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Question on Vista Upgrade?

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  • Question on Vista Upgrade?

    Hi everyone. I recently built a new computer - Gigabyte P35-DS4 (Rev 2.1), Intel Quad Q660 SLACR, PCP&C Silencer 610, 2 x 1GB G.SKILL PC6400, Thermalright Ultra 120E, Windows XP Home (SP2), Diamond Viper X1650 Pro 512MB PCI-E, Lite-On SATA DVD burner, and a Seagate 320GB SATA HD.

    I want to play Assassin's Creed on my new system and so I went to the game site and ran their "tester" to see how my system stacked up. The only thing I need to upgrade is the graphics card, which I was planning on doing anyway since I'm not a big fan of ATI cards. The Diamond I bought for my PC was on a ridiculous sale which is why I bought it. The card I'm thinking of upgrading to is this one here, which has a Shader Model 4.0 and will handle most anything I throw at it.

    Now my question is should I also upgrade to Vista? Or will I be able to play something like this fine on XP Home? I've been reading up on the XBox 360 controller for Windows and most of the sites recommend having Vista.

    Another thing it seems I'll need is an XBox controller (for PC) and the wireless receiver. This device gets a mixed bag on reviews so I figure it's probably a gamble on that. If anyone here owns one I would appreciate your input on this as well.

    Thanks in advance for your replies.

  • #2
    Re: Question on Vista Upgrade?

    Originally posted by desktop View Post
    Hi everyone. I recently built a new computer - Gigabyte P35-DS4 (Rev 2.1), Intel Quad Q660 SLACR, PCP&C Silencer 610, 2 x 1GB G.SKILL PC6400, Thermalright Ultra 120E, Windows XP Home (SP2), Diamond Viper X1650 Pro 512MB PCI-E, Lite-On SATA DVD burner, and a Seagate 320GB SATA HD.

    I want to play Assassin's Creed on my new system and so I went to the game site and ran their "tester" to see how my system stacked up. The only thing I need to upgrade is the graphics card, which I was planning on doing anyway since I'm not a big fan of ATI cards. The Diamond I bought for my PC was on a ridiculous sale which is why I bought it. The card I'm thinking of upgrading to is this one here, which has a Shader Model 4.0 and will handle most anything I throw at it.

    Now my question is should I also upgrade to Vista? Or will I be able to play something like this fine on XP Home? I've been reading up on the XBox 360 controller for Windows and most of the sites recommend having Vista.

    Another thing it seems I'll need is an XBox controller (for PC) and the wireless receiver. This device gets a mixed bag on reviews so I figure it's probably a gamble on that. If anyone here owns one I would appreciate your input on this as well.

    Thanks in advance for your replies.

    The system specs for the game are as follows so either 32 bit OS should work fine. Not sure about 64bit versions of the OS though.
    • Supported OS: Windows XP or Windows Vista only
    • Processor: Dual core processor 2.6 GHz Intel® Pentium® D or AMD Athlonâ„¢ 64 X2 3800+ (Intel Core® 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ or better recommended)
    • RAM: 1 GB Windows Xp / 2 GB Windows Vista
    • 256 MB DirectX® 10.0-compliant video card or DirectX 9.0-compliant card with Shader Model 3.0 or higher
    • Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 or 10.0 compliant sound card (5.1 sound card recommended)
    • DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0 or DirectX 10.0 libraries (included on disc)
    • DVD-ROM: DVD-ROM dual-layer drive or blu-ray disc
    • Hard Drive Space: 8 GB
    • Peripherals Supported: Keyboard, mouse, optional controller (Xbox 360 Controller for Windows recommended)
    Supported video cards at time of release:
    • ATI® RADEON® X1600<small><sup id="ref_PCI-card" class="plainlinksneverexpand">†</sup></small>/1650<small><sup id="ref_PCI-card" class="plainlinksneverexpand">†</sup></small>-1950/HD 2000/3000 series
    • NVIDIA GeForce® 6800<small><sup id="ref_PCI-card" class="plainlinksneverexpand">†</sup></small>/7/8/9 series



    Its been a good year since I've used a controller on a PC. The Keyboard and mouse seem to be the perfered PC controller in my household for most games. I've tried wired Xbox 360 controllers on PC's in the past and thought they were ok. Not great but a better controller than any I've used in the past for a pc. I can't think of many reasons to use a wireless controller since most people don't go far when sitting infront of a PC. Its easy to plug into a USB port when needed or unplug and hide it when its not needed plus there are no batteries required that way. The wired 360 controller is truly plug and play if I remember right.

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    • #3
      Re: Question on Vista Upgrade?

      Been a vista user for 6 months now... i want to rip out my hard drive, nail it to a frisbee and fling it over a rainbow...

      xp will suffice until the glory of windows 7 is upon us!
      Andrew "Eightball103" Jones

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Question on Vista Upgrade?

