vista home basic or vista home premium

[keakar]

ok now that many of you have been using vista for a little while im hoping you can give me an opinion on what premium has that basic doesnt. in other words if you buy basic you dont get x, y, or z. please can you give a better descrption of what you mean than just saying "no eye candy" which is the only answer i got last month when i asked this same question. here is what microsoft has to say about it:

Windows Vista Home Premium is the operating system for homes with advanced computer needs.

Windows Vista Home Basic is for homes with basic computing needs.

but it is never made any clearer than that. so what am i really missing if i get basic instead of premium?

ps - this will be for a new Q6600 build not my old system shown in the specs

[Hawk1]

Go here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/choose.mspx?wt_svl=10033VHa1&mg_id=10033VHb1

[stordoff]

I'm almost certain that Home Basic has no aero functions (Transparent windows, effects, 3D Window flip) which is one of the main reasons to use Vista.

If you are buying a Q6600, surely you can afford the extra cost?

If you purchase OEM (You're building a new system so you can, and reactivation can be done over the phone, even on another machine), the price difference is tiny. I would even consider Ultimate, given the spec of the PC.

The following prices are quoted from NewEgg
Basic (Retail) - $140
Premium (Retail) - $220
Ultimate (Retail) - $320

Basic (OEM) - $95
Premium (OEM) - $110
Ultimate (OEM) - $180

[keakar]

I'm almost certain that Home Basic has no aero functions (Transparent windows, effects, 3D Window flip) which is one of the main reasons to use Vista.

If you are buying a Q6600, surely you can afford the extra cost?




with carefull shopping you can buy premium for almost the same price as basic so that was why i am confused as to why every computer being sold here has basic on it. i would think if you need premium to get the fancy features then the new computers would all be bundled with the premium version instead of basic.

its not about the money because i can get vista premium - oem for $105 shipped

[EviLZeD]

premium has aero windows media center and other features like that hawk 1 link says it all

[Fuse-Wire]

stick with xp. better especially for me for playing older games such as empire earth, vista tends to spit them back at me.

[keakar]

stick with xp. better especially for me for playing older games such as empire earth, vista tends to spit them back at me.

microsoft has already started killing xp with their updates, didnt you see the article about some of the latest updates disabling xp?

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=40894

yes its just a minor thing but there will be more and more because microsoft has you by the balls so why not make xp unusable like they did with 98 then they can sell millions of OS to xp users and laugh all the way to the bank.

i see this the same way as the 98 vs xp situation. it will soon be necessary to switch to vista so since they both are almost the same price IMO it does not make sense to buy xp. im just waiting for vista SP1 to come out b4 i buy it.

[Velocity]

Lol the first thing i do after a fresh reformat is disable updates... dont need anything after SP 2 imo. Also that article has nothing to do with them stopping updates, its merley a mess up that they did with the updates conflicting with registry that stops windows repair from working.

[FatForester]

Go with Home Premium. I've been using Vista Home Premium and XP for a while now, and I'm beginning to like Vista. Yea, XP is faster at DX9 and other junk, but if you're getting a quad-core w/ DX10, Vista is the way to go. And if it's a difference of 10-15 bucks between Basic and Premium, it's a no-brainer IMO.

[keakar]

Go with Home Premium. if it's a difference of 10-15 bucks between Basic and Premium, it's a no-brainer IMO.

more like $5-$10 difference between basic & premium and $10-$15 difference between xp & premium


many comments are made that vista is a resource hog and im concerned about how true that is

[Hawk1]

many comments are made that vista is a resource hog and im concerned about how true that is

If it is for your Q6600 build, don't worry about the resources, just make sure you have 2GB of RAM and you'll be fine. I run Vista Ultimate on my E6600 and it hums along with no problem.

[stordoff]

Vista only appears to be a resource hog because it preloads so much into memory, not just what it needs to run. This is removed when memory is needed, but what is the point in having X amount of RAM if you don't allow the operating system to use it?

(This usually helps performance, but not always)

[FatForester]

Vista only appears to be a resource hog because it preloads so much into memory, not just what it needs to run. This is removed when memory is needed, but what is the point in having X amount of RAM if you don't allow the operating system to use it?

(This usually helps performance, but not always)

Exactly. Yea, Vista looks like it uses alot of resources, especially when compared to XP. You can disable "Superfetch" so it doesn't do that, but that will cause the programs you use more often to load slower. If you want to get technical, XP is still supported, but if you want to be realistic, it's being phased out. So you can go ahead and buy XP and then end up on buying Vista later on, or just get Vista to begin with and save yourself some cash in the long run.