So Vista Prices Then

[Burnout]

I was recently browsing my favorite site NewEgg and I ran across some interesting products on the front page. Namely, a 20.1" LCD which I already had one of on sale, so I bought a second. I also came across OEM Vista prices.

From what I saw:
Vista Home Premium - $119
Vista Business - $149
Vista Ultimate - $199

For everyone who's not up to date on the situation, for Home Premium, which is comparable to XP Home, it's only a few dollars more. For Vista business, the replacement for XP Pro, it too is only a few dollars more. Vista ultimate at $199 is also a good deal because of the extra software you get.

Not saying it's the best OS ever, but I don't want to hear anyone complain about Vista prices every again. 👍

 

[skip0110]

I wonder if Vista Ultimate will ever come out through MSDN?

All I have seen is Vista Business in "my" MSDN subscription.

 

[Mark T]

I wish they would do an upgrade for Windows XP to Vista. I upgraded from Windows ME to XP which only cost £45.

 

[Seanman]

What is the difference between the OEM version and the regular version?

I remember the retail version of Vista Ultimate sells for $399...

 

[DuckRacer]

What is the difference between the OEM version and the regular version?

From what I've heard, it's just the disc, with no extra manuals or anything. Though I'm not positive about that.

Burnout, do you think I can get, say, the Home Premium OEM on my Mac through Boot Camp when I buy Leopard?

 

[Burnout]

From what I've heard, it's just the disc, with no extra manuals or anything. Though I'm not positive about that.

Burnout, do you think I can get, say, the Home Premium OEM on my Mac through Boot Camp when I buy Leopard?

Certainly.

What is the difference between the OEM version and the regular version?

I remember the retail version of Vista Ultimate sells for $399...

Technically the "OEM" software (a bare-bones software package, including the certificate of authenticity and the disc) is supposed to be purchased with some type of computer component. NewEgg actually includes a Molex power splitter (almost completely useless, unless you specifically need it) if you don't buy some kind of component in order to comply with Microsoft’s reseller agreement.

I wonder if Vista Ultimate will ever come out through MSDN?

All I have seen is Vista Business in "my" MSDN subscription.

My Microsoft Action Pack subscription only includes 10 licenses of Vista Business. I do believe I remember hearing that Microsoft is giving partners a special deal on the Ultimate Edition Anytime Upgrade, so that may be something to check into. Notably though, the only differences you'll get out of Ultimate are of course the media center software, so called 'ultimate extras', and bitlocker encryption. So, depending on your needs, it might not even be worth looking into.

 

[Solid Fro]

Off topic: I am planning to purchase two Mac Minis to run Vista in my bedroom and livingroom. Would the base model with 512MB be enough or would upgrading to 1GB be better? I'm thinking in my head: "of course more is better", but if it's not needed now, I rather upgrade the memory later on, if needed at all.

 

[Burnout]

Off topic: I am planning to purchase two Mac Minis to run Vista in my bedroom and livingroom. Would the base model with 512MB be enough or would upgrading to 1GB be better? I'm thinking in my head: "of course more is better", but if it's not needed now, I rather upgrade the memory later on, if needed at all.

Generally 1GB is recommended for Vista, but I've run it on a few computers with 512MB and it runs decently - Just don't expect to do much multitasking.

I don't recall if Aero has a minimum requirement for how much RAM you have to have or not though.

That said, an upgrade to 1GB would certainly be a good idea in the near future.

 

[Robin]

I wish they would do an upgrade for Windows XP to Vista. I upgraded from Windows ME to XP which only cost £45.

I did an upgrade from ME to XP and yes the cost is great but I then found myself having to buy the full xp again when I built my new computer so now I lean more to buying full rather than upgrade versions...... Vista seems abit pricey but windows has always been like that!

If you wiped a system and fresh installed lets say Windows 2000 or XP and then upgraded to vista using an upgrade verison (if it exsists) what is the difference between that and fresh installing a full verison... I never could understand the difference? Is it somehow flawed to bulid on the prevvious OS because im sure there are performance differences?