        I really cant answer your question Desktop, But i am replying mostly to ask Eightball103 why he hates Vista so much. And Which version do you have? Because i am ordering new parts to put my new system together and planned on picking up Vista Ultimate for it.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Question on Vista Upgrade?

          Ok, so my response was pretty un-informative, but the main reason i'm not liking vista is because its sloooooooooooooow. its no secret that its a memory hog and xp is just faster.

          The gui is a bit of a poor attempt at competing with the great 3d effects the linux distros are beginning to sport, and generally im not impressed by it. given the choice (to which asus hasn't given me with my as8c laptop) i would go xp all the time.

          My laptop is running vista home 32bit
          My in-the-works gaming rig is xp 32bit sp2

          I know that my argument seems rather shallow but i really dont like vista, i never feel like im getting the most from my hardware in vista, it feels a little fisher-price.

          Personally i would say save the cash, and pick up a copy of xp instead, windows 7 is not too far away and while i have my doubts it will be as good as xp, it will probably make vista look like windows ME...

          But as always take my hatred with a grain of salt... i cant actually say that vista doesn't work... it does... it does quite well, but it just eats up system resources like a fat kid at a buffet.
          And its dress is none too pretty either ;-)
          Last edited by eightball103; 04-17-2008, 04:19 AM.
          Andrew "Eightball103" Jones

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Question on Vista Upgrade?

            Sorry, but your arguments are purely emotional and not rational or logical.

            1. Vista is not a memory hog. All the memory it uses standing still frees up the second it is needed. I am actually happy Vista uses all this memory I bought instead of stuttering like XP to get moving.

            2. Vista is tough on PC's with minimum requirements. You should run atleast 1GB for Vista and 2GB is better while XP will run decent with 512MB and shoud have 1GB or more. Still, with ram prices so ridiculously low, there is no reason to not have 4GB nowadays.

            3. I agree that the visuals are somewhat of a rip-off, but I see no problem with that since they are giving us Windows users something better. Linux sucks for alot of people since it is difficult to install and use and even harder to configure. I am a long time Linux user and I have no qualms stating that. Besides that, you just cannot game on a Linux PC without some major Linux knowledge.

            4. Windows 7 (or whatever they will call it) will DEFINITELY be late. We won't see it before 2011 if we are lucky. Then when it does come out, everyone will complain about how bad driver support is and how they won't get it to SP1. The same tired arguements used against Vista were used against XP when it was released and they will be repeated when Windows 7 is released.

            5. Installing Vista is SOOOOO much easier than XP since 99% of all the system drivers you need are already there. XP is old and this is where it really shows it's age BADLY.

            Vista runs faster on my PC than XP. Wista works better than XP. Vista uses memory better than XP. Vista uses resources better than XP. The only problem is that laptops are too weak for Vista unless you get a really good one. As for desktops, I run Vista Premium 64 on my wifes PC which is an older Socket 939 AMD system and it works very well. I did boost it up to 4GB of ram, but again I feel that there is no reason to not have ALOT of ram since it was cheap. A properly configured computer will make XP look old like it is.

            I have no love for XP since it is a major pain in the ass and I love Vista. As long as you take a few moments to get used to Vista you will have a great experience. SP1 has made a big difference and I can easily and happily encourage Vista for new PC's. Anything more than a few years old or any cheaper laptop still should only run XP since they are not up to the challenge. Otherwise, any PC built with current release parts and 2GB+ of ram will run beautifully under Vista.

            PS: 64-Bit is the way to go too. No problems with anything here under 64-Bit and we'll see alot of stuff coming to 64-bit soon.
            GIgabyte GA-990FXA-UD3
            AMD FX8120 @ 4GHz
            Patriot 1866MHz EL series 2X4GB DDR3
            Powercolour HD 6970 2GB w/XFX 8800GT 512MB Hybrid PhysX
            Creative X-FI titanium HD w/Technics class A 300W amp and tower speakers
            PC P&C 500W PSU
            2TB Seagate
            Coolermaster 690II w/Corsair H100 tucked under the hood

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Question on Vista Upgrade?

              1. Vista is not a memory hog. All the memory it uses standing still frees up the second it is needed. I am actually happy Vista uses all this memory I bought instead of stuttering like XP to get moving.

              There must be something wrong with mine then i think, because the stuff that is allocated for system use sits there.

              2. Vista is tough on PC's with minimum requirements. You should run atleast 1GB for Vista and 2GB is better while XP will run decent with 512MB and shoud have 1GB or more. Still, with ram prices so ridiculously low, there is no reason to not have 4GB nowadays.

              Yea i stuck an extra 1gb module in my laptop, damn near doubled the perfomance! i kid you not. it was great!

              3. I agree that the visuals are somewhat of a rip-off, but I see no problem with that since they are giving us Windows users something better. Linux sucks for alot of people since it is difficult to install and use and even harder to configure. I am a long time Linux user and I have no qualms stating that. Besides that, you just cannot game on a Linux PC without some major Linux knowledge.

