Upgrade to Premium or keep Basic?

I just purchased a Vostro 1500 and selected the Windows Vista Basic. I only use the Computer for Web Browsing, School Work, and Music etc. Do I really need any of the extra Premium features like Media Center? Is it worth it or just a waste for me?

 

If you have very "special" friends that are computer nerds......

 

No one should use Home Basic...so the upgrade to Home Premium is definitely recommended...

 

I would check out Basic for now and see what you think about it, and then go into a store like Best Buy and start exploring the various laptops and desktops that have Home Premium or Ultimate installed. Play for a while, and see if you think the extra features are worth the cost of the upgrade to you.

Honestly, I'd say it is probably worth it...but check it out to be safe.

 

All you get is the prettiness with some entertainment features (someone correct me if I'm wrong)... the prettiness screws with your battery life and your system requirements and the entertainment isn't really useful for your purposes. If you're looking to save that - what, 30 bucks? - then this would probably be a good place but if the money doesn't matter much to you, I'd just upgrade... you can always disable features that you don't like.

 

What does Premium have over Basic?

Elegant Windows Aero desktop experience
... with glass-like menu bars, Windows Flip 3D, and Live Thumbnails
Best choice for laptops
... with Windows Mobility Center and Tablet PC support
Collaborate and share documents
... with Windows Meeting Space
Extend Windows Vista
... to secondary displays and devices with Windows SideShow
Experience photos and entertainment
...in your living room with Windows Media Center
Enjoy Windows Media Center
... throughout your home with Media Center Extenders
Use Scheduled Backup
... to automatically backup your files
Easily make DVDs
... with Windows DVD Maker
Have more fun on your PC
... with three new premium games: Chess Titans, Mahjong Titans, and Inkball
Create high definition movies
... with Windows Movie Maker in High Definition

 

Basic is vista. Premium is vista with bling.

Everybody likes a little bling right?

 

The only big parts of premium over basic:
aero glass
more than 1 Gig of ram allowed (basic has is intentionally capped)
No decellerator programmed into basic (basic is intentionally slowed aka, like what pirates see after their cracks are broken)
TCP limit increased (you can flat out replace this anyhow in any version)
and of course, media options.

I would recommend it for performance sake.

 

Basic is NOT limited to 1 gb of RAM. That's Starter Edition that's limited to 1 gb, and that's only sold in some countries... it's not sold in the US or most European countries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Vista_editions_and_pricing

Basic allows up to 8 gb of RAM with the 64-bit edition; the 32-bit edition caps it between 3 and 4 gb due to technical limitations, just like all the other 32-bit editions.

I've never heard of any decelerator in Vista Basic either, and I don't believe it really has this.

I don't believe there's any performance difference (at least with Aero turned off). The advantages of Premium are the Aero interface and the extra multimedia features. You do get some multimedia stuff in Basic too, like Windows Media Player and the photo program, whatever it's called.

 

Thanks for the correction, I get those two backwards every now and again...you can stay with basic.

 

No matter how much bling you staple to a piece of ****, it's still..a piece of ****. <3

 

Which is why im still on the xp

 

Amen.

- Akshay

 

Can you even get premium from Dell on a Vostro? I've heard that Dell wouldn't let people switch... I think I will just stick with basic for the time being...

 

Don't go with basic, seriously
The Media center is worth it by itself

 

^But why? Think of it this way, Vista Basic = XP home. I don't see a reason spend money for a bunch of features that I will probably never use and oooo's and ahhhh's that will slow my computer's performance... I have XP Media Center '05 on my XPS 410 and have used media center like 2 times...

 

My Vostro 1400 will be coming with Basic. I spoke with several Dell CSR's and all told me that Home Premium was not an option. For now I'll stick with Basic and see what I think. I may have issues with Vista and nuke that install to go back to XP Pro.

 

All I can say is, wow is Vista ever ugly with Aero. It's worse than XP.

