My Vista/XP Debate

Posted by Glen on Dec. 4, 2008, 5:30 p.m.

I'm in a situation where I would like to get the best performance out of the machine that I'm using.

Computer Specs:

-Dell Inspiron E1505 (Laptop)

-32 Bit Machine

-1gb RAM

-Intel Core Duo Processor 1.87ghz

-111gb HD space

It's currently using Vista Basic and I'm feeling that it's a waste of resources to be using Vista Basic SP1 and not have all the nice things that Premium or Ultimate has. Indeed it may be shinier by default and the design is more user friendly, but I feel that my old XP computer ran as fast or possibly faster and could have the same looks if I used a program to do so. Point being, I think XP could perform as well as my Vista Basic but not be so hard on my computer.

My previous computer was a streamlined "gamer" version of XP where I followed tutorials that lead me to having an improved OS than what it originally was. This was great in all until the computer crashed when I did something wrong.

My question is, with the specs that I have above, I'm wondering if I should go with a fine tuned version of Windows XP Professional SP3 or continue to use my Vista Basic SP1 and wait for the next SP2. As I'm reading around, Vista Basic seems to be a waste of money to every critic….

Getting a better computer is not an option at the moment, for I'm saving to build a tower from scratch so i'm just trying to choose what is best for me until the time comes when I do upgrade my entire computer.

Now, if you're a fan of XP over Vista I would like to listen to why you prefer it and vice versa with the Vista users. One thing I would like to know is, if a slimmed down version of XP is considered a better gaming OS, then wouldn't the same work for a slimmed down version of Vista? Or is there something I'm missing. I always thought that a newer OS would mean a more efficient OS and it seems to me that XP is only good when it's highly modified….

If you have an opinion on this, I'd like to hear something more than a Vista/XP sucks type of response (and I'm not switching to Linux, Mac, etc…). This computer is essential to me and I'd like the best performance out of it.

Comments

PY 15 years, 5 months ago

Why not tweak Vista?

For 1GB of RAM, you may want to turn off precaching, and for that CPU, you might now want indexing (search).

If the graphics card is ok though, why not just go premium?

XP tends to get an fps or 2 more out of games, but the OS is nicer, so it's a fair trade.

Glen 15 years, 5 months ago

I don't believe my graphics card is the greatest. On the computer rating system, the processing speed seems to have good ratings in all, but all the graphic ratings seem to be fairly average.

And I already have the Windows XP SP3 (already tweaked) disc with me. I wouldn't want to buy another version of Vista and find that it's not as good as I had hoped. I'm not familiar with the differences in the OS's performance wise. WHich Is why I brought this question about.

-edit-

And I've never tweaked Vista before.

uglyman 15 years, 5 months ago

Go with XP cuz I'm biased

Glen 15 years, 5 months ago

Why though?

PY 15 years, 5 months ago

cuz he's biased, duh.

Joseph 15 years, 5 months ago

I have a question. I bought my laptop here with vista, it sucked, so I installed xp, it wouldn't run photoshop, so I put vista back on.

Now, I can't play any games that draw a lot, even if it's not on the screen. I've updated my drivers and everything, but why is everything always so laggy?

I have a regular vista hardware dell inspiron e1505.

Josea 15 years, 5 months ago

With only 1 Gb of RAM I would rather go for XP, however, I have managed to run Vista Ultimate on a machine with similar hardware and it ran fine, just turn off eyecandy and resource intensive services.

KaBob799 15 years, 5 months ago

Just look up some guides on what services and options to disable. I was running vista basic with 512mb ram for a while o.0

Patrick7286 15 years, 5 months ago

partition your hard drive and have both.

KaBob799 15 years, 5 months ago

Quote:
partition your hard drive and have both.
Dang I completely forgot to suggest that, it's what I did on my desktop.