first being introduced. People who were running Windows 98 were happy with it. They didn't want a new operating system. Change is a scary thing. But, as we all know, change is inevitable, especially when it comes to technology. As a Dell Certified Technician I have no choice in what a new system is running, and have to deal with it. Believe me, I have done a lot of jobs for Dell clients that involved nothing more than installing the latest Vista Drivers to make such-and-such device work with their new system.
Let's examine the trend of change a little bit. When Windows XP replaced Windows 98 there were critics. Theses critics said XP is fancy looking, but it's a memory hog. It doesn't recognize older hardware drivers well. Some of the old programs don't work with it. The interface has changed and it's harder to find things. It's not secure enough, hackers could get into it. They integrated Internet Explorer into the shell, and maybe we don't like that. Anybody reading this might remember hearing or reading some of these comments. Now, like dj vu, I am hearing the same things all over.
Not that what is being said is not true. It might be true for today, but not tomorrow. After all XP "was" a memory hog by the standards of the day...but by today's standard it isn't even close. Now systems are being built with 2 gig's as a standard with support for 16 gig's. That's a lot of memory. Sure Vista doesn't like to run with less than 1 gigabyte of memory, but it does run well when it has memory to spare. With the prices of memory today, adding a little more is not a problem. Sure people with single core 32 bit systems are finding Vista troublesome. Try running it on a dual core system with 2 gigabytes of memory. And don't get the 32 bit version of Vista (which unfortunately most big companies bundle with new systems), run the 64 bit version. Believe me a 2 GHz+ system in that configuration is FAST!
Recently I built a system for a client. They were happy with what they had, but some of the new applications (and yes games) that they wanted to run were really bogging down the system performance. Especially when they were trying to use Norton Internet Security 2008, which caused so much drag on resources that start-up times were around 3 minutes. This system was a Gateway P4 1.5 GHz with 512 MB of Ram, 80 GB ATA 100 Western Digital Hard Drive, and onboard Intel video. It was running XP professional. Sure it ran smooth and worked pretty well. Despite being 6 years old, the only thing that had ever gone south in the system was the 80 watt power supply. I of course upgraded it in 2004 to a CoolMax 500 Watt for less than $80 with install. That same power supply is still running today in another system. They asked If I could upgrade the Gateway. I asked what they had paid for it in 2001. The answer $1200. My answer, let the kids have it and let me build you a new one for under $1000. To save some money I built the system with these.
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+ 2.8GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor
ASUS M2N-SLI ATX AMD Motherboard
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Memory
MSI Radeon HD 2600PRO RX2600Pro-T2D512E 512MB Video Card
Seagate 320GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
ASUS 20X DVDR DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model DRW-2014L1T
RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-530SS 530W Modular LED Power Supply
Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop 4000 Keyboard and Mouse
Cyber Acoustics CA4400WB 4.1 Black Speakers
RAIDMAX SMILODON Extreme Black ATX-612WEB Case
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit
Needless to say, the system was FAST. Even With Norton Internet Security running it didn't skip a beat. After running on that 1.5Ghz p4 for 6 years he was amazed at the speed of it. His main complaint - the menus popped up too fast, and that he would now have to learn Vista. I explained that that might be true, but this was what Vista was made for. After showing him how to use some of the unique new features of Vista he began to become impressed, and he couldn't argue with how the system handled with it installed. Now he has trouble keeping the kids off of it, because they want to play Crysis.
Let's examine the trend of change a little bit. When Windows XP replaced Windows 98 there were critics. Theses critics said XP is fancy looking, but it's a memory hog. It doesn't recognize older hardware drivers well. Some of the old programs don't work with it. The interface has changed and it's harder to find things. It's not secure enough, hackers could get into it. They integrated Internet Explorer into the shell, and maybe we don't like that. Anybody reading this might remember hearing or reading some of these comments. Now, like dj vu, I am hearing the same things all over.
Not that what is being said is not true. It might be true for today, but not tomorrow. After all XP "was" a memory hog by the standards of the day...but by today's standard it isn't even close. Now systems are being built with 2 gig's as a standard with support for 16 gig's. That's a lot of memory. Sure Vista doesn't like to run with less than 1 gigabyte of memory, but it does run well when it has memory to spare. With the prices of memory today, adding a little more is not a problem. Sure people with single core 32 bit systems are finding Vista troublesome. Try running it on a dual core system with 2 gigabytes of memory. And don't get the 32 bit version of Vista (which unfortunately most big companies bundle with new systems), run the 64 bit version. Believe me a 2 GHz+ system in that configuration is FAST!
Recently I built a system for a client. They were happy with what they had, but some of the new applications (and yes games) that they wanted to run were really bogging down the system performance. Especially when they were trying to use Norton Internet Security 2008, which caused so much drag on resources that start-up times were around 3 minutes. This system was a Gateway P4 1.5 GHz with 512 MB of Ram, 80 GB ATA 100 Western Digital Hard Drive, and onboard Intel video. It was running XP professional. Sure it ran smooth and worked pretty well. Despite being 6 years old, the only thing that had ever gone south in the system was the 80 watt power supply. I of course upgraded it in 2004 to a CoolMax 500 Watt for less than $80 with install. That same power supply is still running today in another system. They asked If I could upgrade the Gateway. I asked what they had paid for it in 2001. The answer $1200. My answer, let the kids have it and let me build you a new one for under $1000. To save some money I built the system with these.
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+ 2.8GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor
ASUS M2N-SLI ATX AMD Motherboard
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Memory
MSI Radeon HD 2600PRO RX2600Pro-T2D512E 512MB Video Card
Seagate 320GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
ASUS 20X DVDR DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model DRW-2014L1T
RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-530SS 530W Modular LED Power Supply
Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop 4000 Keyboard and Mouse
Cyber Acoustics CA4400WB 4.1 Black Speakers
RAIDMAX SMILODON Extreme Black ATX-612WEB Case
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit
Needless to say, the system was FAST. Even With Norton Internet Security running it didn't skip a beat. After running on that 1.5Ghz p4 for 6 years he was amazed at the speed of it. His main complaint - the menus popped up too fast, and that he would now have to learn Vista. I explained that that might be true, but this was what Vista was made for. After showing him how to use some of the unique new features of Vista he began to become impressed, and he couldn't argue with how the system handled with it installed. Now he has trouble keeping the kids off of it, because they want to play Crysis.