Vista minimum system requirements

[Oppie]

I can't seem to get any decent answers on what are the minimum system
requirements for Vista home basic.

My new machine came with 512Meg ram and is rather slow considering that it
has a 3ghz pentium 4. If past experience is worth anything, adding memory
always helps. How much is reasonable?

I was running task manager and clicked on the performance monitor. It showed
ram used 83% but more disturbingly there was another box that showed 'hard
errors' (I'm not on that machine now so this is from memory). What are hard
errors? Are they RAM errors, data collisions from timing errors or what?

Thanks - Oppie

 

[Jon]

I can't seem to get any decent answers on what are the minimum system
requirements for Vista home basic.

My new machine came with 512Meg ram and is rather slow considering that it
has a 3ghz pentium 4. If past experience is worth anything, adding memory
always helps. How much is reasonable?

I was running task manager and clicked on the performance monitor. It
showed ram used 83% but more disturbingly there was another box that
showed 'hard errors' (I'm not on that machine now so this is from memory).
What are hard errors? Are they RAM errors, data collisions from timing
errors or what?

Thanks - Oppie

Yes, it does sound like some more RAM would definitely help. I'd add at
least 1 gb.

The 'hard faults' aren't anything serious to worry about. They just indicate
that your machine is short of ram, so it's using the hard disk instead as
"virtual memory" .

 

[Geta Klew]

See

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/upgradeadvisor.mspx

The last link "What is required to run Windows Vista" lists the minimums.
The System Rerquirements link there has more detail. Or just go here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/systemrequirements.mspx

Aero requirements are stiffer than basic edition requirements.

 

[BSchnur]

Two things for performance.

1) Add memory -- at least to 1G. I'm assuming you have 512m PC3200
SDRAM -- is that correct? If so, single module or a pair?
Follow up, how many memory slots are available?

2) What sort of video adapter are you using? Vista pushes
video quite a bit more than XP, so it might be that upgrading
the video adapter will help significantly as well.

 

[Oppie]

Two things for performance.

1) Add memory -- at least to 1G. I'm assuming you have 512m PC3200
SDRAM -- is that correct? If so, single module or a pair?
Follow up, how many memory slots are available?

2) What sort of video adapter are you using? Vista pushes
video quite a bit more than XP, so it might be that upgrading
the video adapter will help significantly as well.

Computer is an e-Machines T5082. Looks like I'll be getting a 1G memory card
soon to supplement the 512. I didn't realize that the memory was shared with
the display. Down the road, I may get a better video card.

CPU:

Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 6311

Hyper-Threading and Intel® EM64T Technology

Operates at 3.00GHz | 2MB L2 cache | 800MHz FSB

Operating System:

Genuine Microsoft® Windows® VistaT Home Basic



Chipset:

ATI Radeon® Xpress 200



Memory:

512MB DDR2 (1 × 512MB), 533MHz (PC4200)

Expandable to 2GB

2 DDR2 Slots (Total) | 1 DDR2 Slot (Available)



Hard Drive:

160GB PATA (7200rpm)



Optical Drive:

DVD±RW 16x Multiformat Dual-Layer Optical Drive

Up to 8.5GB with Dual-Layer Media

Write max: 16x DVD±R, 6x DVD-RW, 8x DVD+RW, 4x DVD+R DL, 40x CD-R, 24x CD-RW
disks

Read max: 16x DVD-ROM, 40x CD-ROM disks



Media Reader:

High-Performance 15-in-1 Digital Media ManagerT

Up to 40x faster

xD-Picture CardT, CompactFlash® I (CF), CompactFlash® II, Secure DigitalT
(SD), Mini Secure DigitalT (Mini SD)4, Multi Media Card (MMC), Reduced Size
MMC (RS-MMC)4, MMC Mobile4, MMC Plus, Memory Stick (MS), Memory Stick Duo5,
Memory Stick Pro®, Memory Stick Pro® Duo5, SmartMedia, IBM Microdrive



Video:

ATI Radeon® Xpress 200 Integrated Graphics

Up to 128MB of shared video memory

PCI-Express® (PCI-E x16) slot available



Sound:

6-channel (5.1) high-definition audio

Amplified Stereo Speakers (USB Powered)



Communications:

56K ITU V.92-ready fax/modem (RJ-11 port)

10/100Mbps Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 port)

Peripherals:

Multifunction keyboard, 2-button wheel mouse (PS/2)



Ports/Other:

6 - USB 2.0 ports (2 in front, 4 in back)

1 - VGA

1 - Parallel port

1 - Serial port

2 - PS/2 ports (keyboard and mouse)

3 - Audio (Rear): Line-in/Side (Stereo), Front/Headphone (Stereo),
Microphone

2 - Audio (Front): Microphone, Front/Headphone (Stereo)

1 - RJ-45 Ethernet port

1 - RJ-11 Modem port



Software:

* Windows® VistaT Home Basic

 

[Eric]

Two things for performance.

1) Add memory -- at least to 1G. I'm assuming you have 512m PC3200
SDRAM -- is that correct? If so, single module or a pair?
Follow up, how many memory slots are available?

2) What sort of video adapter are you using? Vista pushes
video quite a bit more than XP, so it might be that upgrading
the video adapter will help significantly as well.

512MB may be enough if you don't run Aero or anything fancy.
Typically you'll want at least 1-2 GB, so a new system with 512 MB is a
little disturbing.
Video card does make a big difference.

 

[BSchnur]

Ah, OK -- check the specs on your board for memory modules -- I may be
wrong on that, but I believe your motherboard supports DDR2 modules and
not DDR. It may also support dual channel memory (in which case
getting a matched pair to replace the single existing module might also
provide a bit more performance).

Check further what sort of slot is available for the video adapter. I
suspect, being an e-Machines system, the video is embedded on the
motherboard in which case it is definitely shared memory.

 

[BSchnur]

512MB may be enough if you don't run Aero or anything fancy.

It's Vista Home Basic -- no Aero there anyway. But I suspect it is an
embedded video -- so it is 512M minus that -- which makes things a bit
more sluggish for sure.