              Too true, linux for everything but games. Ubuntu had a great FAQ and walkthrough to set up WINE for gaming, but unfortunately i lost the link. i havent had the patience to go trawling for it again. what do you use linux for?

              4. Windows 7 (or whatever they will call it) will DEFINITELY be late. We won't see it before 2011 if we are lucky. Then when it does come out, everyone will complain about how bad driver support is and how they won't get it to SP1. The same tired arguements used against Vista were used against XP when it was released and they will be repeated when Windows 7 is released.

              Not that i said this, but word form the inside... windows 7 will be "Your desktop anywhere"...
              Make what you will of that... and yes it will be delayed, you dont need a magic 8ball to predict that one :-p

              5. Installing Vista is SOOOOO much easier than XP since 99% of all the system drivers you need are already there. XP is old and this is where it really shows it's age BADLY.

              Installing vista is the same as installing xp in my eyes, almost an identical(albeit slightly more jazzed up) installer.
              True there is more driver support for vista now for newer things, but to be honest, i havent run a product recently that wasnt backwards compatible with xp the same way it works with vista. its all plug and play.

              Vista runs faster on my PC than XP. Wista works better than XP. Vista uses memory better than XP. Vista uses resources better than XP. The only problem is that laptops are too weak for Vista unless you get a really good one. As for desktops, I run Vista Premium 64 on my wifes PC which is an older Socket 939 AMD system and it works very well. I did boost it up to 4GB of ram, but again I feel that there is no reason to not have ALOT of ram since it was cheap. A properly configured computer will make XP look old like it is.

              I think we should agree to disagree on this subject my friend, i do not wish to argue the finer points of operating systems with anyone, becuase its all be said before on many other forums and this is time better spent kicking ass in COD4 and drinking sweet taiwanese beer!

              I have no love for XP since it is a major pain in the ass and I love Vista. As long as you take a few moments to get used to Vista you will have a great experience. SP1 has made a big difference and I can easily and happily encourage Vista for new PC's. Anything more than a few years old or any cheaper laptop still should only run XP since they are not up to the challenge. Otherwise, any PC built with current release parts and 2GB+ of ram will run beautifully under Vista.

              its like i said, asus gave me no choice but vista, the laptop is more than capable since its only a year or so old from release (i think??) but i looked at reverting to xp and there are alot of propriatary drivers that have been modified for the laptop, its strange. case in point the 8400g m graphics module... why can i not get drivers from nvidia like any other card/module?.. asus seem to have these special drivers and trying to find xp versions is like blood from a stone. ah well.

              PS: 64-Bit is the way to go too. No problems with anything here under 64-Bit and we'll see alot of stuff coming to 64-bit soon.[/quote]

              Closing statement:
              Vista is a perfectly acceptable OS, no question.... it does the job, and the points layed out here are for everyone to make their own mind up on based on their preferences and experience.
              Vista is the here and now, while xp is old (only getting older) and has been given a shakey last chance with SP3 coming. I still stand by that if you have xp avalible then its your decision.

              I run both, and occasionally, when i get bored, i put linux on things just to see what happens.

              Thank you ladies and gentlemen, you've been a wonderful audience, goodnight! and dont forget to tip your waitress.
              Andrew "Eightball103" Jones

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Question on Vista Upgrade?

                Laptop manufacturers are *******s for what they did when it came to driver support. It would take next to no effort to write up proper XP drivers, but since they are getting greased by Microsoft to push Vista, they will not.
                GIgabyte GA-990FXA-UD3
                AMD FX8120 @ 4GHz
                Patriot 1866MHz EL series 2X4GB DDR3
                Powercolour HD 6970 2GB w/XFX 8800GT 512MB Hybrid PhysX
                Creative X-FI titanium HD w/Technics class A 300W amp and tower speakers
                PC P&C 500W PSU
                2TB Seagate
                Coolermaster 690II w/Corsair H100 tucked under the hood

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Question on Vista Upgrade?

                  I think Vista is an OK OS but I agree it runs like craaaap on the systems most manufactures sell to retail stores and laptops are definitely even worse off since most are even more under powered than the cheaper desktops. I remember this being pretty much the same for about the first year or so when XP came out. Put Win 98 on its a better OS they said..... If you want a good Vista system get one that will break the 5.9 Windows experience and disable the default nag settings.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Question on Vista Upgrade?

                    To some ppl (like me) its more than crap.

                    Unless you're a gamer that actually requires DX10 then I wouldn't bother.

                    I deal a lot with working/moving very large files across a network and Vista makes my work take at least twice as long as it takes with XP plus that's not including several other annoying probs (I hope that Win7 is a 200% improvement over Vista or most of my pc's will move over to Ubuntu).

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