new computer purchase.

breakneck

i was wondering if i bought a new computer and it came with window vista installed, would it still be a stable machine if i reformat and put windows xp in??
-thanks!

Jonathan

Often newer machines that come with Vista may not offer much support if you go back to XP (unless you can get them to sell you a machine with XP already installed).

It is quite a pain trying to track down the correct driver for an off-the-shelf machine like a Dell, Asus, HP, etc. and even worse if it's a laptop. I would be running XP on my laptop right now, but there are a good number of issues of not getting the wireless card to work, sound not working properly, etc. as some vendors do not make older drivers for XP, even though Vista hasn't exactly sold like hot cakes.

Joshua Stubbles

At this point, honestly, why do you want to go back to XP? Vista SP1 is rock solid, no problems. Unless you're using some obscure hardware that doesn't have a driver, you're not going to have problems in Vista. I've been running Ultimate64 (what people bitch as being the buggiest) for about 4 months now. Not a single problem. Everything works, runs great.
People need to get over the misconceptions about Vista. It's a great OS.

rhoymand

you should wait for windows mojave. I heard its WAAAY better than vista =P

but yeah, vista should be fine if your new comp comes with it. if you're bold enough to reformat and downgrade, you should just consider building your own computer from scratch. that way you won't have any trouble finding the drivers for your hardware.

East

As they say, your mileage may vary when it comes to Vista. I recommend you give whatever comes installed on your machine a try, and if you find problems you can just downgrade to XP.

The reason companies don't use Vista is because they usually have archaic non-supported software made for Windows NT/2000, that doesn't even run properly on XP half of the time. So switching to Vista is normally not an option for companies set in their ways.

Individuals and enthusiasts on the other hand normally don't rely on outdated software so for us it can be a safer bet.

Michael Knubben

If you're going back to xp, you'll likely want to use xp64 anyway, and why not use vista instead, then? It's amusing how people compare Vista to a highly optimised xp and complain. You turn off all the shiny shit in XP, why not do the same in Vista eh?

Brice Vandemoortele

exactly.
I was kinda reluctant to switch to vista. But you can easily switch to a more classic windows interface and if you have a 64bits machine and a decent amount of ram then taking full advantage out of it really makes a difference. My work machine runs both maya and turtle in 64bits and the performances are quite outstanding.

breakneck

thanks for the replies folks. if vista isn't as bad as i've heard then i'll give it a shot. here's the rig i'm lookin at: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227070
not the most awesome, but it fits my budget for now.

Michael Knubben

The complaints about vista mostly stem from people being disappointed at how little incentive there really is to upgrade. During the development they made all sorts of promises that weren't all kept, and there's some real bitterness among geeks because of it. The thing is also that XP was very stable (but not perfect) at the end, so people need a lot to consider switching.

Jonathan

breakneck wrote: »

thanks for the replies folks. if vista isn't as bad as i've heard then i'll give it a shot. here's the rig i'm lookin at: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227070
not the most awesome, but it fits my budget for now.

Seems like a good machine from what I see.

EarthQuake

One thing to note there is the max ram for that system is 4gb, so if you're thinking of upgrading to 8gb anytime in the future, you would have to replace the motherboard. And ram is cheap as hell, so i would look for something with a higher max.

breakneck

good point, i'll look at some other options

breakneck

what about this rig w/ 8gb of ram??
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227083
your thoughts are greatly appreciated