Robin

 

[Revolution.]

Generally 1GB is recommended for Vista, but I've run it on a few computers with 512MB and it runs decently - Just don't expect to do much multitasking.

I don't recall if Aero has a minimum requirement for how much RAM you have to have or not though.

That said, an upgrade to 1GB would certainly be a good idea in the near future.

I'm running Vista Ultimate RTM on my older PC right now (sticking with XP on the main one for now) which is 3.5 years old and has a P4 2.4ghz, 512mb RAM, 80gb HDD and an ATi Radeon 9550. To be honest, I wouldn't recommend running Vista on any less than 1gb, especially because I tend to multitask a fair bit, but I did discover yesterday that setting a 1gb USB drive to run readyboost alongside the 512mb RAM gives a noticable performance boost in performance and smoothness, its actually pretty good now.
So, if you do run Vista on a machine with 512mb RAM, I strongly recommend buying a USB drive or two and setting it up so it Readyboosts off them.

 

[skip0110]

My Microsoft Action Pack subscription only includes 10 licenses of Vista Business. I do believe I remember hearing that Microsoft is giving partners a special deal on the Ultimate Edition Anytime Upgrade, so that may be something to check into. Notably though, the only differences you'll get out of Ultimate are of course the media center software, so called 'ultimate extras', and bitlocker encryption. So, depending on your needs, it might not even be worth looking into.

Oh. My only experience with Vista was using Business under Virtual PC, and I was under the impression that Aero Glass was not available in Business because I didn't see it in the menu.

Of course now I realized that I'm an idiot and the reason it wasn't there was because there is (obviously) no graphics acceleration under VPC.

 

[DuckRacer]

Off topic: I am planning to purchase two Mac Minis to run Vista in my bedroom and livingroom. Would the base model with 512MB be enough or would upgrading to 1GB be better? I'm thinking in my head: "of course more is better", but if it's not needed now, I rather upgrade the memory later on, if needed at all.

Get 1GB. Not just for Vista, but for OSX itself. It's a RAM hog, and to run more than 6 programs is virtual suicide. And installing RAM at a later date is very difficult, and more expensive.

 

[GT4_Rule]

Good prices 👍

1GB of RAM is recommended for today's computer use - 512 gets the job done, albeit slowly. It's just the bare minimum now.

I think all Aero asked for was minimum 128MB of graphic memory and 1GB of system RAM.

 

[Mx²]

Vista Home Premium - $119
Vista Business - $149
Vista Ultimate - $199

I'm pretty sure those are upgrade prices. Vista Home Premium upgrade is $179, and the normal Home Premium version is $299. Vista Ultimate non-upgade version? $499.

(CAD prices)

 

[skip0110]

I'm pretty sure those are upgrade prices. Vista Home Premium upgrade is $179, and the normal Home Premium version is $299. Vista Ultimate non-upgade version? $499.

(CAD prices)

They are OEM prices.

 

[Delirious]

1. What do you mean by OEM prices?
2. What did someone mean by using a flash drive with readyboost?

 

[skip0110]

1. What do you mean by OEM prices?
2. What did someone mean by using a flash drive with readyboost?

1. https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showpost.php?p=2552109&postcount=6 explains it somewhat, but they are basically prices that a manufacturer would pay. They don't include fancy packaging, booklets, etc. Designed for someone who would be installing it on a PC they are building for someone. But anyone can buy like that through NewEgg.

2. AFAIK, readyboost is a Vista feature where a USB flash drive is used the way Windows typically uses the RAM in your PC...store running applications and cache commonly used disk files and dll's. The flash drive would be faster than disk access (no seek times) but slower than actual RAM. Also it holds its state allowing a (nearly) instantaneous boot.

 

[Revolution.]

Good prices 👍

1GB of RAM is recommended for today's computer use - 512 gets the job done, albeit slowly. It's just the bare minimum now.

I think all Aero asked for was minimum 128MB of graphic memory and 1GB of system RAM.

Actually, you can run Aero on just 512mb RAM like I am.

