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Hidden Costs of a Windows Vista Upgrade
If you're putting Vista on a PC yourself, you need to read this.
Preston Gralla, PC World
Monday, February 12, 2007 01:00 AM PST
The shiny, new Windows Vista beckons, and an upgrade is mighty
tempting. But before you take the plunge, be aware that you may end up
forking out a lot more money than just the cost of an operating system
upgrade. Here are 15 reasons to upgrade and here are 6 on why you
should wait on Vista.
A lot more than just cash is on the line as well, because you may also
spend plenty of time upgrading your hardware to make sure it's Vista-
ready. Read on before you upgrade; being forewarned is being
forearmed.
The High Cost of Hardware
If you're upgrading to Windows Vista, the first cash outlay you likely
face is buying more RAM for your PC. Microsoft says that you can run
Windows Vista with 512 megabytes of RAM, but don't believe it. It's
simply not worth running Windows Vista on a machine with less than 1
gigabyte of RAM. In fact, you'd be a lot happier with 2GB.
How much will that much RAM cost you? Figure that you can get 1GB of
RAM for as low as a little over $100, while 2GB will run you $180 and
up.
Even if you have enough RAM, your existing graphics card may not be up
to snuff, because Vista is graphics-hungry. If you want to run its
Aero environment, you'll need a good graphics card.
There are two levels of Vista hardware compatibility: "Vista Capable,"
and "Vista Premium Ready." Forget Vista Capable; it won't run Aero,
and if you can't run Aero, you shouldn't bother upgrading to Windows
Vista.
So you need a graphics card that is Vista Premium Ready. To be Premium
Ready, a PC needs a graphics card with support for DirectX 9 graphics
with a WDDM driver, a minimum of 128MB of graphics memory, and what's
called Pixel Shader 2.0 and 32 bits per pixel. There's no room in this
story to delve into each of these specs, but the key is the support
for DirectX 9 graphics with a WDDM driver, and a minimum of 128MB of
graphics memory. Before buying a card, check the box or the
manufacturer's site, and make that it matches these specs.
How much will such a card cost? It depends on how much graphics oomph
you want. You can get a graphics card that meets these specs for as
low as about $60. If you want better performance, of course, you can
pay more, in the $100 to $150 range. But with graphics cards, the sky
is the limit, and you can spend just about as much as you want until
your pocketbook screams. As a practical matter, though, only gamers
need the more expensive graphics cards; you don't need them merely to
run Vista.
If you don't have a DVD drive, you'll need one, because Vista installs
only via DVD. These days DVD drives are cheap; you can get a
reasonable one for as low as about $30 to $40.
How about your hard disk? You should have a hard drive with a least a
40GB capacity, with 15GB of free disk space. But you'll certainly want
a much bigger drive than that, to leave plenty of room for files and
media. So you might need to add a new hard drive. Hard drives are
cheap these days; for as low as $70 or $80, you can get one with a
250GB capacity.
How much will all of this cost you? Depending on what you need to
install, you can get by with as little as spending only about $60 for
a new graphics card, or up to $400 or more if you need to upgrade your
RAM, graphics card, and hard disk, and also have to buy a DVD drive.
What's Your Time Worth?
You'll be spending more than just money if you upgrade to Windows
Vista, of course--you may spend plenty of time as well. If you need to
upgrade your hardware, count in the time it takes to do the upgrade.
If you only need to upgrade your RAM, and all goes well during
installation, you should need to spend only about 15 minutes. On the
other hand, graphics card upgrades can sometimes be tricky, as can
hard disk and DVD installations. If things go badly, you can spend
hours troubleshooting and listening to bad music while you're on hold
on tech support lines.
Finally, consider the time you'll spend upgrading to Windows Vista
itself. Microsoft has done an excellent job with the Windows Vista
installation process, and it's far easier and faster than previous
Windows installs. So if you're going to merely upgrade over your
existing version of Windows XP, it may take as little as 40 minutes
with very little intervention on your part.
You may, though, opt instead for a clean install, which means that
you'll wipe your hard disk clean, and then install Windows Vista. If
you do that, you'll have to copy your data somewhere, and then after
Vista installs, copy it back to your PC. And you'll also have to
reinstall all your applications. This can take multiple hours if your
PC has an extensive set of software.
The Bottom Line
So what's the bottom line for hidden upgrade costs? If you've got a
relatively new system and opt to upgrade Vista over XP instead of
doing a clean install, you may get away with not having to upgrade any
hardware, or just need to add some RAM or a new graphics card. That
won't put much bite on your pocketbook, and you won't lose your
weekends, either.
On the other hand, if you need to do heavy-duty installation work and
opt for a clean install, make sure you've got plenty of time--and cash
as well.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/128930-1/article.html?tk=nl_dnxnws
If you're putting Vista on a PC yourself, you need to read this.