 

Personally I don't see the point in running Vista without Aero. I think the valid comparison is XP Home <-> Vista Home Premium, as Vista Basic doesn't include everything that makes Vista Vista. For the minuscule price difference it isn't worth it IMO.

 

my 1500 is coming with vista basic, no point in upgrading to premium if you ask me. unless you are going to stick with vista. then i would say their isnt a big difference but its worth 30. im just going to run XP on mine when i get it. i like it better and its faster.

 

Premium


Best choice for laptops
with Windows Mobility Center and Tablet PC support


http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/mobilitycenter.mspx

 

In that case, I'd still either order it with XP, or order it with Vista Premium for when you do want to switch to Vista.

 

thats why i have it coming with vista, so if i ever upgrade i have it. and honestly their just isnt anything that justifies the little extra cash to get premium.

 

Hello,

I am expecting my 1420 to arrive on Friday. I only purchased Home Basic because I am not sure if I will stick with Vista or load XP (I work with Frontpage a lot and have heard of some compatability issues with Vista). If I do decide to stay with Vista, I will want to upgrade to Premium. Yes, I like the bling. Does anyone know how much it will cost to upgrade to Premium from Basic? I haven't been able to find a clear answer online.

Thanks so much!

 

You have Windows Mobility Center in Home Basic as well, can't figure out a use for that though.

if you don't have a tablet PC, who cares if the OS supports Tablet

 

theres 3 "blings" in Home Premium.
1.Aero Glass that automatically turns off whenever anything is full sized,,, so meaning its off 95% of the time for me
2. Flip3D, I fail to see how its better than regular alt-tab,,,, I never use it
3. live thumbnail, displays a small picture of the tab you hover over in the taskbar.

 

i ordered vista because of the aero...and i am SOOO DECEIVED.

my friend just got her sony viao with a premium and i was so disappointed when aero DID NOT work when a window is maximized. I repeat, it DOES NOT WORK when the window is maximized. as HLCC said, most of the time, your windows are maxed so its basically useless.

waste of upgrade money + waste of memory usage

 

I wish Microsoft quit adding all these features that people never use. It's like they force standards down people's throats.

 

While I have a machine with Vista Business and another with Home Premium, I also have two machines with Basic. So, I guess I'm a "no one", eh?

Having hands on ownership experience of all three versions, this "no one" will tell you that Basic is absolutely fine for all purposes except business with networking and and businesses or individuals who heavily use dvd & movie applications. Generally, home premium & Ultimate are rip offs that charge you for stuff you don't want or need, and use up all your damned resources.

Finally, I think that everyone should take only Basic; maybe that would force MS to just include the "upgrades" for "free". For God's sake, you can buy Celeron M notebooks now for about the price of Vista Ultimate. It's an operating system. People who are willing to pay extra for different versions of an operating system are empowering MS to get away with this scam. Gimme a break!

I only had a choice on three machines, and chose Business for my main business travel notebook, and Basic for my office DTR and home use notebook. The machine with Home Premium was packaged that way. As a matter of fact, I had to get rid of a lot of the bling from my wife's desktop just today, because she was complaining about a lack of system resources available for gaming on 1 gb of RAM. You can run practically any game in kickass fashion on one gig in XP. Vista is basically nothing but XP with a load of bloatware that you have to pay extra for. Rant, rant, rant ...

 

The Vostro 1500 is a business machine (at least in Dell's eyes and distribution system), and therefore is only available with Basic or Business (possibly, also Ultimate). Dell Business doesn't offer Home Premium, because they are technically not selling home machines. Home Premium is available through Dell's Home and Home Business division, which limits you to Inspiron & XPS.

 

If I could load up a gaming profile on my machine with nothing but a C:\> prompt and non of those extra "fast user switch Aero Interface" BS, i'd buy it in a heart beat.....

 

What do you mean it doesn't work when a window is maximized? It's always running, so I don't know what that means.

