With a brand new system I decided to enter the Vista club. The trouble was, I did not know which Vista I wanted to get. Budget was not a problem, I had set enough aside for Vista Ultimate. That after all is what I really wanted to test. Though I will admit, Home Premium would have sufficed. My system shipped with 2GB of RAM, I wanted 4GB, but the component upgrade was a little more than I would be happy to pay. The system was cheaper than I could possibly build though.

For 2GB of RAM 32Bit would be the logical choice, and for 4GB many would think the same. Most do not realize that a 32Bit system will not use all of 4GB of RAM. It can support it but it cannot use it. I had heard warnings and horror stories relating to the 64Bit version, so I was a little apprehensive. I figured that it should be alright, since most of the software that I plan to be using is very modern. The only concern I had was over my printer, which turned out to be unfounded. It all worked. There was one old program that failed to load, but I didn’t lose too much sleep over it.

What’s Hot

• Supports as much RAM as you want to stick in it, for budgetary reasons, this is probably 4GB for most people.
• Makes use of all the RAM in the system. Though the theoretical maximum for 32Bit is 4GB, it actually only makes use of 3GB.
• Integrates 32Bit programs without issues.
• Can get the most out of your system with 64Bit programs.

What’s Not

• Not enough 64Bit programs to really justify it.
• May not play nicely with old drivers.
• Heavy on system resources

Installation

I usually devote up to a day to setting up a new system. That includes finding all the drivers I need, setting up my core software, running updates and calling up my geeky cousin to congratulate myself on a job well done. It took the good part of one evening. Everything went smoothly and I had a long weekend to enjoy my new games.

I did not time the installation, but it was up and running in less than an hour. I have an FTTH connection which allowed updates to be installed quickly. Most of the set up time was actually dragging stuff off my old system and putting it on the new one. Once Vista was up, I got the graphics and sound drivers setup. Internet was instantly detected and accessible. My XP-era Canon printer had no problems with 64Bit, in fact there was a 64Bit driver available for download.

Problems

I only encountered two problems with the setup. One was with an old program failing to boot and locking up the system a little bit. Shutting it down through Task Manager solved the issue. I was not expecting the program to work, I just wanted to see what would happen.

The other problem was significant. A little finger engaged the power button on the keyboard. I know it is ludicrous having a power button on a keyboard. I did not realize it was there. The power button was activated as an update was being installed. After rebooting the system, I lost all Internet connectivity. I managed to get IE7 working again, by creating a new connection, but Firefox was not happy. I tried every trick I had up my sleeve and then decided to roll back the system with a System Restore. Everything worked fine after that and that was over one week ago.

Ultimate Extras

The Ultimate extras are about as exciting as you would expect them to be. You get a few extra games and things. There is a version of Hold ‘em which makes for a fun diversion while you are waiting for stuff to load. On the whole, not too exciting, but I didn’t choose Ultimate for the Ultimate extras, I chose it for the Vista Business functionality. The file keeping system is great and you have encryption capabilities if you want them.

Direct X 10

The reason why some people will switch to Vista is DX10. There are a few sites that have done comparisons of Crysis running in very high on DX 10 and hacked to run on very high in DX 9. I could not really notice a difference. DX10 is bloated and it runs slower, but it is going to be the new standard and programmers will get better at writing for it.

The Look and Feel

Vista looks nice, most of the changes are cosmetic, but there are some very nice touches. One thing that I noticed was that I did not have to restart after any of my updates. My system restarted a bunch of times during installation, but updates were seamlessly integrated and that is really nice. I love the fact that it automatically organizes my program folders in the Start Bar.

Verdict

Vista is heavy, really heavy and that is a shame. I am running 2GB of RAM and half of it is consumed just standing still. I know that my system would be flying through XP with the same specs. It looks absolutely stunning though. There is a level of clarity that I was not able to see with XP period. They have done a very good job at making a pretty interface.  It is intuitive, not as intuitive as Leopard, but intuitive nonetheless. For all the panning, I actually think Microsoft did a pretty good job with it. People complain about the RAM requirements, but what does RAM cost these days? If you are planning on playing a lot of games and want to use 4GB of RAM, 64Bit is worth the few slight difficulties that you will encounter.

Price-wise Vista Ultimate is up there, if you don’t do a whole lot of work on your computer then Home Premium would be fine. Even if you do a lot of work, Home Premium would be no problem at all. I chose Ultimate for those extra business options that it comes with, but to be frank, they were not all that impressive. On the whole, I am very happy with the Vista experience and I think most people that give it the time of day will be as well. It is stable, it is visually pleasing, but a tad overweight.

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