Preston Gralla, PC World
Monday, February 12, 2007 01:00 AM PST
The shiny, new Windows Vista beckons, and an upgrade is mighty
tempting. But before you take the plunge, be aware that you may end up
forking out a lot more money than just the cost of an operating system
upgrade. Here are 15 reasons to upgrade and here are 6 on why you
should wait on Vista.
A lot more than just cash is on the line as well, because you may also
spend plenty of time upgrading your hardware to make sure it's Vista-
ready. Read on before you upgrade; being forewarned is being
forearmed.
The High Cost of Hardware
If you're upgrading to Windows Vista, the first cash outlay you likely
face is buying more RAM for your PC. Microsoft says that you can run
Windows Vista with 512 megabytes of RAM, but don't believe it. It's
simply not worth running Windows Vista on a machine with less than 1
gigabyte of RAM. In fact, you'd be a lot happier with 2GB.
How much will that much RAM cost you? Figure that you can get 1GB of
RAM for as low as a little over $100, while 2GB will run you $180 and
up.
Even if you have enough RAM, your existing graphics card may not be up
to snuff, because Vista is graphics-hungry. If you want to run its
Aero environment, you'll need a good graphics card.
There are two levels of Vista hardware compatibility: "Vista Capable,"
and "Vista Premium Ready." Forget Vista Capable; it won't run Aero,
and if you can't run Aero, you shouldn't bother upgrading to Windows
Vista.
So you need a graphics card that is Vista Premium Ready. To be Premium
Ready, a PC needs a graphics card with support for DirectX 9 graphics
with a WDDM driver, a minimum of 128MB of graphics memory, and what's
called Pixel Shader 2.0 and 32 bits per pixel. There's no room in this
story to delve into each of these specs, but the key is the support
for DirectX 9 graphics with a WDDM driver, and a minimum of 128MB of
graphics memory. Before buying a card, check the box or the
manufacturer's site, and make that it matches these specs.
How much will such a card cost? It depends on how much graphics oomph
you want. You can get a graphics card that meets these specs for as
low as about $60. If you want better performance, of course, you can
pay more, in the $100 to $150 range. But with graphics cards, the sky
is the limit, and you can spend just about as much as you want until
your pocketbook screams. As a practical matter, though, only gamers
need the more expensive graphics cards; you don't need them merely to
run Vista.
If you don't have a DVD drive, you'll need one, because Vista installs
only via DVD. These days DVD drives are cheap; you can get a
reasonable one for as low as about $30 to $40.
How about your hard disk? You should have a hard drive with a least a
40GB capacity, with 15GB of free disk space. But you'll certainly want
a much bigger drive than that, to leave plenty of room for files and
media. So you might need to add a new hard drive. Hard drives are
cheap these days; for as low as $70 or $80, you can get one with a
250GB capacity.
How much will all of this cost you? Depending on what you need to
install, you can get by with as little as spending only about $60 for
a new graphics card, or up to $400 or more if you need to upgrade your
RAM, graphics card, and hard disk, and also have to buy a DVD drive.
What's Your Time Worth?
You'll be spending more than just money if you upgrade to Windows
Vista, of course--you may spend plenty of time as well. If you need to
upgrade your hardware, count in the time it takes to do the upgrade.
If you only need to upgrade your RAM, and all goes well during
installation, you should need to spend only about 15 minutes. On the
other hand, graphics card upgrades can sometimes be tricky, as can
hard disk and DVD installations. If things go badly, you can spend
hours troubleshooting and listening to bad music while you're on hold
on tech support lines.
Finally, consider the time you'll spend upgrading to Windows Vista
itself. Microsoft has done an excellent job with the Windows Vista
installation process, and it's far easier and faster than previous
Windows installs. So if you're going to merely upgrade over your
existing version of Windows XP, it may take as little as 40 minutes
with very little intervention on your part.
You may, though, opt instead for a clean install, which means that
you'll wipe your hard disk clean, and then install Windows Vista. If
you do that, you'll have to copy your data somewhere, and then after
Vista installs, copy it back to your PC. And you'll also have to
reinstall all your applications. This can take multiple hours if your
PC has an extensive set of software.
The Bottom Line
So what's the bottom line for hidden upgrade costs? If you've got a
relatively new system and opt to upgrade Vista over XP instead of
doing a clean install, you may get away with not having to upgrade any
hardware, or just need to add some RAM or a new graphics card. That
won't put much bite on your pocketbook, and you won't lose your
weekends, either.
On the other hand, if you need to do heavy-duty installation work and
opt for a clean install, make sure you've got plenty of time--and cash
as well.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/128930-1/article.html?tk=nl_dnxnws
