Where is MS Vista now?
Posted by: Bruce Woodhouse on 17 October 2008
My home PC needs to be upgraded, at 7 years old it is really beginning to chug. I need to use a machine at home for video-editing and it just cannot cope.
I run XP at home now. I read somewhere that Vista is now more stable and reliable, where initially most users were advised to stick with XP. I can still buy XP on a new PC but is it worth having Vista now? I don't run any particularly old or unusual programmes that might have compatability issues and in fact will be buying a new photo/video editing suite. my new PC should be bursting with speed and memory too.
(and no, I don't want a Mac!)
Bruce
I run XP at home now. I read somewhere that Vista is now more stable and reliable, where initially most users were advised to stick with XP. I can still buy XP on a new PC but is it worth having Vista now? I don't run any particularly old or unusual programmes that might have compatability issues and in fact will be buying a new photo/video editing suite. my new PC should be bursting with speed and memory too.
(and no, I don't want a Mac!)
Bruce
Get a Mac 
Hi Bruce,
Vista had early compatibility trouble and some facilities were missing but there never were any stability issues, just a bunch of non-Windows users who are doing what they are doing in this thread now - voicing their opinion that you should have what they have. Perhaps this bolsters their sense of self which they seem to have associated with a commercial brand, poor dears
You could find a local independent retailer and have them build something to your spec. To help track one down, Google knows about:
brigantia
nascr
pc association
fixitlocal
They'll sort it all out to your requirements and give good after sales care. To help you in advance I've typed a load of stuff below when really I should have been playing golf on PlayStation so I hope you're greatful.
Where I work we build for a designer whose company makes lots of videos (he's famous, years ago he drew cartoons for a legendary hi-fi magazine) and this is what he and I have learned:
Rendering performance responds well to quad core, Intel is favourite. 6MB to 8MB of cache RAM versions preferred as four cores will be sharing.
DDR3 RAM is too expensive for the benefit. Low latency 667MHz DDR2 will outperform cheap 800MHz DDR2. Getting on OK with Corsair, not so well with GEIL.
Low latency 800MHz RAM has really peaky current draw so put a good, high capacity power supply in. 800W or higher, Antec or Thermaltake are good.
It's going to get warm, use a good case. We like Antec and Lian Li. A cheap case will accentuate noise.
Pop a couple of hard drives in. For best speed render from one to the other. Partition to keep OS and data and paging separate. I prefer to keep my page file static at its largest size in its own partition as that way I don't need to defragment.
Stick a decent mainboard in, Intel chipset is preferred. Asus, Gigabyte and Intel boards are good.
Avoid 64 bit Vista this time around, compatibility will improve but only over time. 32 bit limits you to 4GB RAM (2^32 = 4GB) but that's sufficient.
Your video card is for games and scaling DVDs. Buying a big one won't affect rendering performance! Unless gaming, 256MB RAM is enough. The card RAM has to be mapped into the memory space and so eats away at your main 4GB, too much video card RAM is a bad thing.
If you really need to get the noise down Zalman do replacements for Intel's stock processor cooler and some neat hard drive coolers too. There are grommets you can fit to case exhaust fans to reduce cavitation and improve efficiency.
If attaching to the hi-fi, pop a Sound Blaster X-Fi card in. Together with the low noise PSU it will really groove, it's a surprisingly interesting and presentable sound. Download J River's Media Jukebox and configure for ASIO playback.
If instead you buy off the shelf, you won't get the same quality and you won't get another seven years.
C
(anorak to the bone!)
Vista had early compatibility trouble and some facilities were missing but there never were any stability issues, just a bunch of non-Windows users who are doing what they are doing in this thread now - voicing their opinion that you should have what they have. Perhaps this bolsters their sense of self which they seem to have associated with a commercial brand, poor dears
You could find a local independent retailer and have them build something to your spec. To help track one down, Google knows about:
brigantia
nascr
pc association
fixitlocal
They'll sort it all out to your requirements and give good after sales care. To help you in advance I've typed a load of stuff below when really I should have been playing golf on PlayStation so I hope you're greatful.
Where I work we build for a designer whose company makes lots of videos (he's famous, years ago he drew cartoons for a legendary hi-fi magazine) and this is what he and I have learned:
Rendering performance responds well to quad core, Intel is favourite. 6MB to 8MB of cache RAM versions preferred as four cores will be sharing.
DDR3 RAM is too expensive for the benefit. Low latency 667MHz DDR2 will outperform cheap 800MHz DDR2. Getting on OK with Corsair, not so well with GEIL.
Low latency 800MHz RAM has really peaky current draw so put a good, high capacity power supply in. 800W or higher, Antec or Thermaltake are good.
It's going to get warm, use a good case. We like Antec and Lian Li. A cheap case will accentuate noise.
Pop a couple of hard drives in. For best speed render from one to the other. Partition to keep OS and data and paging separate. I prefer to keep my page file static at its largest size in its own partition as that way I don't need to defragment.
Stick a decent mainboard in, Intel chipset is preferred. Asus, Gigabyte and Intel boards are good.
Avoid 64 bit Vista this time around, compatibility will improve but only over time. 32 bit limits you to 4GB RAM (2^32 = 4GB) but that's sufficient.
Your video card is for games and scaling DVDs. Buying a big one won't affect rendering performance! Unless gaming, 256MB RAM is enough. The card RAM has to be mapped into the memory space and so eats away at your main 4GB, too much video card RAM is a bad thing.
If you really need to get the noise down Zalman do replacements for Intel's stock processor cooler and some neat hard drive coolers too. There are grommets you can fit to case exhaust fans to reduce cavitation and improve efficiency.
If attaching to the hi-fi, pop a Sound Blaster X-Fi card in. Together with the low noise PSU it will really groove, it's a surprisingly interesting and presentable sound. Download J River's Media Jukebox and configure for ASIO playback.
If instead you buy off the shelf, you won't get the same quality and you won't get another seven years.
C
(anorak to the bone!)