new lap top, Vista or XP?
Discussion
Hi I think the hard drive on my four and a half year old lap top is fooked, so time for a new one.
Two questions,
I am looking to spend £400 to £500 is there any particular make or feature I should be looking for?
I have heard that Vista has a lot of problems and that none of my current software e.g microsoft office will work so would I be better getting XP instead?
Thanks
Pooh
Two questions,
I am looking to spend £400 to £500 is there any particular make or feature I should be looking for?
I have heard that Vista has a lot of problems and that none of my current software e.g microsoft office will work so would I be better getting XP instead?
Thanks
Pooh
Pooh said:
Hi I think the hard drive on my four and a half year old lap top is fooked, so time for a new one.
Two questions,
I am looking to spend £400 to £500 is there any particular make or feature I should be looking for?
I have heard that Vista has a lot of problems and that none of my current software e.g microsoft office will work so would I be better getting XP instead?
Thanks
Pooh
Vista for games, directx 10 etc, buy the 64bit OEM version and pay £100 instead of £350, here's link.Two questions,
I am looking to spend £400 to £500 is there any particular make or feature I should be looking for?
I have heard that Vista has a lot of problems and that none of my current software e.g microsoft office will work so would I be better getting XP instead?
Thanks
Pooh
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prod...
I'd go for XP, but I'm old and like to play it safe. 
Most mainstream XP applications will work fine in Vista, although Sod's Law says one of yours won't. Just check drivers in particular though - probably wise to use the compatibility checker on your current machine to make sure first.
Most mainstream XP applications will work fine in Vista, although Sod's Law says one of yours won't. Just check drivers in particular though - probably wise to use the compatibility checker on your current machine to make sure first.
A lot of the reported 'Vista problems' are either drivers, people not knowing what to do because it's a little bit different from XP, or just stuff that can go wrong with every OS but gets blamed on Vista because it's new(ish). It's not perfect, but I've never used an OS that is.
As mentioned above, run the upgrade advisor and see if it flags up any issues. I think that's the right link, if not you'll find it on the MS site somewhere.
As mentioned above, run the upgrade advisor and see if it flags up any issues. I think that's the right link, if not you'll find it on the MS site somewhere.
Get hold of a Vista Trial DVD like this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VISTA-BASIC-PREMIUM-ULTIMATE... and you can test all the versions of Vista out for 30 days.
For £6.50 it's a cheap way to find out if you, your applications and your hardware are really happy with Vista.
Simon
For £6.50 it's a cheap way to find out if you, your applications and your hardware are really happy with Vista.
Simon
This is a copy of an email I sent to a mate before Christmas
Avoid the AMD CPU's they run very hot on laptops...and wouldn't want to burn your Knob off whilst sufing porn!
So here is my guide for helping you choose in order of priority....oh and the question is if you are just looking to surf the net / watch or burn odd DVD / CD then a max budget of around £350inc vat should suffice.
Brand preference
1 Toshiba - tend to be slightly more expensive but very reliable
2 Acer/HP/Fujitsu/Lenovo
Tend to avoid Sony
Main considerations
Weight
Aim to choose the lightest one you can for your money
System Memory
Whilst Vista runs well with what is now pretty standard 1GB (1024MB) ram I would ask or look up costs for a 2GB model
Most laptops that come with 1GB come with 2 slots and it depends if this is filled with 2 x 512MB or 1 x 1024MB if there is a free slot or not
Processor
Core Duo is a nice to have but unless you are doing processor / memory intensive stuff (higher level photo editing for example) - Memory is often more important than Raw CPU power.
Screen/Graphics card
I wouldn't go more than 15.1 or 15.4 choose a brand that has the brightest/clearest
As for graphics memory this is memory that is for making the screen display what you expect more memory quicker display (a must for games)
NOTE: Some shares memory with the main system memory and thus reduces what is available to run applications
Hard Disk - 80GB min (but you can buy external 500GB USB ones for £100 for backing up photos and data)
Other stuff
CD/DVD - most come with a good allround reader/writer
Wireless - integrated is a must but when they say it has Wireless G etc etc this the speed of it taking into account most have Wireless G which runs at 54Mbit/sec and your broadband runs at a max of 8Mbit/sec - anything more is unncessary.
USB - most come with 2 or 3 USB 2.0
Firewire - optional not much firewire out there apart from Digital Camcorders and even they have USB 2.0 which is quicker
Card readers - if your camera has a SD card slot then it is nice to have a laptop with a SD slot built in - it is a bonus but not essential
PS XP Pro is my preferred OS..I bought a copy of Vista / Office Ultimate from Microsoft and have not used it!
Avoid the AMD CPU's they run very hot on laptops...and wouldn't want to burn your Knob off whilst sufing porn!
