XP Vs. Vista m1530

Hey everybody.
I just bought a M1530 early this morning, Specs are in the sig. When i get it, should i put xp on it? Whats the big deal with vista being so bad and xp being better? Better battery life? Sorry im a n00b, ive never used vista.

 

Congrats on the new laptop. You'll love it.
IMO Vista was just slower than XP and a real resource hog. I had it installed on a very fast desktop (specs in my signature) and it was just plain pokey. Don't get me wrong, great display eye candy, but I personally just prefer XP. Boots & connects to my wireless network considerably faster as well.

 

Thanks for the reply fiveo.
I agree with you, Preformance>visuals anyday

 

I am experiencing the opposite. I found Vista to be faster. Maybe, it is because I am using Vista 64. If you are going with Vista, I would suggest getting the latest drivers for all the hardware.

 

Hmmm sounds like i will have to try out vista for a little while.

 

im mainly a linux user who converted over after using xp for many years.

vista home premium came on my 1530 and i left it on there when i put ubuntu on so i can still play games.

honestly, vista has been very good so far and i have no complaints. . . which kinda erks me. . .

 

After constantly taking jabs from my dad (who's an iSheep) about Vista, I decided to try it out on my new m1530 when it came. I could not have been happier! I would probably recommend doing a clean install (which was so easy, only took about 20 mins) but Vista runs just as fast as XP. Gaming wise, there is maybe a 1-2 fps difference but that's not noticable. After using Vista for almost a month, XP now feels like Windows 98 whenever I have to use it at work.

 

Vista has prefetching and other likewise features that are going to make normal computer use faster than on XP. XP has more compatibility with older games and probally performs DX9 a wee-bit better.

Vista is superior now, especially with the SP.

 

Sounds great, Im sold on vista. I like the way it looks and most of you say it preforms well. I will look into doing a clean install of it when i get my system. When you do a clean install does the camera and fingerprint kinda stuff still work afterwards?

 

Vista on my desktop(not quite old, PEntium 4 3.0ghz, 2GB ram, ati x600) is much faster and better(well, takes 30minutes to reinstall compared to xp's >50 minutes).....

i like vista, dont think i'll even touch xp again...(except in school, when they still have xp

if ur installing Vista 32bit cleanly, drivers are available from Dell's support site

if ur installing Vista 64bit(as u might, cause 4GB ram.....32bit sees only 3.3+gb).... u need to get it(fingerprint) from here

 

Fingerprint and Webcam drivers should be on your drivers cd. There is also a cd that has the webcam software on it.

 

Do i have to buy 64 bit seperatly?

 

If you have a friend that has the 64-bit OS disc you can use it with your Activation key thats on the bottom of your notebook. Otherwise, there might be other ways to obtain the disc, but I wouldn't buy a separate copy.

Another thing to consider is that a lot of programs won't work with 64-bit right now and drivers may be hard to come by for certain things. For me, I didn't feel like going through the hassle, and I'm satisfied with dual channel ram on my 32-bit OS.

 

hmmm this is definetly something to decide on when i actually have vista lol. I think i will wait till then to make a decision. Thanks for the replies guys.

 

Honestly you dont even need to buy OS's, but I get in trouble when I tell people that, haha.

 

Looks like i can get a nice .iso of the disc right off the bay.

 

I wouldn't say that alot of programs don't work. It's more like maybe 1% of some weird programs that don't work. It can however be irritating when you need to use one of those programs that are in the 1%.

The problem is drivers, but now a days it's becoming almost a non-issue, especially with new hardware.

 

Stick with Vista. Your laptop can easily handle it.

 

now the question is? which vista 32 vs. 64 lol

 

Well you have 4Gb of Ram so you can only use 3.25 - 3.5 of that under 32-bit. Not that you will likely use all of that RAM at the moment anyway.

Its totally up to you which one you go for. If you want 64-bit you are entitled to it with your Serial number on your windows certificate, just need to get hold of the DVD disk from somewhere.

Check if any programs you use won't work under 64-bit, most of them will work fine though. 32-bit is just slightly less hassle as the drivers are easier to find etc, not too hard to find them though.

 

if u want to maximize ur paid 4GB ram.. go 64bit

or do u have an xp license hanging around? leave like 10GB to xp for gaming/other software or install as virtual machine in Vista...

 

Right now i cant think of any programs or games that wont run on it. I hear the battlefield 2 dosent work well on it, but thats alright. Right now ive got 1 gb ram in my xps 400. I think that i will totally forget about upgrading to 64bit once i power up the m1530 cause 3.5 is alot better lol.

 

I have to agree with the posts saying Vista w/SP1 runs better. But I still think the boot times and connectivity times are faster (only my opinion) in XP. Guess I'm just so used to XP that Vista isn't for me. I did use a new HD for my XP install so I still have my Dell (Seagate) HD with Vista on it so I can switch back should I ever need it for warranty or if I want to give Vista another go. Wasn't really necessary as I could have dual boot like I had on my desktop.

 

I think ive got a license somewhere, maybe. It came on my current machine from dell, im not sure if they gave the # with it.