At any rate, there's no way I'd buy Home Basic and get stuck with the ancient way Windows draws the GUI.

 

Home Basic HAVE AERO, I'll repeat again Home Basic HAVE Aero. It just don't have Aero Glass(semi-transparent taskbar thing), which like I said automatically turns off and turns into regular Aero which is in Home Basic whenever any window is maximized.

Home basic is always missing 3 more things, media center, flip3d(utterly useless) and live thumbnail(looked cool for 5 minutes,,, useless after that).

When I had to reinstall Vista on my laptop after upgrading the HD to 160GB, I had a choice of installing Home Basic and Home Premium since I had both discs from Dell, I chose Home Basic because to me its identical to Home Premium and takes up slightly less resource.

 

Aero just refers to the new rendering engine, which Basic lacks. I seriously doubt it turns off Aero and loads up the old rendering engine every time you maximize a window (and vice versa).

And like I said, there's no way I'd buy a copy of Vista without the new engine.

 

Home Baisc HAVE AERO.
It just lacks Aero Glass the semi-transparent taskbar eye candy, which turns off automatically whenever something is maximized.

I have computers with Home Premium, Home Basic and Ultimate by the way.

 

Not according to Microsoft. Check their site if you don't believe me.

Aero is the new rendering engine, which is NOT included in Home Basic (Basic ONLY includes the old one). Aero DOES NOT TURN OFF in any version of Vista just because you maximize a window. That would be INCREDIBLY inefficient and bizarre to unload an engine, and load a completely separate engine every single time you maximized or minimized a window. Aero would NEVER have been launched if it was so broken that it required that.

I'll say it a third time, I would NOT buy a Home Basic because I will NOT buy a version of Vista without Aero. To me, it's one of the bigger features in the OS, and it's about time the engine was modernized. I don't think Microsoft has used it particularly well yet, but in time we may see features like Apple's Expose which would NOT be possible on Home Basic.

 

Windows Vista Standard
This mode is a variation of Windows Aero without the glass effects, window animations, and other advanced graphical effects such as Windows Flip 3D. Like Windows Aero, it uses the Desktop Window Manager, and has generally the same video hardware requirements as Windows Aero. This is the default mode for the Windows Vista Home Basic Edition. The Starter Edition does not support this mode.

Microsfot might call it differently probably wanting more ppl to buy Home Preium, but All Home Basic is missing is Aero Glass, Flip3D and Live Thumbnail. They have the same rendering engine.
To tell you the truth, Aero have no real advantage over Luna(whats in XP), looks a little bit prettier by default,, thats it. Theres no performance benefit, no features benefit.

Oh yeah if you want something similar to that expose thing, Microsoft offers a free power toy for XP that does that

Some screenshot comparisons
Home Basic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Windows_Vista_Basic.png

Home Premium
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Windows_Aero.png

that semi-transparent effect in Home Preium automatically turns off whenever anything is maximized, making it look IDENTICAL to Home Basic. After using Home Premium and Home Basic, I decided even if Home Premium is $1 more than Home Basic, I would still get Home Basic. I'd rather save some system resources than have FLIP3D etc

 

Microsoft's OWN INFORMATION contradicts this.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/07/04/Aero/default.aspx

There ARE some benefits because programs don't have to be responsible for redrawing themselves, it eliminates those situations where you're looking at outdated/not refreshed windows. As I said, it also will enable Microsoft to add Expose like features.

No, it doesn't. That power toy offers an incredibly crude approximation of Expose, that's near worthless. Aero would actually by capable of running a feature like Expose (presumably), they just aren't doing anything useful like that with it-yet. You need a modern engine like Quartz or Aero to do features like Expose. They can NOT be done with the way Windows XP and Vista Home Basic draw the screen.

Transparency effects turning off DOES NOT MEAN the engine has been changed.

Looking identical does not mean it is identical. The way the screens are drawn is extremely different.