So here is my guide for helping you choose in order of priority....oh and the question is if you are just looking to surf the net / watch or burn odd DVD / CD then a max budget of around £350inc vat should suffice.
Brand preference
1 Toshiba - tend to be slightly more expensive but very reliable
2 Acer/HP/Fujitsu/Lenovo
Tend to avoid Sony
Main considerations
Weight
Aim to choose the lightest one you can for your money
System Memory
Whilst Vista runs well with what is now pretty standard 1GB (1024MB) ram I would ask or look up costs for a 2GB model
Most laptops that come with 1GB come with 2 slots and it depends if this is filled with 2 x 512MB or 1 x 1024MB if there is a free slot or not
Processor
Core Duo is a nice to have but unless you are doing processor / memory intensive stuff (higher level photo editing for example) - Memory is often more important than Raw CPU power.
Screen/Graphics card
I wouldn't go more than 15.1 or 15.4 choose a brand that has the brightest/clearest
As for graphics memory this is memory that is for making the screen display what you expect more memory quicker display (a must for games)
NOTE: Some shares memory with the main system memory and thus reduces what is available to run applications
Hard Disk - 80GB min (but you can buy external 500GB USB ones for £100 for backing up photos and data)
Other stuff
CD/DVD - most come with a good allround reader/writer
Wireless - integrated is a must but when they say it has Wireless G etc etc this the speed of it taking into account most have Wireless G which runs at 54Mbit/sec and your broadband runs at a max of 8Mbit/sec - anything more is unncessary.
USB - most come with 2 or 3 USB 2.0
Firewire - optional not much firewire out there apart from Digital Camcorders and even they have USB 2.0 which is quicker
Card readers - if your camera has a SD card slot then it is nice to have a laptop with a SD slot built in - it is a bonus but not essential
PS XP Pro is my preferred OS..I bought a copy of Vista / Office Ultimate from Microsoft and have not used it!
Edited by bigburd on Friday 8th February 10:09
bigburd said:
This is a copy of an email I sent to a mate before Christmas
Avoid the AMD CPU's they run very hot on laptops...and wouldn't want to burn your Knob off whilst sufing porn!
So here is my guide for helping you choose in order of priority....oh and the question is if you are just looking to surf the net / watch or burn odd DVD / CD then a max budget of around £350inc vat should suffice.
Brand preference
1 Toshiba - tend to be slightly more expensive but very reliable
2 Acer/HP/Fujitsu/Lenovo
Tend to avoid Sony
Main considerations
Weight
Aim to choose the lightest one you can for your money
System Memory
Whilst Vista runs well with what is now pretty standard 1GB (1024MB) ram I would ask or look up costs for a 2GB model
Most laptops that come with 1GB come with 2 slots and it depends if this is filled with 2 x 512MB or 1 x 1024MB if there is a free slot or not
Processor
Core Duo is a nice to have but unless you are doing processor / memory intensive stuff (higher level photo editing for example) - Memory is often more important than Raw CPU power.
Screen/Graphics card
I wouldn't go more than 15.1 or 15.4 choose a brand that has the brightest/clearest
As for graphics memory this is memory that is for making the screen display what you expect more memory quicker display (a must for games)
NOTE: Some shares memory with the main system memory and thus reduces what is available to run applications
Hard Disk - 80GB min (but you can buy external 500GB USB ones for £100 for backing up photos and data)
Other stuff
CD/DVD - most come with a good allround reader/writer
Wireless - integrated is a must but when they say it has Wireless G etc etc this the speed of it taking into account most have Wireless G which runs at 54Mbit/sec and your broadband runs at a max of 8Mbit/sec - anything more is unncessary.
USB - most come with 2 or 3 USB 2.0
Firewire - optional not much firewire out there apart from Digital Camcorders and even they have USB 2.0 which is quicker
Card readers - if your camera has a SD card slot then it is nice to have a laptop with a SD slot built in - it is a bonus but not essential
PS XP Pro is my preferred OS..I bought a copy of Vista / Office Ultimate from Microsoft and have not used it!
Thanks for that, very helpful.Avoid the AMD CPU's they run very hot on laptops...and wouldn't want to burn your Knob off whilst sufing porn!
So here is my guide for helping you choose in order of priority....oh and the question is if you are just looking to surf the net / watch or burn odd DVD / CD then a max budget of around £350inc vat should suffice.
Brand preference
1 Toshiba - tend to be slightly more expensive but very reliable
2 Acer/HP/Fujitsu/Lenovo
Tend to avoid Sony
Main considerations
Weight
Aim to choose the lightest one you can for your money
System Memory
Whilst Vista runs well with what is now pretty standard 1GB (1024MB) ram I would ask or look up costs for a 2GB model
Most laptops that come with 1GB come with 2 slots and it depends if this is filled with 2 x 512MB or 1 x 1024MB if there is a free slot or not
Processor
Core Duo is a nice to have but unless you are doing processor / memory intensive stuff (higher level photo editing for example) - Memory is often more important than Raw CPU power.
