Sager XP/Vista????

Hi, I'm a prospective Sager 8660 buyer, however I called Sager the other day to ask a few general config questions, and I was confused to find that the rep didn't advocate Vista. He told me to get XP instead, and that 90% of the people who order this notebook order XP, and are mostly gamers. The rep said this was mainly due to compatibility issues. He also commented that Vista would not be the new standard, that in 2 years Microsoft would be unveiling multiple OS's tailored to different users needs. This is all news to me, I don't know a thing about Vista really, I'm still currently using XP on my machine, but my intitial thoughts were "Of course I should get Vista its the new OS and its been out long enough." So I'm rather confused as to which Operating System to get if I were to order one of these notebooks. Also he mentioned XP could utilize 3.2 gigs of memory, whereas Vista could run the whole 4 gigs. If you were to purchase this notebook which OS would you get? Anyone who knows anything about either OS that could provide some direction would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

(Also anyone who has this notebook know if choosing a slower processor and HDD will significantly reduce heat output? thanks.)

 

_Vista will "see" the whole 4gigs of RAM only if you go with the 64-bit version; otherwise, the 32-bit version won't see any more RAM than XP does.

 

Vista has Directx 10, which i think is a good reason (if you're a gamer) to get it.

 

it *may* be a good reason in the future. right now its really not worth the extra hundreds of $ you spend for vista... if you think itll do well and your gpu can handle it in the future go ahead but alot of gamers would probably be getting newer gpus by the time dx10 is used fully.

 

Vista is factored into the price, I believe its an extra $40 for XP, but would 64 Bit Vista be a pain now, but a good investment for the future?

 

I am currently running x64 ultimate on my 5793, and I just think that my machine is not fast enough for it.

 

so you'd recommend xp nirvana?

 

Are you used to XP? If so, it may not be worth your time to learn a dying operating system.

 

im very used to xp, and i wasn't aware that vista was dying either, can you explain? will xp remain standard for a while?

 

Since MS is trying to get Windows 7 out in the next couple of years, people believe MS is trying to retire Vista quickly. What nobody seems to understand (which is ok since many people here are young) is that a three-year product cycle for Windows isn't exactly some new idea. Ever since Windows 1.0 way back in the mid-80's, MS has *ALWAYS* kept to a 2-3 year product cycle for every desktop OS *EXCEPT* XP to Vista. In fact technically they did release new stuff, as XP SP2 is practically a new OS compared to pre-SP2, and XP 64 was released in that timeframe, but nobody really counts those.

MS burned a lot of cash and time going from October 2001's XP to January 30, 2007's Vista (retail availability). In fact you could say they held the entire industry back, as XP's base requirements have never really changed. If a desktop Windows OS with new requirements had launched in say, 2004, it would have encouraged culling the older hardware and hardware makers may have worked to raise the "typical desktop" bar a little higher. Hardware makers got lazy. PC owners did too. I for example went from 8MB of RAM in 1994 to 1GB in 2001. Seven years, 128 times increase. From 2001 to 2006 I rode on 1GB. That's 0 increase in five years. Vista has pretty high RAM demands and the push for RAM has led to the current market where 4GB is rebated down to $50.

(I should also mention here that Windows 7 will in fact be an update of Vista, and MS is already indicating to hardware makers that it will be close enough to Vista that when they certify their drivers for Vista they will need to certify them for Windows 7 also)

As far as "XP remaining a standard" that really depends on where you are. In my house Vista x64 is king, XP has been ejected from my real machines and now is remembered fondly in a Virtual machine taking hard disk space I could probably use for better things. At work we have a couple of Vista x64 boxes that I now beeline to when I get to work, as I find them far more enjoyable than the junk XP machines. Walk into any computer store and find a demo machine set up with XP. Good luck with that.

Vista is the "going forward" OS. XP is not going forward. This is the line in the sand. A person either stays on the XP side of the line and is happy there and they get old and YOU KIDS AND YOUR RAP MUSIC or they step over the line, they adjust to the new, and they can now continue walking until they reach the next line, which Windows 7 will not be. Looking back, they will see how far away the XP line is.

 

What kind of things are you planning to use the new computer for?

Do you have old programs which you would like to be compatible? Which programs?

What hardware (peripherals) do you have that you would want the computer to be compatible with?

When the next Windows does come out, sometime in the next 9-18 months, it will be a relatively minor update to Vista, have a high degree of compatibility with Vista, and not so much with XP, and that will just make XP even more obsolete than it is now.

http://www.winsupersite.com/faq/windows_7.asp

So, my advice is to run Vista unless you have a specific important compatiblity need for XP, and to run Vista 64-bit unless you have a compatiblity need for 32-bit.

 

God help us all if this turd is the best the geniuses at Microsoft can come up with. To the OP I took off Vista on my Dell notebook and installed XP. It's the better OS.

 

umm its really general purpose notebook, with above average use for games, but i'm anticipating future titles such as the second Dawn of War. I don't want something that's going to fall behind in the gpu area which is why I arrived at Sager.

I don't think I have many programs that I'd need to be compatible with, or any hardware for that matter besides a USB mouse. I'm seeing both sides here...what are the advantageous of getting 64 bit? Doesn't Vista 64 bit basically emulate 32 bit software? Will I run into any problems there with things like Photoshop, Kaspersky AntiVirus, O&O Defrag, Warcraft 3?

 

I have all these programs and they are SMOOTH in x64 ultimate. The thing I hate the most is how slow your browser is when you scrolling web sites, no matter on Firefox or IE.
Some says crysis run better under 64bit? I don't know, I am too lazy to find out.

 

Thanks that's reassuring to hear.

 

So this guy's main reason for telling you to get XP is compatibility, yet you have no real compatibility needs. (The mouse will be fine. )

As long as you have current versions of those programs, you'll be fine with 64-bit. (Not sure about O&O... it's probably fine but you can check their website.) 64-bit runs 32-bit programs fine... the only thing is they dropped support for the 16-bit Windows API (i.e. pre-Windows 95). However, there are still a few programs around from this decade that still use 16-bit installers and stuff, so those won't work if they haven't update it.

The advantages of 64-bit are: better overall performance, support for unlimited amounts of RAM, and improved security and stability (only drivers signed by Microsoft are allowed to run inside the kernel).

Have you tried out Opera? I'm content with Firefox's scrolling on my 64-bit Vista, and my specs are much worse than yours. But Opera's scrolling is smoother and faster, and I can see the difference. (Google Chrome's scrolling is very fast too but also very coarse and jumpy on my machine when I use my mouse's scroll wheel... I don't know if there's any way to fix that.)

 

I use Visa 64 and never have had any problems in fact I had XP on my desktop and my laptop with Vista 64 just ran a lot smoother and seemed to install a lot cleaner. If you are looking toward the future then stick with a OS that is pushing future technologies. Vista got a bad rap from all the cheap hardware that manufactures used when it first came out but the hardware now rocks and so does the system you are getting. I have not had a game yet that did not run on Vista 64 and Steam and Starcraft run awesome.

 

Frankly, your opinion doesn't add much to the conversation. Having that strong of a bias is not helping anyone on the internet, and for that matter in the world. It dilutes all of the "true" (if there are any 100% factual stuff out there) with all kinds of pointless stats, personal statements, etc. This is my personal mantra...if it comes with Vista, leave it be. However, I won't be running out there and buying Vista (though I never buy new OS cds anyway).

 

One thing that always makes a big difference on how a system runs are drivers. I never run cd drivers but always get the latest one from the hardware manufacturers websites. Do that and you will see a big difference.