I prostrate myself before you, IT gurus

[Moatilliatta]

I remember XP running like ass on my computer even though it was high end for the time, and I knew noone who had a good experience until SP1. But then again it IS anedoctal evidence so **** grano salis.

 

Edit: What does this forum have against Latin?

 

Edit2: Latin with a g? I need to sleep.

Edited April 24, 2008 by Moatilliatta

[Gorgon]

It's like it's been said already, XP works, and Vista can't run lots of software you might have already. It's one of those incarnations of Windows that doesn't seem justified.

[Moatilliatta]

[wishfull thinking]It would be justified if game developers would lift their collective arses and make true directx 10 games [/wishfull thinking]

[samm]

You're right on the last one, but it would be commercial suicide to do so right now, if the 10% user base is true. Also, 64bit calculations should be taken into account more thoroughly.

Btw, 4 GB can be adressed with 32bit-adresses. It seems that XP 32 doesn't report all 4 GB because system ressources are deducted from the total. Iirc, it was said that Vista 32 SP1 would say it can actually see all 4GB. Anyway, if it will be Vista for me before Windows 7, it will be 64bit Ultimate. Why updating if not for some interesting changes?

[Moatilliatta]

You're right on the last one, but it would be commercial suicide to do so right now, if the 10% user base is true.

Hence the wishfull thinking in brackets.

I do think that it could potentially be worth it for them if they could make something that would make people adopt, people after all often need incentive to do stuff.

 

Edit: I should also say that I'm slightly sceptical about the 10% figure. It is true that it is much lower than it should be by now.

Edited April 25, 2008 by Moatilliatta

[Deadly_Nightshade]

...Vista can't run lots of software you might have already.

 

Bull****.

[samm]

Why not link to your post? Anyway, if considering Vista, a look at Nightshade's Software Compatibility List for Windows Vista found here certainly helps

[Humodour]

I believe Vista has about a 10% market share as of Feb 2008. That's an absolutely appalling figure considering it is one year old. XP reached 30% in the first year after its release. It has forced Microsoft to step back and unlock XP sales again.

I can't help but think that much of this is created by bad-hype by thousands of people who try to look tech-savvy (and fail) or have no foundation on the planet earth. By this I don't mean people like you Krezack since you did come with a well-reasoned post, but the people for whom it is a gut instinct and whom have no actual experience with it or even proper knowledge of it, there are a lot of these people in my experience and it irks me.

 

No, I suppose that probably does describe me a bit. While I harbour no irrational ill-will towards Microsoft and have no desire to see the company fail, I am generally quite disappointed in their 'evil' marketing strategies and the general lack of improvement Vista provides over XP for the average user (more than anything it would seem Vista was designed as a quick cash cow because the company is built around releasing a new OS every 4 years). Anyway, I guess this translates as a less than reasoned vehemence in the relative uselessness of Vista, when in fact it does have some advantages and in the end is not really worse than XP... just not better either.

 

But let it be known that bad word of mouth alone is not what is hurting Vista. I recall a very similar reaction to XP, but in the end much of the bad press turned out to be trivial, unfounded or fixed with patches and positive word of mouth took over. In the case of Vista, a fair chunk of the problems which generated the bad press remain, most importantly the seemingly insurmountable problem of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". The funny thing is, this is probably the first time people have felt this way towards Microsoft - they genuinely had something good going with XP and even the hardcore Linux fans tend to acknowledge that. (I'm not counting 98SE2 because I really believe XP offers significant improvements, especially in stability.)

 

Edit: Oh, did I mention Microsoft is releasing their next OS in 2010? I dunno... could be worth holding off on Vista for this reason alone. You decide. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7

 

Here's a screenshot of one of the current Windows 7 Alphas. Look familiar? I'm actually interested in it for the MinWin feature which apparently uses only 40mb memory max and is command-line based.

 

Edited April 25, 2008 by Krezack

[Bokishi]

Vista is a no brainer if you have a c2d, 2 gigs RAM, and a nvidia 7 or 8 series GPU. Anything lesser then please back away slowly lol.

 

I can also vouch for crappy marketing, take this official MS comparison of DX9 vs DX10. The shot on the left can easily be done on DX9, and since it is such an old shot, it was probably done in DX9 in the first place. They compare it next to 7 year old Halo to make DX9 look bad or something. Very deceiving and childish.

 

http://www.gamesforwindows.com/en-US/About...irectX10-a.aspx

[Humodour]

Hahahahaha! OMG that is priceless. It's like one of the weight loss adds where they use camera angles, make-up, baggy clothing vs swimwear, and a beach vs a cramped room as the set, to make it look like there was some amazing loss of weight and sudden marked increase in beauty.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Oh, did I mention Microsoft is releasing their next OS in 2010? I dunno... could be worth holding off on Vista for this reason alone.

 

I doubt it, Windows 7 will get delayed...

[Monte Carlo]

At the moment, the Chillblast Fusion Juggernaut (ha ha ha!) is beginning to have the edge over the Dell. Some tec-savvy friends are quite impressed with the system specs and price and suggest that I'll enjoy at least three years top-end gaming from it. Apparently, Crysis runs very smoothly on it. I'm not a FPS fan, but allegedly this game is a notorious systems hawg.