Screen/Graphics card
I wouldn't go more than 15.1 or 15.4 choose a brand that has the brightest/clearest
As for graphics memory this is memory that is for making the screen display what you expect more memory quicker display (a must for games)
NOTE: Some shares memory with the main system memory and thus reduces what is available to run applications
Hard Disk - 80GB min (but you can buy external 500GB USB ones for £100 for backing up photos and data)
Other stuff
CD/DVD - most come with a good allround reader/writer
Wireless - integrated is a must but when they say it has Wireless G etc etc this the speed of it taking into account most have Wireless G which runs at 54Mbit/sec and your broadband runs at a max of 8Mbit/sec - anything more is unncessary.
USB - most come with 2 or 3 USB 2.0
Firewire - optional not much firewire out there apart from Digital Camcorders and even they have USB 2.0 which is quicker
Card readers - if your camera has a SD card slot then it is nice to have a laptop with a SD slot built in - it is a bonus but not essential
PS XP Pro is my preferred OS..I bought a copy of Vista / Office Ultimate from Microsoft and have not used it!
Edited by bigburd on Friday 8th February 10:09
The laptop I have is a Toshiba and up until it broke I have been very happy with it so I would definately go for another.
Pooh said:
I have heard that Vista has a lot of problems and that none of my current software e.g microsoft office will work so would I be better getting XP instead?
Office will work - unless you are talking about a vintage version, in which case I don't know. IIRC Vista x64 won't work with 16-bit apps.I would say that if you got Vista x86 you would have no problems, if you went for x64 you might have a few more due to unsigned drivers etc.
For 'future proofing' go for Vista, SP1 is round the corner, most bugs have been ironed out.
microsofts partners are advising against vista, I have had a long long list of customers come to me with vista problems.
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/0...
see link above, SP1 for vista is not going to be the saving grace everyone is hoping for.
some companies will give you the option for vista or for XP on their laptops, id choose xp everytime.
also windows 7 (the codename for the next win OS) has been brought forward from 2012 to 2009 release, that sort of confirms vista was a mistake.
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/0...
see link above, SP1 for vista is not going to be the saving grace everyone is hoping for.
some companies will give you the option for vista or for XP on their laptops, id choose xp everytime.
also windows 7 (the codename for the next win OS) has been brought forward from 2012 to 2009 release, that sort of confirms vista was a mistake.
DucatiGary said:
microsofts partners are advising against vista, I have had a long long list of customers come to me with vista problems.
Interesting statement.Can you put it into context for us though, i.e. how many of your customers haven't come to you with Vista problems?
How many of the problems were in fact true issues with Vista and not related to it being unfamiliar?
Thanks
Simon
I've got Vista pre-installed on my HP lappy and I have to say it's been the most reliable and quickest computing experience I've ever had.
I would imagine I might have have a different experience with older hardware but I have to say thus far it's been perfect. It wakes from hibernation, finds a local wireless access point and is ready to go in about twenty seconds flat!
I would imagine I might have have a different experience with older hardware but I have to say thus far it's been perfect. It wakes from hibernation, finds a local wireless access point and is ready to go in about twenty seconds flat!
DucatiGary said:
microsofts partners are advising against vista, I have had a long long list of customers come to me with vista problems.
At a partner conference last month down at TVP, I'd love to know where you got this from. I work for a gold partner and we certainly have never advised this.DucatiGary said:
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/0...
see link above, SP1 for vista is not going to be the saving grace everyone is hoping for.
So it boots the same, and file copy and network performance is generally improved? What did you expect from SP1? Given the RTM version is scheduled for release next week sometime, perhaps we should wait for that until passing judgement?see link above, SP1 for vista is not going to be the saving grace everyone is hoping for.
DucatiGary said:
some companies will give you the option for vista or for XP on their laptops, id choose xp everytime.
Unless you have hardware you're using with it thats over 5 years old, I personally would go with Vista now. I'm running Business now for 3 months on a Core2 Duo laptop from HP with 2Gb RAM. All I have done is remove file indexing and disabled scheduled disk defrag. It flies.The only issue I've had is with networking, where it likes making new network connections rather than use existing (and perfectly operational) ones. Other than that its been great. So far!
DucatiGary said:
also windows 7 (the codename for the next win OS) has been brought forward from 2012 to 2009 release, that sort of confirms vista was a mistake.
No it hasn't. That was a rumour. Microsoft quickly responded to this and stated that it would not release Windows 7 in 2009, more likely to be 2011.
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