A question about Vista

CounterPunch · Post by **CounterPunch** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 3:52 pm

Right heres the situation.

I've got to buy a new PC in the next month or two as mine is.... dreadful.

I want to get a really really good one and I've seen this one

http://ecomm.euro.dell.com/dellstore/ba ... ails=false

Now, I dont know if I will necessarily get this one (I need to knwo if it is any good, worth the money etc) but what I do want to know is -

Am I able to install a previous OS (eg XP) over Vista? Will it effect any of the things I can do (TV Tuner etc) if I can actually do it... And is there any point?

I like XP, I've got used to it and its as safe as I want it etc, and Ive heard bad stories about Vista and am concerned that because its so new that its not all that safe.

Plus I dont really like the look of Vista, but ti wont take me long to get used to that.

Post by **Denyer** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 4:05 pm

You've linked your basket, so no-one else will see anything...

Buy from Dell's small business side if you're after XP. Don't need to be a business.

Wiping the drive and doing a clean install is always recommended, and that could be Vista or XP... you'll need a legit copy of XP to do so, though, unless you don't care about using a permanent activation workaround.

It's not that it's unsafe, Vista just chews resources for little benefit, currently has poor driver support, and if you're going to turn the annoying features such as UAC off there's little reason to have it over XP. Personally I've found it sluggish on decently-specced machines. Games currently seem to perform better in XP (a product of mature driver support), with little sign of DirectX 10-only titles.

CounterPunch · Post by **CounterPunch** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 4:31 pm

"XPS 420
With Blu-ray Disc for viewing stunning High Definition movies as well as a complete photo, video & music software package - Adobe Elements Studio suite"

Base - Premium Chassis - Intel® 2 Quad-Core™ Processor Q6600 (2.40GHz, 1066MHz, 8MB cache)

Microsoft Operating System - Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English

Memory - 3072MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024/2x512]

Keyboard - Dell™ Enhanced USB Multimedia Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY)

Monitor - Monitor Not included

Video Card -SINGLE 768MB nVidia® GeForce® 8800 GTX graphics card

Hard Drive - 1TB Dual Hard Drive Raid 0 Stripe (2x500GB - 7200rpm)

Floppy Drives - 19-in-1 Bluetooth Media Card Reader

Mouse - Dell Optical Scroll Premium Mouse

Modem - No Modem

CD/DVD Drives - 4x Blu-Ray Disc Drive

Sound Cards - Sound Blaster® X-Fi Xtreme Gamer PCI Soundcard

Speakers - Dell™ A525 Speakers with Subwoofer

Wireless Networking - Internal 802.11b/g Wireless PCI Card

Shipping Documents - XPS 420 English Documentation with UK/Irish Power Cord

Microsoft Application Software - Microsoft® Works 8.0 - English

TV Tuner and Remote Control - TV Tuner and AVIO / Accellerator

Adobe Reader - Adobe Elements Studio Software (incl Photoshop, Premiere and Soundbooth)

£999

Thats most of the details right there, I reread my post and it didnt make complete sense. I have official Microsoft XP and Microsoft Office, and what I meant was in a computer with Vista already installed etc can you change it to XP? Would you do what you said Denyer about wiping.

And yeah I've heard those problems about Vista, it uses alot of power and needs alot of memory with no real show of WHY it needs it.

I presume with the TV tuner I would get a CD with some software etc?

I've already got a really good monitor so dont really want to change so thats no worry.

Post by **Denyer** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 5:38 pm

I'd pick HD-DVD over Bluray personally, if available. Sony aren't handling things very well (dual-format players may well become common, also.)

Price seems decent, and Vista should be happy enough with the high-end graphics card and over 2Gb of memory.

I have official Microsoft XP and Microsoft Office

You have a copy of XP that presumably has been activated to a completely different system -- so be prepared to activate it by phone and lie about a motherboard replacement, at the very least, assuming it's not an OEM copy of XP that was pre-activated to hardware from another big box manufacturer, in which case you might be out of luck. (Well, for doing this legally.)

Office, haven't personally installed a version that requires activation, so check the packaging to see if there's an explicit allowance of two/three installs.

it uses alot of power and needs alot of memory with no real show of WHY it needs it.

There's the cynical answer, which involves DRM subsystems, and the simpler -- probably more accurate -- one, which is that the GUI code is really that poor and got rushed out to meet the shipping date. Plus the OS is doing more things in the background as regards file indexing, etc. and not always when convenient / quiet whilst doing so.

I presume with the TV tuner I would get a CD with some software etc?

Yep.

Sixswitch · Post by **Sixswitch** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 6:26 pm

I''ve just bought a PC from Dell. XPS720. Not tried it yet though since it arrived today and I'm heading home tomorrow.

If you want a monitor and speakers, I'd get them elsewhere. Dell is expensive - I got a Samsung 22" for £206 while Dell wanted me to pay £280 for theirs for example.

I also bought it with XP installed rather than Vista, on the basis that every review I've read says that Vista is unstable, struggles with backward compatibility and has poor driver support. And it hasn't even had one service pack release yet.