 

Can anybody suggest any custom options that I should go for, as the rig is slightly under budget? I'm thinking of 64 bit Vista.

 

Lastly, will I be able to play old IE games on Vista? Does it have a compatability function like XP?

 

Cheers

 

MC

Edited April 25, 2008 by Monte Carlo

[Deadly_Nightshade]

I run BG and BG II without compatibility mode and they work fine on 32-bit Vista - so, yeah, they should work.

[Pidesco]

Do you have to get Vista? It's just that I'd suggest you leave that purchase to a later time. Not that it's bad just that I think Vista is superfluous, right now.

 

 

As for extra options, I'd go with with more hard drive space, and I'd tell you not to get the Extreme Audio sound card, as it sucks. Get at least the Extreme Gamer.

 

Finally, get a huge banner with Chillblast Fusion Juggernaut on it. That name is so ridiculous, it becomes awesome.

[Moatilliatta]

Chillblast Fusion Juggernaut is sure to impress the females... then they realize that it is a computer and laugh at you.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Depends on the female - I know several who would be more interested after finding out it was multi-grand gaming PC. Of course they would also be, in the literal sense, more than happen to have you connect LAN cables to their ports - not so keen on the figurative meaning of the aforementioned action.

[SteveThaiBinh]

I run BG and BG II without compatibility mode and they work fine on 32-bit Vista...

Same here.

[Monte Carlo]

Finally, get a huge banner with Chillblast Fusion Juggernaut on it. That name is so ridiculous, it becomes awesome.

 

Apparently you get a free T-shirt. The chicks will love it.

 

Mrs. Monte Carlo has told me that I need to grow up. Then I showed her a couple of customised Alienware rigs (y'now, day-glo green covered in flames and stuff) and she calmed down because the CFJ actually looks quite dull.

[Humodour]

Oh, did I mention Microsoft is releasing their next OS in 2010? I dunno... could be worth holding off on Vista for this reason alone.

 

I doubt it, Windows 7 will get delayed...

 

Nah, MS is pushing for an 09 release, but 2010 at latest. They can't afford to delay it due to the poor performance of Vista and they know it.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Oh, did I mention Microsoft is releasing their next OS in 2010? I dunno... could be worth holding off on Vista for this reason alone.

 

I doubt it, Windows 7 will get delayed...

 

Nah, MS is pushing for an 09 release, but 2010 at latest. They can't afford to delay it due to the poor performance of Vista and they know it.

 

Bah. They always try for an early release and fail.

[Walsingham]

I'd like a Chillblast Fusion Juggernaut ****tail. Can someone mix one?

[Monte Carlo]

UPDATE:

 

In the end, having done my research and speaking with my bank manager I've decided on the preposterously named but rather powerful Chillblaster-Angry-Sounding-Macho-Rig-thingie:

 

SPECIFICATIONS:

2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 overclocked to 3.4GHz, 4GB 800MHz DDR2 RAM, Asus Rampage Formula Republic of Gamers motherboard, 1GB Nvidia GeForce 9800 GX2 graphics, 750GB Samsung Spinpoint HD753LJ hard disk, Samsung DVD writer, 20in Samsung SyncMaster TFT, Saitek Eclipse II keyboard, Razer DiamondBack mouse, Creative T7900 7.1 speakers, 2 x PCI-E 16x, 2 x PCI-E 1x, 2 x PCI, 8 x USB, 2 x DVI-I, 1 x HDMI, 2 x FireWire, eSATA, Gigabit Ethernet, S/PDIF, PS/2, Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit, 2yr RTB warranty.

 

^ I'm not sure what this means, but apparently it's very, very fast and I will be able to hack into the Death Star and the NSA and stuff on it.

 

I've made my order and customised it a bit - nothing drastic.

 

I have to say, the telephone support was very good, the guy was very patient with a novice such as myself and even helped me save some money on my order by guiding me through my customisation options.

 

I will be playing this Crysis game everybody is talking about, although Fallout 3 and the new Total War game are the ones that I'm really gearing up for. I will post a review, and my Dell (worth about UK

[samm]

Nice, pre-overclocked fast system, but with one-card SLI, without soundcard but inexpensive 7.1 surround sound system? Wouldn't be my case exactly, but I hope you'll enjoy the speed of this monster

[Monte Carlo]

It comes with a SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme card. I didn't order the speakers as I have my own much nicer ones already.

 

I was wondering about the one versus two videocard issue, but was persuaded by sales guy. I'm not playing hours of networked FPS, just want to occasionally enjoy top-end games. For example, I suspect Dragon Age will be a bit of a hawg but I'm anticipating running it on full pelt on this rig.

 

Cheers

MC

[samm]

Ah, I see, now I don't have much to complain about anymore

Btw, one vs. two video-cards wasn't what I meant, I just have a problem with SLI (and Crossfire for that matter), be it on-card (as is the case with the 9800GX2) or 'normal' with two cards, because the speed-'increase' they provide isn't as big as the FPS numbers would suggest.