upgrading to vista?

what_car

hi people am considering upgrading to windows vista ultimate , i have a HP Media Centre PC desktop , M7580.uk

spec is as follows:

2gb RAM
2 X 200 GB RAID Hard drives SATA 3G
512 NVIDIA 7600GS Graphics card
Processor: PentiumD 940 (P) DC 3.2 GHz 800 MHz front side bus Socket 775

all the other bells and whistles, card reader, 3 dvd drives, wireless, etc etc

am considering upgrading from xp media centre edition to vista ultimate..
is this spec ok? i was thinking of upgrading the ram but cant find the HP part anywhere.. did a google search? do i have to match the ram or will different makes work?

my mem details are
Memory
Component Attributes
Memory Installed 2 GB
Maximum allowed 4 GB* (4 x 1 GB)

*Actual available memory may be less
Speed supported PC2-5300 MB/sec
Type 240 pin, DDR2 SDRAM


is this pc an ok spec to run vista ultimate? is it worth my while adding extra ram? will it make much difference?


cheers

PogMoThoin

My advise would be to wait till early next yr as service pack one will come on the vista disk, this is to be 4.5Gb and you will have to download it if you install now.

As you may have read, there are loads of probs with vista which have not been sorted out yet, such as devices (printers, bluetooth dongles, soundcards etc) not working properly due 2 lack of proper drivers. Most peripheral & component manufacturers & busy trying to catch up with the changes m$ made.

Btw, your spec is fine for vista, but vista eats ram, will use up nearly half of that 2Gb you got just ticking over. If your doing anything memory intensive, i'd consider adding more. And remember, 32bit vista will only recognise 3.5Gb ram total if you add another 2Gb, to recognise & be able to use the full 4Gb you will need 64bit vista

Conar

Vista Upgrade Advisor would be a good place to start.

I had 2GB of memory in my Vista Ultimate machine and felt it wasn't nearly enough for gaming etc.
Doubled that to 4GB and all's good now.

El_mariachi

why do ppl say it eats ram!? it doesnt, i have one gb and its grand..... it only slow down when i do a load of things like dreamweaver, photoshop, media player etc open at once...

it only every uses 50% of my ram when it idol and that doesnt matter to much seen i aint using the ram :P

Conar

El_mariachi wrote: »

why do ppl say it eats ram!? it doesnt, i have one gb and its grand..... it only slow down when i do a load of things like dreamweaver, photoshop, media player etc open at once...

it only every uses 50% of my ram when it idol and that doesnt matter to much seen i aint using the ram :P

Vista manages memory a lot differently than XP used to.
It uses your memory as cache to speed up your PC.
So yes Vista does eat RAM, but the more you throw at it the faster it gets.

To add to that, most people wouldn't consider having Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and Media Player that unusual and wouldn't really be into waiting while your machine slows dow due to what is essentially a lack of memory.
Memory is really cheap at the moment so if you can get 2GB for 60 odd euro, then why not?

PogMoThoin

Conar wrote: »

Memory is really cheap at the moment so if you can get 2GB for 60 odd euro, then why not?

:rolleyes: QFT, the 2Gb of memory that cost me 260e last yr can now be bought for 80e. Ddr2 has dropped dramatically in price with the advent of ddr3.

Conar

Yeah, I bought my initial 2GB for €115 on special, but when I decided I needed another 2GB less than 2 months later the same memory was €80.

Anyway, since upgrading to 4GB I think Vista runs beautifully, and others agree too:
http://www.theinquirer.net/en/inquirer/news/2007/02/21/vista-works-best-with-4gb-ram

If you have the few extra quid why not have it run well rather than just ok.

El_mariachi

Conar wrote: »

Vista manages memory a lot differently than XP used to.
It uses your memory as cache to speed up your PC.
So yes Vista does eat RAM, but the more you throw at it the faster it gets.

why not use it if i am not ! there fore its eating ram i ain't using yes?

Conar wrote: »

To add to that, most people wouldn't consider having Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and Media Player that unusual

what you mean that unusual? why would most average ppl use dreamweaver, photoshop, flash, or any programs like that, they cost a fortune to buy and most ppl cant use them etc....

lastly i am not saying you shouldn't upgrade to 2 or 4 gb ram and tbh i do plan too, i just wish ppl would stop going on about vista eating ram when its not really its just using it more efficiently

BostonB

I find Vista a pain. No real killer features, and just changes for no good reason. Not to mention all the bugs. I'm going back to XP till they fix it.

Conar

El_mariachi wrote: »

what you mean that unusual? why would most average ppl use dreamweaver, photoshop, flash, or any programs like that, they cost a fortune to buy and most ppl cant use them etc....

I don't mean that they would be using those exact apps, but that they would have a number of things running that would be using the processor and a reasonable amount of memory.
People used to just have one thing open, where now they have a load of background apps, a few browsers, media player, word, bit torrents etc

El_mariachi wrote: »

lastly i am not saying you shouldn't upgrade to 2 or 4 gb ram and tbh i do plan too, i just wish ppl would stop going on about vista eating ram when its not really its just using it more efficiently

That is true it is using it more efficiently, but still the sweet spot for XP was 2GB, but for Vista it seems to be the 4GB mark. I think thats why they say it eats memory.
Still, I think considering XP being as old as it is that Vista wanting twice the amount of memory to perform well is hardly a damning fact.

El_mariachi

Conar wrote: »

I don't mean that they would be using those exact apps, but that they would have a number of things running that would be using the processor and a reasonable amount of memory.

got ya know i meant those app though as i do know that they are fairly memory hogs compared to what the average user might have opened at once like media player , live messenger and firefox (if they are clever :P) / internet explorer.... but yeah more RAM!

Conar wrote: »

That is true it is using it more efficiently, but still the sweet spot for XP was 2GB, but for Vista it seems to be the 4GB mark. I think thats why they say it eats memory.

Aye i do agree completely....