XP or Vista on my new T61?

So Lenovo i still offering XP on this. I've heard so much about the bugs on vista that I'm having second thoughts.(mostly bugs on dells forum) Are the Thinkpads having any of these problems? With vista, the turbo memory is availble and with a 7200 drive I've heard this computer will scream! So is XP or vista the way to go, or is this too biased of a a decision?

Thanks

 

I think that you might as well not even look into the turbo memory. All I have heard is that it is a waste of money. They might speed up your boot by 3 seconds or something but it isn't worth it. If you haven't used Vista yet, then I would stay with XP. Then again, Vista is the way of the future, so if you want to stay with the crowd, get Vista. Your computer will screem with 4 gb of regular ram with vista, but remember you can only get 3 gb of ram in XP. I am getting XP but I will probably eventually upgrade to vista.

 

I've found Vista to be faster on modern computers compared to XP. I have Vista Business x64 on my X61s and I haven't had any major problems yet.

 

I'd say at least give Vista a shot, it runs fine unless you run into some compatibility issue. I remember reading some place that you can downgrade to XP Pro if you ordered Vista Business but you should look into it because I don't know much about it. So if you don't like Vista you can switch to XP pro with the same license I believe.

For the same amount of money as Pro I'd at least try Business, sure theres a lot of complaints but you should at least try it out.

Also don't go for the Turbo Memory, you can buy it off of Amazon or Newegg for a lot less. Same with ram, you should buy it yourself and upgrade.

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/29/xp-vs-vista/index.html

 

I'm going off my butt-dyno here. Opening and launching apps is faster than XP due to SuperFetch.

 

Many people will tell you to stick with XP, but I'd have to disagree. If you're looking to get a computer with 2 gigs of ram, 7200 RPM har drive, and turbo memory then I would go with vista. It's the way of the future. I've yet to have any compatibility issues. I have my old usb mouse, printer, and external hard drive hooked up.

The only problem I've had with vista so far were the freezes that the turbo memory or some thinkvantage software was causing. I ran a clean install and everything has been working perfectly fine.

 

i'm receiving my t61 soon and the first time i'mma do is fresh install xp....theres not enough in it for me to switch to vista yet. people argue that its the way of the future but the os is still crap. i'll switch over if theres improvements when sp1 comes out.

 

XP... Vista is rubbish. Too much hand holding, too many idiot warnings, too many software/hardware compatibility issues (especially 64-bit), too many silly and worthless animations... an OS should be as unobtrusive and reliable as possible IMO.

After years of bugginess, XP (SP2) finally became a stable and reliable OS, so I ain't about to mess with Vista until at least SP1, perhaps SP2. And it's been widely shown that XP systems generally run faster than Vista (though Vista does indeed open apps faster due to its improved caching system... it just does everything else slower).

 

hmm, interesting discussion I must say.
For the gamers out there, shouldnt we account for the Direct X 10 upgade that Vista establishes?
Especially for the T61p with the Quadro 570M card(designed for OpGL 2.1 and DX 10). The DX10 enables graphical options in architectures of GPUs.
check this out!
http://www.winmatrix.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9550
more:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/pcs/directx-9-vs-directx-10-worth-upgrading-to-vista-for-243099.php

http://www.gamespot.com/features/6171326/index.html

 

Same here.
Vista is just plain annoying.

 

Hi, Jeremy, what do you mean by this sentence? I plan to upgrade later on with 4g ram. Will that cause any problem?

I have T61 with Win XP and 5400 HD.

Thanks a lot!

 

The 32-bit operating systems, either XP or Vista, won't be able to see all 4GB of installed memory.
3GB is the practical max. (2GB + 1GB sticks)

 

I see, thanks a lot, save me another 100 bucks, thans again.

 

I have two laptops:

T61 - T7300 - 2 GB RAM - Vista
Gateway 3550 - Pentium M - 2 GB RAM - XP

The Gateway / XP combination runs quicker than Vista. Typical example is when opening a new tab on Internet Explorer. There is about a four second delay on Vista where it is virtually instantaneous on XP.

Not a huge productivity difference but a difference nevertheless. On the other hand, Vista looks spectacularly cool compared to XP so it makes it kind of a pleasure to use.

 

Why didn't you choose XP during configuration?

 

Why get XP preloaded on your computer when you already have another copy? Might as well get Vista. It costs the same.

 

Try disabling some add-ons in Internet Explorer, this will improve the overall browser performance.

 

Funny. I had disabled Windows Search, Windows Defender and a bunch of other Vista services and forgot totally about looking at the Add-Ons.

Sure enough, disabled Lenovo's IE add-on and booya, faster indeed.

Thanks! And I didn't even come to this thread for help. Guess I have no more complaints about Vista. It rules. Get it!

 

Vista rules???
Uhmm... I beg to differ!

 

One ring to rule all? Why I keep seeing this here.

 

I would get vista. The whole ___ sucks thing is a fad. When we had windows 3.11 and they brought out windows 95, everyone insisted that 95 sucked, when NT was replaced with 2000, everyone said it sucked. When XP replaced win98SE, everyone said it sucked.

The only operating system that I never heard complaints about was 98SE

Besides, vista's service pack is just around the corner, literally less than 2 weeks away

 

What's the source?

 

I suggest you speak for yourself.

 

Windows Vista requires futuristic hardware for optimal performance. Unfortunatly, this hardware is expensive. If you get a T61p with Nvidia 570M graphics, then we are talkin. The major upgrade you see in Vista from the present hardware standpoint is the DIRECTX 10.

so, if you buy a top of the line machine, then Vista is feesable. If you buy a medium end, then forget it. Vista will lag like hell.

If you are a gamer, then get a highend machine and get VISTA.
PERIOD!

 

I was just about to make a similar post re: SP1 but I didn't know about a release in 2 weeks... I was guessing more like 2 months. I's like to know your source as well.

Either way SP1 is just around the corner. So I say go with Vista and at least 2-3GB of RAM. The T61 (or at least Santa Rosa and the integrated and discrete graphics) was built with Vista in mind.

One thing to think about... When SP1 is released this could bring on some new temporary problems for a month or two. Remember when SP2 was released for XP? It was a problem for many applications until various hotfixes, drivers and such were released to correct those problems.

 

My source for vista's SP1 being released in two weeks was engadet...I read into it and now they are saying it will not be coming out till september. Sorry for the bad info.

 

XP replaced Win2k, not win98SE...

Anyhow... the reason people said XP sucked because it didn't really add anything to Win2k. Win2k was solid. They made XP rock solid.

Vista is truly crapola. It just doesn't work well. They made some changes to the interface that are just redicules.

Instead of the screen properties where most of the prefs are tabbed... they made each feature in a seperate window. Redicules. Same goes for other stuff that used to be tabbed.

I like the Window+Tabbing feature but they should've made it work with the traditional windows look. I can't stand the new one and it's not even better functioning.

My suggestion: If you have an old copy of XP that you could install, why buy another one, get vista and fresh install XP. Who knows they may fix vista, but i don't give it much hope.


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This religious war will rage on for quite some time . Vista is a new OS, from the ground up. SP1 will fix quite a few issues, but in my opinion it's reasonably solid now. XP went through the same cycles, as did most previous OSs.

Vista adds some some eye candy which some appreciate, some don't. The user experience is improved in several areas, for instance importing and dealing with photos. But IMHO the big advantage of Vista is more in the area of security and manageability, particularly in a corporate environment.

I'd recommend giving Vista a try, especially the x64 versions, but if XP works for you, by all means stay with it. YMMV.

mdarter