I'll say it a fourth time. I WOULD NOT recommend anyone buy Vista without the modern compositing engine. It's one of the major new features in Vista.

 

All you managed to show me is Home Basic don't have Aero Glass, which I already knew.

Well its fine if you don't believe me about Home Basic using Aero engine as well.
http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/b/9/5b97017b-e28a-4bae-ba48-174cf47d23cd/PRI017_WH06.ppt

Home Premium uses Aero Glass, Home Basic uses Aero Express. The only difference between the two is Glass(transparency), Flip3D, Live Thumbnail, and some min, maximzation animations.



I find expose to be more annoying than useful anyways, the XP powertoy can do anything Expose can minus the screen transition animation, big deal.

 

I disagree. Do you really NEED "expose"? Sure refreshing/moving thumbnails might help a user, but it as someoen said, you're upgrading for stuff you dont really need. Microsoft just added "features" that arent necessary.

basic might have aero, might have not, but whatever.

I chose premium because I was under the impression that the transparency effect works all the time. IT DOESNT. That's the only reason why I got premium, and if I have known that the transparency turns off when a window is maximized (even the taskbar btw is not transparent), i would have gotten basic.

 

That is a complete lie! I ordered my vostro online with Vista basic, then called dell to upgrade it to Vista premium. I'm so happy I did.

 

I think the poster equates aero with the transparent frame around the window, which obviously doesn't appear in a maximized window.

Cell, what's your defense of:

Vista's cost?

Vista's huge hard drive requirements, which can eat up over half the disk space on some Vista capable lappies?

Vista's use of nearly half a gig of RAM for the OS alone?

Vista's generally slower (than XP) performance in processing & graphics rendering?

I'm tired of hearing that Vista will improve in time. If a new OS performs the basic functions of computing less efficiently than it's predecessor, how is that an upgrade, and how can anyone justify the release of what is essentially a beta version?

 

I think that if you really want to make up your mind as to which OS you would like. Vista basic will do almost nothing to help me choose it over XP. but in the other hand... Vista Premium will really let you see the difference.

No point in sticking with XP, as it will become obsolete just like windows 98 and ME.... and also.. having Vista Premium will give your computer better resell value .. if someday you choose to sell it.

 

Settle down, Deputy Fife. AFAICT, you got away with one. Home Premium is NOT a standard option through Dell Business. That is a complete fact, Jack! http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=04&kc=6W300&l=en&oc=bqcwk3v&s=bsd

 

BTW, I have machines with Basic, Business and Home Premium, and to tell you the truth, the Basic is absolutely fine. The desktop just doesn't look quite as pretty.

 

I'm sure i'm not the only one that has manage to upgrade... I'll give u the number and email address of the sales person that I talked to to upgrade to premium if you'd like..

 

a semi-transparent taskbar that appears 5% of the time makes Home premium prettier?

 

5%= "not quite". I'm agreeing with you, and you want to argue with me?

 

Not interested, but seeing as you've been proven wrong, you really ought to apologize to the OP for calling him a liar. There's really no room or justification for that.

More power to ya if you found a rep willing to be more flexible, but you have to realize that if you catch a sales rep on a good day, you could get tons of $ off your machine, too, but that doesn't mean that someone who states that Dell's price on a machine as per the website is the actual price is lying, either.

 

Look, I'm not saying that XP is bad. As a mater of fact I've always used XP. Since receiving my Vostro I started using Vista Premium and I haven't had a single problem yet. I haven't noticed it getting slower at all... I've installed and played games like F.E.A.R and A.A. and they run very smooth. Having 2 Gigs of RAM is an absolute must have for any PC or Laptop computer nowadays anyway. That is if you want to run the latest games or media editing software from today. 1 Gig is just almost not enough nowadays.

And regarding the hard drive requirements.. I plan on having an external hard drive hooked up to my laptop to store and access most of my media. So that really isn't an big issue with me.