Vista op system opinions....

[69gt4speed]

I've got 2 vista op systems, one laptop 2 gb ram, one new desktop w 3 gb ram and one xp sp2 w 1 gb ram..
Compared to xp sp2 what do you think?

1 Greatest thing since sliced bread, it figures everything out.
2 It sucks, slower than a 4 cylinder 2.3 n/a 79 ford fairmont and too complicated for it's own good.

[NewSpeedSteed]

It has its flaws, overall I think XP is the better platform for now. Vista has just had its first service pack released and that helped it alot (I agree that it seems to run slower than XP sometimes) and like you I have a laptop with 3gb ram.
I think that the OP has alot of potential and it needs time to develop and grow, and it will as more and more things become available and compatible with it. I think the big problem is that its been out for a little while now and it had a bad reputation for crashing when it first launched and thats put a fear in people that its a bad OS.

[biohazard]

I've been using it as my main OS since RTM, I can say it's gotten better from RTM to SP1. Vista SP1 kicks XP SP3 in terms of copying files, Vista is the winner hands down. I've seen a lot of bitching from people about upgrading from XP to Vista, and to be honest, the same shit went on from 98 to XP, it's just they've gotten used to XP for over 5 year.

[Malibu]

If you want an OS that looks pretty install Vista. If you want something that you know will work all the time stay with XP.

[Drifte]

I was trying to decide for myself. What I had been told was vista is going to use up more of your memory. But I also know xp is not going to becompatable with new programs. So recently I built a computer with vista, quadcore processor and 4gb ram. Its gotta be quicker than my pentium 4 right? haha

[fbodyguy]

To me it really depends on how much memory you use with the OS.
XP works great with 2gig but with 4gig of pc1066 it flies.

I beta tested Vista since last spring and wasn't impressed with it. Now with SP1, some of the memory usage flaws have been fixed and processor speed and bus usage has increased. I changed the memory to 4gig after I dumped Vista and haven't put it back on, since.
You also have to expect that as new OS's are released, memory usage will go up. Mainly because motherboards can handle more momory and it gets cheaper as engineering costs drop and memory speeds increase. My Corsair memory has it's own fan, now!

Of course I they will be releasing windows 7 here a couple of months for beta. XP won't be getting much support here in about 3 months, won't be for sale so a fully licensed version (excess) will be selling fairly cheap. Coupled with a q6700 quad core is should smoke pretty well.

That and I'm waiting on new HD to install windows home server to see how well that works. Who would have thought that 1.5 Ter of HD isn't enought space when storing blue ray movies in sizes of 8 to 15 gig per movie, for a home media server....

[Snowman]

I use Vista Home Premium. So far, I like it much better than XP. To me it just seems easier to use than XP, after you've tweaked everything to the way you want it. I'm planning on upgrading to Ultimate sometime soon.

Tony, are you using TVersity for those large Blu-Ray and HD movies? Or something else? I gave up on TVersity, I have a Blue-Ray movie on my computer now, but I can't figure out how to change it to a file type supported by the xbox. I had a tutorial, but I can't quite get it to work. Sorry to be off topic.

[fbodyguy]

Just storing right now Wally,

waiting for the 4000 series HD cards from ATI to come out. They are going to support the 1.3a audio, instead of using two cables.
New egg has retail 750's for 140 so i might pick up two or three here real soon. I have to get the home server running so I can see how well it interacts with drivers from TV and video cards.
IF Xbox releases another update this year I would expect it to support streaming file sizes that are larger than 4 gig, this is what TVersity is dependent on. That and the audio support for DD DTS is dependent on the xbox patches that come out also.

[Drifte]

where were you guys when i was trying to build a computer. I recently decided what I wanted, and you mentioned the processor i was goin, the q6700 quad core

[RandomHero]

Mac OSX represent

[69gt4speed]

Another issue it seems is the sharing options and the multiple user stuff. I tried to put on a shared printer through vista desktop well xp wouldn't see it for some reason even w sharing on etc. Had to move printer to xp machine then share w the vista machines. tonight the wife said printer won't work for me. She was logged in under her name on vista and control panel said no printers installed. Had to install it under her name too both the laptop and desktop. I guess usually she used to just use my xp user cause of outlook having multiple accounts.

I know corporate won't touch vista w a 10 ft pole, we use either a special xp or 2000. Course they use junk computers more or less, barely suitable for that stripped down xp. Only recently have we used windows anything for control purposes w a hmi networking and servers. Wonderware is what we use. It is possible for corporate office to monitor and control our machines here in c.r.

[fbodyguy]

where were you guys when i was trying to build a computer. I recently decided what I wanted, and you mentioned the processor i was goin, the q6700 quad core

Been here, just don't talk alot (most of the time). I am in the middle of doing a upgrade and hand me down to my girls of my e6700 duo core to get the quad core. I'm probably going to run a liquid cooling system so i can overclock the quad core. Of course I could go get one of the new Intel based motherboards that holds two quad cores and allows for some big overclocking numbers (one guy had a stable 6Ghz overclock running two xeon quad cores, combined 48Ghz of overclock processor power).
reviews here are held with high regard to me. Good place to get educated on your computer parts that you want to buy when building or upgrading your machine.
http://www.tomshardware.com/us/

Rob, have you read through this article from microsoft on print sharing?
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/libr ... 27037.aspx (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727037.aspx)

Tony

[69gt4speed]

Thanks tony although it appears all that was ok as far as workgroups go. The other issue is almost always when coping a file or etc. from one computer to another vista locks up only way to fix that is unplug it. And ya file sharing is on, I can see the file maybe its being blocked from copy I don't know. Soon as I select the file it locks up. Always some bs.