-Ss

Computron · Post by **Computron** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 6:30 pm

With regards to vista try making a sentence containing the words "avoid", "like" and "plague".

If you have Vista you can apparently down grade to XP as you were allowed to in the days of old (XP -> 2000) though this is being kept quiet and its difficult to find links (http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/34015/140/ gives a quick look but you'll have to do more research to find better links)

Even with the upcoming SP1 for Vista I'd still stay with XP as I heard that SP1 had been rushed through as many people said they weren't going to buy Vista until SP1. The result is it doesn't actually fix much. The only real reason at the moment to go to Vista is DX10 but there isn't any game out at the moment that is DX10 only and it is quite unlikely that there will be for a while (crysis backed down as for a while that was gonna be DX10 only)

The fact XP is trying to be phased out and Vista is a pile of poo is the main reason I've been putting off upgrading my PC for a while

Sixswitch · Post by **Sixswitch** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 6:36 pm

Originally posted by Computron

The fact XP is trying to be phased out and Vista is a pile of poo is the main reason I've been putting off upgrading my PC for a while

I wouldn't worry Comps. XP is going to be supported till at least 2014, and since many businesses (one survey I read said 68%) at the moment aren't planning to roll out Vista, it may be even longer than that.

-Ss

CounterPunch · Post by **CounterPunch** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 11:33 pm

Originally posted by Denyer
I'd pick HD-DVD over Bluray personally, if available. Sony aren't handling things very well (dual-format players may well become common, also.)

You have a copy of XP that presumably has been activated to a completely different system -- so be prepared to activate it by phone and lie about a motherboard replacement, at the very least, assuming it's not an OEM copy of XP that was pre-activated to hardware from another big box manufacturer, in which case you might be out of luck. (Well, for doing this legally.)

My computer at the moment is a barebones one that i filled in with other bits, so the XP I have is an OEM disc I bought from ebuyer or somewhere (ebuyer or dabs or novatech)

Would I still have the problem of activation that you stated? Because surely its the same situation as if I had to completely wipe and reinstall windows on to my existing PC right?

Post by **Denyer** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 12:34 am

Just tell 'em the motherboard died and stick to that story; the people on the other end of the phone service don't give a **** but have a script to work from.

Or see if you can get a downgrade CD for XP thrown in with the Dell for nowt or inexpensively, as it'll be pre-activated to that manufacturer's hardware. If it isn't on the list of options, mail them.

I have a valid license for XP on the laptop I've got but bypassed it and prefer to install OS updates manually, both of which are easy to do. The only thing I've noticed is Windows Media Player requires activation to run -- I haven't used anything but Media Player Classic and VLC in years.

CounterPunch · Post by **CounterPunch** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 10:55 pm

Right, I posted this question on the official Dell advice forum and was informed that there are a number of features in the computer that wont operate with XP.

With this I have decided to go with Vista as I would rather get a PC that fully works than pay for stuff that doesnt.

What are some pitfalls of Vista though? Stuff I should watch out for?

Chromia · Post by **Chromia** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 11:30 pm

Originally posted by CounterPunch
Right, I posted this question on the official Dell advice forum and was informed that there are a number of features in the computer that wont operate with XP.

With this I have decided to go with Vista as I would rather get a PC that fully works than pay for stuff that doesnt.

What are some pitfalls of Vista though? Stuff I should watch out for?

Well. I have a POS Dell 3000 that I just took my old XP install CD from school and blasted Vista completely out of it.

All I had to do was d/l some drivers for the audio and DVD burner,and...everything works fine for me:-) I have a few friends at work that have done the same thing, and as far as I know...they don't have any problems.

And what features did they tell you wouldn't work...just curious.

CounterPunch · Post by **CounterPunch** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 11:49 pm

Apparently there are some on board features that arent and wont be compatible with Vista, either because they were made purposefully to integrate with Vista or because Drivers arent available.

I'm not sure what exactly, but there are apparently a couple of things to do with the graphics card (programs made to run in conjuncture witht he graphics card) that arent supported by XP.

Post by **Denyer** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 12:29 am

The card has full DX9 and DX10 support, so it'll just be DX10 specific features.

http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce8.html

You might want to read run-downs on DirectX 10 --

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/ar ... ?id=176533
http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs. ... demo-on-xp
http://www.tech.co.uk/performance-pc/ge ... -in-crysis

CounterPunch · Post by **CounterPunch** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 8:08 am

I think I'm pretty much set on getting this system, and with Vista I think its fair enough that I will get settled with it, I was told to maybe dual boot so that if I find I dont like Vista I can switch to XP

Getaway · Post by **Getaway** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 4:08 am

I bought myself a top of the range gaming pc about 6 months ago and the only real problem I have with vista is that most of my games back catalogue now won;t run. I'm not particularly tech savvy so I don't know if I could fiddle with settings. On the plus side some of the games that have been released with vista in mind like COD4 and Crysis are superb.

Hawkeye · Post by **Hawkeye** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 6:36 am

i bought a new computer last month. got vista. at first it felt a little weird but its honestly not different enough to get worked up over if you are used to xp.