Windows Premium faster than Basic?

[Guest]

It's annoying to go to the store and have the salesperson tell you that the
default specs of the hardware you are about to buy cannot handle the OS that
comes *preloaded* on it.

But that is what happened today, when I went to one of the largest
electronics outlets in southern Japan (Bic Camera). A friend of mine wants a
new laptop, and she is decidedly not a power user, so I recommended the
cheapest one she could find. It comes preloaded with Vista Basic Home
Edition. She would prefer XP (as would I, for obvious reasons), but all
computers sold there are now preloaded with Vista. (Thus my comment at the
beginning of this post.)

The saleswoman also insisted that the Home Premium version would run faster
than the Home Basic version, and that for that reason many of their customers
upgrade to Premium (a US$200 increase in price to do this). At this point I
became concerned and talked my friend into not buying anything (she wanted to
buy that new laptop *tonight*) until I had time to do more research.

Am I right to be suspicious of　this saleswoman's claims of performance
enhancements not present in Basic?

 

[cvp]

You sure are! There are many reasons to upgrade to Home Premium, but
performance improvement isn't one of then. In fact the extras in Premium
will most likely make. the performance worse on a minimally configured
system. The $200 would be better spent or some more memory.

 

[Michael]

Yup, you are getting BS.
As usuall there is a grain of truth here. A system that only has the
hardware to support Basic will run slower than a system that supports
Premium.
(The big kicker is in more memory, if you can afford 2GB do so, the
improvement over 1GB is noticable, less than 1GB will run but will be
unsatisfactory even for a non-power user.)

The other premium/basic decision is the graphics hardware if the hardware is
sufficient then premium will provide fancier (Aero) graphics in its basic
windows (kind of nice but it is just cosmetic).

A laptop that is configured to only run Basic is probably just an
advertisement point, entice the customer in and then switch to a higher
profit unit.

Michael
PS if the $200 was for a bump up in memory, a better graphics system, and
Vista premium then that is probably a reasonable price, tho still dishonest
advertising.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

The saleswoman also insisted that the Home Premium version would run faster
than the Home Basic version, and that for that reason many of their customers
upgrade to Premium (a US$200 increase in price to do this). At this point I
became concerned and talked my friend into not buying anything (she wanted to
buy that new laptop *tonight*) until I had time to do more research.

Am I right to be suspicious of?this saleswoman's claims of performance
enhancements not present in Basic?

No, you should not be suspicious. "Suspicious" is entirely the wrong
word. The saleswoman is completely wrong. She either doesn't know what
she's talking about, or is lying for the purpose of making a bigger
sale and a higher commission.

 

[Saucy]

It's annoying to go to the store and have the salesperson tell you that
the
default specs of the hardware you are about to buy cannot handle the OS
that
comes *preloaded* on it.

But that is what happened today, when I went to one of the largest
electronics outlets in southern Japan (Bic Camera). A friend of mine
wants a
new laptop, and she is decidedly not a power user, so I recommended the
cheapest one she could find. It comes preloaded with Vista Basic Home
Edition. She would prefer XP (as would I, for obvious reasons), but all
computers sold there are now preloaded with Vista. (Thus my comment at
the
beginning of this post.)

The saleswoman also insisted that the Home Premium version would run
faster
than the Home Basic version, and that for that reason many of their
customers
upgrade to Premium (a US$200 increase in price to do this). At this point
I
became concerned and talked my friend into not buying anything (she wanted
to
buy that new laptop *tonight*) until I had time to do more research.

Am I right to be suspicious of　this saleswoman's claims of performance
enhancements not present in Basic?

Yes. She's confused. If the hardware is capable of running Aero, but the
version is Windows Basic, Windows Basic will run the "Windows Vista
Standard" theme which appears like Aero, is rendered using the WDDM engines
like Aero, but lacks the Aero effects such as Flip3D.

If the video hardware is not WDDM, then all versions - Ulitmate included -
will make use of the "Windows Vista Basic" theme which renders the UI more
like XP did, and is likely more CPU intensive as it is not taking advantage
of the VPUs of the video cards to the same degree.

In other words, the speed and performance of the laptop will depend mostly
entirely on the laptop's hardware specs. and not on what version of Windows
Vista is run on it.

Saucy

 

[Guest]

Thanks for all the replies.

The upgrade price of 200 dollars was just for the upgrade to Premium, and
excluded any hardware upgrades. That's one of the reasons my response was,
"eh!?"

It is very unfortunate that XP is, generally speaking, no longer available
on new computers, even though it is the most ideal OS for lower-end computers.

Is Microsoft insisting that all vendors stick Vista on their computers? Or
is this the fault of Dell, Sony, etc.?

 

[Saucy]

Thanks for all the replies.

The upgrade price of 200 dollars was just for the upgrade to Premium, and
excluded any hardware upgrades. That's one of the reasons my response
was,
"eh!?"

It is very unfortunate that XP is, generally speaking, no longer available
on new computers, even though it is the most ideal OS for lower-end
computers.

Is Microsoft insisting that all vendors stick Vista on their computers?
Or
is this the fault of Dell, Sony, etc.?

Dell offers Vista on its 'home & home office' computers .. but if you look
at the notebooks and desktops they sell for 'small and medium business' you
will note that with these Dell sells both XP Home and Professional as well
as Vista Home and Business.

e.g. here's some reasonable priced Dell laptops that can be had with XP:

[Vostro Notebooks - Dell]
http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/vostronb?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd

So check around, as XP is available on new computers.

Saucy

 

[Guest]

Thanks. My friend insists she wants a Sony Vaio (her last computer was a
Dell, and she had a lot of problems with it), so hopefully Sony hasn't given
up on XP yet.

Thanks for all the replies.

The upgrade price of 200 dollars was just for the upgrade to Premium, and
excluded any hardware upgrades. That's one of the reasons my response
was,
"eh!?"

It is very unfortunate that XP is, generally speaking, no longer available
on new computers, even though it is the most ideal OS for lower-end
computers.

Is Microsoft insisting that all vendors stick Vista on their computers?
Or
is this the fault of Dell, Sony, etc.?

Dell offers Vista on its 'home & home office' computers .. but if you look
at the notebooks and desktops they sell for 'small and medium business' you
will note that with these Dell sells both XP Home and Professional as well
as Vista Home and Business.

e.g. here's some reasonable priced Dell laptops that can be had with XP:

[Vostro Notebooks - Dell]
http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/vostronb?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd

So check around, as XP is available on new computers.

Saucy