Too expensive to upgrade...

[Guest]

Well I've been so excited about the release of Vista, it looks great! Being
an everyday PC user, it seems important for me to purchase this OS upgrade.

However, because of the system requirements, it looks like I won't be buying
Vista for a long while yet, or I might just go with a Mac instead. The Basic
version means nothing to me, the features I was excited about are not
included, and apparently, thats all my PC can handle. I bought this as top of
the range a year ago and was expecting it to last a lot longer than this.

I've got a Pentium 4 HT and an X600 Radeon graphics card, these are my
problems. I need to upgrade two of some of the most expensive parts of the
computer. I'm interested in the Ultimate version rather than Premium as I do
a lot of design work which I'd rather ensure was totally secure. In total,
I'd need to spend over £500 to upgrade!! This is just totally ridiculous! I
could buy basic and upgrade later sure, but then I'd only be spending even
more again to upgrade later.

I am certainly not keen on these different 'versions' of Windows and am
severely disappointed at the requirements and very high prices.

What is everyone's response to the requirements and pricing?

 

[R. McCarty]

On the requirements - XP is now 5 years old. Since it appeared PCs
now have much higher performance capabilities. It's quite a jump from
a 128 Megabyte recommendation for XP to the 1.0 Gigabytes of RAM
for Vista.

I look at it this way. Vista is designed more for new/recent PCs than
for even 1-2 year computers. It's disappointing to have a fairly recent
PC and find out that several components aren't Vista Premium ready.

I'm sitting here now using XP on a "State-of-Art" PC ( Core 2 Duo
with 2.0 Gigabytes of RAM DDR2). Right next to it is a similar PC
being built/configured with Vista. Both are using a NEC 90GX2 monitor.
I can tell you for a fact that the visual appearance is noticeably better on
the Vista machine. The general performance of Vista is better as well.

Will Vista work on older hardware - Yes, but for users to obtain the
full benefits it takes a more powerful machine. Users shouldn't have an
unrealistic expectation of what Vista requires or what it will deliver.

But I do understand the frustration with having "Recent" hardware that
just misses the mark for Vista use.

 

[Gordon]

What is everyone's response to the requirements and pricing?

Linux.

 

[ChrisM]

In message (e-mail address removed),

Well I've been so excited about the release of Vista, it looks great!
Being an everyday PC user, it seems important for me to purchase this
OS upgrade.

Why is it IMPORTANT for you to purchase Vista?
What is your operating system currently? Does it do what you need it do to?

If upgrading to Vista is going to be expensive in terms of hardware upgrades
(not to mention to price of the OS itself) then why not stick as you are for
the time being. Unless you are one of those people that have to have the
latest versions of everything, why worry?

I'm currently using Win2000 on my PC at home, and am only going to update to
XP soon because I need to buy a new computer, and it's easier to buy one
with XP pre-installed...
Vista gives me nothing extra that I currently need, so I'm just going to
leave it alone for the time being.

 

[MICHAEL]

Dale, take comfort in the fact that you *don't* have to
switch to Vista. WinXP will be around and *supported*
for several more years.

The best thing for you to do, is to wait and save your money
for a new computer that already has Vista installed. You will
never find a cheaper version of Vista than the one you get on
a new computer. I completely understand the pull of wanting
the newest thing. But, there are some major advantages to
buying a computer that has Vista installed. You know it will
work. No possible installation problems for you to worry about.
It's a bargain compared to buying Vista off the shelf.

This probably doesn't satisfy your disappointment, but it is
important to remember- Microsoft is not forcing anyone to
buy Vista, and WinXP will be supported for years to come.

Take care,

Michael

 

[Mike Brannigan]

Well I've been so excited about the release of Vista, it looks
great! Being
an everyday PC user, it seems important for me to purchase this OS
upgrade.

However, because of the system requirements, it looks like I won't
be buying
Vista for a long while yet, or I might just go with a Mac instead.
The Basic
version means nothing to me, the features I was excited about are
not
included, and apparently, thats all my PC can handle. I bought this
as top of
the range a year ago and was expecting it to last a lot longer than
this.

I've got a Pentium 4 HT and an X600 Radeon graphics card, these are
my
problems. I need to upgrade two of some of the most expensive parts
of the
computer. I'm interested in the Ultimate version rather than Premium
as I do
a lot of design work which I'd rather ensure was totally secure. In
total,
I'd need to spend over £500 to upgrade!! This is just totally
ridiculous! I
could buy basic and upgrade later sure, but then I'd only be
spending even
more again to upgrade later.

I am certainly not keen on these different 'versions' of Windows and
am
severely disappointed at the requirements and very high prices.

What is everyone's response to the requirements and pricing?

Your one year old "top of the range" PC should not have a problem
running Windows Vista (including Ultimate Edition).
A P4 with HT should be more then capable (as most P4 HT's from a year
ago were 2 or 3 GHZ models)
Your x600 Radeon is also supported - your experience may depend on the
amount of memory on the card though.
So want are the actual specs of your system?

Response to pricing and requirements - most modem PCs especially only
a year old will support Vista (a little more memory may be all some
need) - pricing is in line with XP pricing and the added value
versions priced accordingly.