If you have not got a directx 10 graphics, there is no reason what so ever to install vista.

I have a pc with a core 2 duo 2.4ghz, 2 gig of ram, 8800 gts 640 mb grapgics card and approximatlet 640 gigs of hard drive space.  A 22” and 19” set of monitors for dual display.  Pretty average eh!

Well I first installed Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit edition and everything was great; until I checked to see how much of my system ram was being used.  A whole 1 gig had disappeared.  It decided to allocated 750 MB of my main ram to the graphics card which already has 640MB.  WTF; that’s coming straight off.

So I next installed the Home Premium edition 64 bit and all of a sudden the amount of ram used by Vista was 400MB, which is a whole better. 

With the Window xp premium 32 bit edition; the OS only uses 250MB.  So unless to really want to play Halo 2 on your PC; I wouldn’t upgrade yet.  It cost me 800 dollars (400 UK pounds) for the Ultimate edition and that went straight back to the Web site I bought it and I settled on the premium edition that only cost 160 dollars (80 UK pounds).

If after reading this, you decide to go for a dual boot system; then I would advise you have XP installed on your second drive/partition.  If it is on the first drive/partition, Vista will install over the top.  It didn’t give me the option to install to another drive.  It just installed straght away and that ways that.

I hope this little review of Vista is of use to someone.

Cool, Im on 3.2Ghz D, crappy 7600GS (waiting till a card like the 8800 comes along with the hardware acceleartion for HD video that the new 8500/8600 have (mainly x264)), 1.2TB HDD with 19+27” displays.

Had vista x64 ultimate since ~nov and you couldnt pay me to go back to XP, its just too slow an O/S for these days. I dont mind the extra MB’s RAM the O/S uses as its used to give a lot more responsivness, assuming the user is not on a glorified calculator. Most of the RAM is just pre allocated based on your habbits rather than necessitised, when a game is ran it should shut down all auxilliary processes and put resources towards it. I believe the better speeds in games on XP is mostly based on the extra time they’v had to tweak the drivers, assuming again the user dosent have a comp in need of upgrade in line with todays entry level.

My op to anyone would be if youv got a decent comp make the switch, or as the op suggests make a dual boot (although I just made the jump out of interest. Lack of drivers/compatability isnt really an issue like it used to be a few months ago+. If you dont like ultimates requirmets just shut down a few of the things like aero and keep the extra functionality. With so many advancments in tech since XP lauch, O/S evolution was/is a logical step.

Just an extra opinion

You totaly can’t call a 7600GS “crappy” while I’m sitting here with a 6600GTS thinking I have an OK setup. =P

Either way, as far as Vista goes, I’m holding out getting it untill I get a new PC, which probably won’t be for another year or so. I’m still skeptical of drivers working at 100% functionality among other things. That and I don’t have the amount of money I want to spend on a new rig.

Edit: WTF happened to my post?

Basically, all I said was that it’s dead annoying when it asks if you want to shut down 3 times and that it is gonna be a few Service Packs before it is any good.

Ok you guys have nothing over me, I am running a Pentium D 2.8Gh processor with 80GB hard drive, and integrated graphics accelerator, and only 512 RAM.  I will be getting a new computer before getting vista.  And don’t you dare complain about actually having a physical graphics card

Like I’ve said,
Vista will be an awesome platform in about a year.

Right now it is SO borked