T61 with Vista Home Basic - Best way to upgrade to Ultimate?

My T61 is coming with Vista Home Basic....
what is the best way for me to get Vista Ultimate on it?

Should I buy the upgrade disc off eBay (~190 bucks)
is there a way I can do it online, some sort of download upgrade?

 

seems like Microsoft has something called "Anytime Upgrade"

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pr...orupgrade/windowsanytimeupgrade/overview.mspx

I wonder if I should do this...

 

people on ebay are probably selling pirated copies .....

if you have(or will have) 4gb of ram get this one:
Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit

if not then:
Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit

 

yeah, I will use the 32 bit version

so newegg is 60 dollars cheaper than through the Microsoft download website.
Thanks.

 

Are you sure you really need it? There are not many features in Ultimate that really make it worth while.

 

bitlocker is the only real reason why I wanted ultimate. if you don't need it, home premium will do nicely.

Honestly speaking, in terms of features, vista basic was pretty much all I needed, but bitlocker was a must, so I had to go all the way.

 

I didn't even need my T61

But yea I just want Ultimate because I'm a MS sackrider.

 

if you must have ultimate, then the easiest way to do it is by popping in your windows anytime upgrade cd and purchasing the licence for 200 bucks.

 

does the 'anytime upgrade' cd come in the T61 packaging?

 

yes, but you may be better off getting the license key from newegg (if it's cheaper) and upgrading with the discs provided.

 

and trust me newegg almost always has the product at your door in 3-4 days

ive purchased well over $60,000 in computer & home A/V equipment from them and have had nothing but great service(& prices)

 

From what I have read I get the feeling that any cd is an anytime upgrade cd. You basically just need the new license to unlock everything, and I guess it downloads anything else that it needs. But I would check the Microsoft site first.

That would be the easiest way though, then you do not have to do a clean install.

 

Probably yah. I guess you could just do an upgrade with the disc aswell, that would bypass a clean install. I was just thinking about it like a xp-vista upgrade, but this is just a vista-vista upgrade no big deal.

@unr1
Seriously think about what you want Ultimate for. I bought Ultimate 64 and the only Ultimate feature I ever used was the Poker game that it comes with.

All you will probably get for your $200 is a the poker game (with crappy AI) and the Windows Ultimate logo on the login screen. So just make sure there is nothing else you want to spend your money on first.

 

hmm, now I'm thinking about just using Home Premium
or maybe even XP SP2

 

If I were in your shoes I would use Home premium for a few weeks. If it does everything you need then keep that. Spend your $200 on something cool to use with it.

Then if you think there is something in Ultimate that you really think would help you out everyday then you can always upgrade then.

After I bought Ultimate 64 I had to downgrade back to XP due to problems with Adobes Creative Suite CS3. So right now the disk is just sitting there taunting me. I wish I had waited and not bought it.

 

That is exactly what I want to do...i ordered a new t61 and got it with vista basic....my sister already has the vista ultimate dvd....I wanted to avoid a clean install and just upgrade it from the basic to ultimate.....is it as simple as popping in the dvd...and the dvd recognizes that you have basic and now i want to install ultimate? Sorry im a newbiew at this..Thanks