1. What do you mean by OEM prices?
2. What did someone mean by using a flash drive with readyboost?

Yep, like skip said, it basically used the flash memory like RAM.
Here's a more in-depth explanation:

Windows ReadyBoost

The first time someone from Microsoft described Windows ReadyBoost to me, I thought the guy was kidding, because it just seemed too good to be true. ReadyBoost uses spare space on USB-based storage devices like memory keys to increase the performance of your computer. It does this by caching information to the USB device, which is typically much faster than writing to the hard drive. Information cached to the device is encrypted so it can't be read on other systems.
There are a number of caveats. Your USB device must meet certain speed characteristics or Vista will not allow it to be used in this fashion. Space that is set aside on a USB device for ReadyBoost cannot be used for other purposes, unless you reformat the device or remove it from service with the PC. And you cannot use one USB device to speed up more than one PC.
ReadyBoost seems to have the most impact on systems with less than 1 GB of RAM, which makes sense, and it clearly will benefit notebooks more than desktops, since it's often difficult or impossible to increase the RAM in a portable machine. Microsoft recommends configuring ReadyBoost with one to three times the amount of RAM you have installed in your system. So if you have 512 MB of RAM, you should try to dedicate between 512 MB and 1.5 GB of space for ReadyBoost on a USB device.
When you insert a compatible USB device into a Windows Vista machine, you will see a "Speed up my system" option at the bottom of the Auto Play dialog that appears. When you select this option, Vista will display the ReadyBoost tab of the Properties dialog of the associated device, letting you configure a portion of the device's storage space. It will recommend the ideal amount, based on the capacity of the device and your system's RAM.
The big question, of course, is: Does it work? And here, again, I will have to waffle a bit: Despite testing ReadyBoost on a number of systems, I've been unable to quantify the effect it's had. I'm curious if anyone out there has any data on this topic. But it does seem like a fantastic and inexpensive way to speed up PCs, especially portable machines.

 

[TheCracker]

Get 1GB. Not just for Vista, but for OSX itself. It's a RAM hog, and to run more than 6 programs is virtual suicide. And installing RAM at a later date is very difficult, and more expensive.

Definately buy the extra RAM when you order your Mini Mac - i work closely with an Apple dealer who told me that the manual that Apple supplies to the re-sellers for the addition of extra RAM for previously sold Mini Macs asks them to go to a hardware store to buy a couple of putty knives to get the shell open!

 

[Pebb]

If you buy Vista Ultimate you have a license to install it on as many new PC's you buy for yourself and only yourself.

 

[standard235]

That would be useful. Except none of the computers I have reformatted would support it. Except my friend with 3GB of DDR2 533 and a 3.8ghz Pentium.

 

[Pebb]

That would be useful. Except none of the computers I have reformatted would support it. Except my friend with 3GB of DDR2 533 and a 3.8ghz Pentium.

What PC do you have, but if you buy the Ultimate edition, then when ever ram over 120GB makes it onto desktop PC's, then you will be able to get 128GB of ram supported.

 

[DQuaN]

A must have for all office and internets tasks!

 

[dougiemeats]

If you buy Vista Ultimate you have a license to install it on as many new PC's you buy for yourself and only yourself.

Could you possibly provide more of an explanation and a source? This sounds too good to be true.

 

[skip0110]

Could you possibly provide more of an explanation and a source? This sounds too good to be true.

It is too good to be true. Read the license from Microsoft for yourself.

http://www.microsoft.com/about/legal/useterms/default.aspx

License Model. The software is licensed on a per copy per device basis.

Licensed Device. You may install one copy of the software on the licensed device. You may use the software on up to two processors on that device at one time.

Software Other than Windows Anytime Upgrade. You may uninstall the software and install it on another device for your use. You may not do so to share this license between devices.

 

[standard235]

A must have for all office and internets tasks!

You joke now, but wait until it's needed to be that way...

 

[xAkirax2004]

I'm holding off till they have service pack 1 for this. True, it took Microsoft years to put this out, but I'm not going to jump the gun yet. Also, prices will be slightly lower after a few months.