[fbodyguy]

Have you put SP1 on for Vista (don't know if I missed it in the reading)?

[69gt4speed]

Tony just got done w sp1 on laptop. Probably desktop already but i will check for sure.

[fbodyguy]

Rob,

If you didn't have SP1 and you do now, check your file transfer again. Part of the patch fixed the lock up issue that you are having with the file transfer also.
Let me know I will keep looking, looking at technet, the fix was rolled into SP1 to correct this error.

T

[Malibu]

You just need a domain controller to fix all those pesky access issues. :yawinkle:

[Drifte]

where do you guys build our computers at? Or where do you get your parts I should say. I will be either ordering a dell since my student discount is pretty good. Or building one if it has equal or greater performance for about the same cost. If I can run 64bit xp do you guys recommend that over vista? Thats what we have on my gf's computer with intel core 2 duo something and its pretty quick and very reliable.

-was goin for the 24" imac 3.0ghz core2duo, buts its 2600 for me, thats $800 more than the more power ful and expandable dell.

sorry for the hijack, just curious what you all think.

[Drifte]

so say I want to build a computer... This is the MOBO of all MFMOBO's right? When choosing a processor for it, how do you get a liquid cooled instead of air cooled?

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a ... l&CMP=OTC- (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=13-121-059&srccode=cii_6684177&cpncode=12-9983904&DEPA=0&refer=channel&CMP=OTC-)

[fbodyguy]

I build my own equipment at home. It isn't that big of a deal and it's pretty straight forward. Connectors from the case to the mother-board and the cable arrangment are the biggest hassels that I have had.

Web-sites for buying parts;
http://www.newegg.com
Watchout for OEM parts, especially hard drives and processors. You are better off buying retail (New in box NIB) for the full warranty and reliability.
NewEgg is nice because their parts are competitive with pricewatch.com but, you save because shipping comes from one place.

Things to consider when building a PC, what materials do you have available to you already. In otherwords, what don't you have to buy.
Dell packages include the MS and 3rd party programs along with their promo junk (I remove this immediately).

Building one from scratch - look at what you have to buy and what your total cost is in difference from the Dell package w/ or w/o the monitor, keyboard etc...

OS's XP 32bit is solid and I haven't heard much bad about the 64 bit version. My question would, what is the advantage of using the 64 bit system vs. the 32bit? What is your goal going to be with the PC? Gaming or home media personnal pc?
Overclocking comes into play with home media pc when there is a need to convert video with something like ffdshow or play games. Overclocking is fun and neat but will take out a processor faster if your not using a good cooling system. That and use plenty of Heat transfer paste.

Make sure that you have a good power supply. I have started buying the energy star compliant P/S's and nothing less than a 700 Watt. your standard quad core will pull 120 watts. If your running dual GE Force 9800's get a big power supply, really big. Crossfire cards or SLI cars take up some energy and generate alot of heat. Case temps can increase 10 Celcius if your using a dual video cards for gaming. I'm waiting to see what the ATI Radeon 4000 series cards are going to do and consume when they come out, in about a week or two.

Generally when it comes to heat sinks, Retail processors come with a fan or a recommended fan is sent with it. If you want to overclock w/o going to liquid there is the Zallaman CNPS 9700 LED that works great. You just have to make sure your case will fit it. Clearance can be an issue. Liquid systems are just as much of a pain in the ass. You can have hoses that don't get clamped down and leak or your equipment. Finding storage for the tank w/ coolant and the pump can be difficult. If your ordering all of your stuff from newegg there is a fan and heat sink area to find liquid systems.
I suggest you read reviews in newegg and see what Tom's hardware has to say and recommend for product also.

T

[Drifte]

so basically I have a lot of time in research yet to go. The 64bit is supposed to support more ram. My use with a computer will be: graphics/graphic design, video editing, movies/ tv watching, games, web design etc. Nothing to terribly demanding, but I like to live by the moto: theirs no kill like over kill. Im also inpatient, like everything done instant.

if i could, id run that mobo i listed with 2 core 2 quad processors, 8mb ram. Liquid or air cooled whatever would be best, blue ray dvd burner and player. Dual graphics cards, I dont have the part number on me. maybe 2 10krpm 250gb hd's....thats about all I have figured out.

[DragonUSMC]

just got done buying my new puter and looking more into vista...

from all I've found out... Vista is this decade's Win ME... so in other words... useless.

while the 64 bit version will allow the full use of up to 8 gigs of ram it also saps triple what the normal operation of XP requires.

On top of that Windows 7 is being released in 09 and Vista will be abandoned. if you want to play with a 64 bit OS for FREE, try http://www.ubuntu.com its a Linux based OS. I'm playing with it a bit myself but keeping my copy of XP by my side. But from everything i've been playing with so far its pretty damn simple to use.

[69gt4speed]

Tony, I found some other things out, write this down ppl. Ok on shared vista machines u need user account control setting off, for some dumb reason to copy a file vista to vista it will not ask for a password, it just locks up but u can see and select the file. xp2 does ask for a user and password when trying to do a copy from vista machine to xp machine. The only way I could get it to work was turning the user account setting off for both vista machines. Then there are many variations of the file sharing permissions for vista which needs to be set to what u want.
This may also be why my printer wouldn't share on a vista machine and why it did on xp machine. The user account control setting was on. Like I said the only way I caught on was xp asked for name and password on a copy which is computer admin name and admin password for that vista machine. Oh ya got to reboot after u change that stuff. There are still bugs in it imo. :banghead: