XP or Vista?

so i'll be getting my t61p in less than a month (hopefully) . the esd is 6/27, but i hope that changes. anyway, my original plan was to wipe everything and do a clean install with xp. i'm only going to have 1gb of ram when i receive the laptop, but i think i'm going to buy a 2gb stick before i even get the laptop.

i wouldn't mind using vista (i'm getting the home premium version by the way), but how will it run with 1gb of ram after a clean install and tweaking everything? is it worth installing xp (i own it, i'm used to it, and i've read it runs games and some other applications better), or should i use vista home premium?

 

IMO Vista is a pretty decent OS and even though it has its share of quirks (as in a differently laid out control panel, etc.) once you get used to it I think it is very nice to use. Possibly better than XP.
But, I wouldn't suggest running Vista with 1 GB of ram. Idling mine uses over 768 mb or ram so having only 1 GB would be a drag, especially for gaming.
Also, I'm not sure where it is but there was an article on nbr that said that Vista actually doesn't run games worse than XP in some situations...I'll see if I can find that for ya. Hope this helps!

 

Sorry I couldn't find the article I was talking about, but hopefully my thoughts were help enough. XD

 

Personally, I've had really buggy drivers (power manager) under XP, which disappeared in Vista. If you do get 2 gig of ram, don't hesitate.

 

hm, well, i think i might just buy a 2gb stick to go with the 1gb that's going to come with the laptop before i receive the laptop so i can immediately have 3gb. then i guess i'll just do a clean install of vista and have 3gb of ram.

 

i don't know what brand of memory comes with the t61p, but i plan on buying an extra 2gb stick (like i've mentioned above). is it a big deal if i have 2 different brands? they just have to have the same specs (ddr2, pcXXXX, etc.), right?

 

As long as they have the same specs the brand shouldn't matter...

 

good to hear. i'm going to order a 2gb stick tomorrow so i can have 3gb of ram almost-out-of-box, and keep vista

 

Kool. Have fun with your new notebook!!

 

If your laptop is coming with 1GB of RAM, keep in mind that unless it specifically stated it was 1 and not 2 DIMMS you'll be getting 2 512 sticks.

 

Vista uses more memory because of its aggressive caching of programs. The more you give it the more it will use. As one person in the thread said, his Vista idles at 768MB. That doesn't mean that a 1GB Vista will idle at 768MB because Vista will cache less.

My Vista64 Ultimate with 4GB flies and uses about 1.25GB idle.

 

Ya thanks for mentioning that Paul386. Also of note, as Vista gets "broken in" so to speak after you use it for a while it optimizes better and that helps a little bit with performance.

 

yeah, i've heard since it was released that it's a huge resource hog, but i'm still tempted to use it for some reason.

SmoothTofu: i know my laptop's coming with 1 DIMM. i made sure of that when i was ordering

 

i've been looking over this thread, and in it are links to direct downloads of vista 32bit/64bit installation files. i cannot check if they are still alive because i'm at work, but if someone would be able to tell me if they still work that would be great

if they do still work, is it worth purchasing 4gb of ram and upgrading to the 64bit version of vista? (note i will only have home premium)

 

From what I've read, if you do get 64 bit 4gb really makes it fly. I got 4gb with my 32-bit os just in case because imo it was worth the hassle of having to sell the ram and buy new ram later. I'm somewhat in the same pool as you though, not sure if I want to jump to 64-bit vista later on.

 

"From what I've read, if you do get 64 bit 4gb really makes it fly."

This is true. Vista is a much better operating system than XP which is getting very long in the tooth. It' a grown up OS.

 

I got the Vista 64 Business edition on my T61 that came last week. I'm liking vista so far. It's got a lot of small things that make ur work experience more efficient. But, it's a resource hog! the prefetch idles my computer at around 1-1.5gb of ram. So unless you have 3+ gb of total ram, don't bother with vista. Other than that, if u have 3-4gb+ of ram.. Vista is SWEEEET

i got the 64 bit so i can utilize more than 3.12gb of ram. I haven't ran into any compatibility problems so far.

You save a lot more money if you upgraded to Vista and only order 1 dimm of 1gb ram, then going out online or Fry's etc. to purchase additional memory.

I ordered my T61 with only one bar of 1gb ram.. in which i just tossed away. Went out to Fry's to buy 4gb 2x2gb dimm of ram to replace it all... and based on Lenovo's ram upgrade costs.. I still saved around $50 compared to if i were to upgrade to 1 dimm of 2gb ram on lenovo's site and then going out to buy another 2gb ram online or store.

Basically upgrading from 1gb to 2gb ram on Lenovo's website cost the same price as if you were to go out and buy 4gb of ram .

 

Vista works fine with 2GB of memory.

 

yea, i'm going to have 3gb of memory with the home premium, can't wait

 

Hi, i think you should consider this:
1. ram si so cheap - buy 4GB (separately from notebook)
2. 64bit - there is the future, so i'd go with it
3. Vista vs. XP - there is lots of threads arround here considering pros and cons of both OS. I personally use the 64bit version of Win. XP on my notebook

 

i was considering a 64bit os, but as of now i don't think i feel like doing it. when i just my laptop, i'm just going to do a clean install of vista home premium, pop in an extra 2gb of memory, and go from there. i think i'll have a pretty solid machine with 3gb of ram. maybe later on i'll purchase another 2gb stick and request a 64bit dvd from microsoft, but until then i'm sure i'll be able to do everything and more with the configuration i'm going to have. hell, what i'm going to have is better than my t40 by a mile and even better than my desktop (built it like 2 years ago but haven't upgraded anything except for the case)...

my desktop has an amd 2400 64bit cpu with 1gb of ram (which is currently fuxed with errors), an nvidia geforce XXXX (i forget what card i have xD), and a dfi lanparty mobo...

i think i'll be alright

 

Ya your new setup should do just fine.

 

Hi everyone, I'm new here and need some advice...

I've decided to get the T61p for school, but can't decide between getting xp pro or vista business 64. I'll mostly use the laptop for programs like CAD, and I am worried about compatibility. Also, my friend has vista and he constantly has problems with it shutting down randomly.. I can't afford to lose any of my work!

Any help would be great! Thanks in advanced!

Oh, and I plan to have at least 3GB of RAM, if that helps at all.

 

First off, make your own thread, don't try to tack it onto someone else's.

Second, I haven't had that problem at all with my experiences with Vista (have had it since last July), so I wouldn't worry about that same problem.

 

Apologies, I saw the title of this thread and thought that it would fit well here...