Free XP or $100 for Vista?

Hey guys,

I'm about to order my new Sager 2096 from XoticPC in a couple hours and was wondering what you guys thought about the OS. My two options are either to just get the laptop with the drivers and without an OS and put my own copy of Windows XP on it or put in another $100 towards Vista.

I generally like the set up for XP better and am definitely more familiar with it, my problem is whether or not I'll find myself wanting for Vista or if there are any fringe benefits with having Vista.

I'll only be going for 2gigs of RAM for now, though I may upgrade is necessary in the next couple months. Thank you very much for your help in advance!

 

I love Vista. Not many people will say that. Just as XP, it has its bugs, but through SP1 and subsequent updates on both Windows and 3rd party applications, I feel its fairly stable. If I had a copy of XP, I would have that installed as well, but I would say try vista, and if you do not like it, just save it for later.

 

Thanks for the prompt response, anyone else have any recommendations? How much would Vista be if I decided to purchase it later?

 

You can check with the upgrade site on Windows main site, but if my memory serves me correctly, its $150 +. I suggest going with Home Prem as it incorporates many important features. Unless you are connecting to a Windows Business network, there is no reason to go with anything else. IMHO

 

a new copy of vista home premium (no upgrade) is $239.99 from best buy
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&id=pcat17071&type=page&st=vista+home+premium&sc=Global&cp=1&nrp=15&sp=&qp=&list=n&iht=y&usc=All+Categories&ks=960

I would also recommend trying vista.
1) it is cheaper to buy with the laptop now
2) you can always go back to xp is you don't like it
3) from what i know, vista is pretty stable (i like it over xp )

 

you can get vista home premium oem (32 or 64bit) for about $110 at newegg.

 

i loved xp... until vista came... omg was it nice... at begginning had all issues in world and i had to unistall vista due to wifi problem... but whatchanow got solved in sp1 and now... i just cant take my eyes of vista... i know i would get flamed (mb not) but... i see my comp running a lot fster with vista than xp... and besides... xp has a huge problem.. it gets slow in time... sumthing i havnt seen in vista

 

I also like Vista. One feature I really like is the ability to search. It's so nice when I am trying to find a file that I can't remember where it is. Vista is pretty stable as well since SP1.
Tim

 

I agree with Tim on the search issue. I have an infinite number of files I dl and save, and even with indexing turned off, vista search function is awesome. It also helps with finding duplicates

 

Vista is great. Plus, it's probably cheaper to get it now for $100 than think about buying it later, which would most likely cost more.

 

Personally I love Vista, there is no way I would go back to XP at this point.

 

Thanks guys, just ordered my new Sager 2096 with Vista Home Premium 64-bit . Just gotta sit here anxiously for about the next 10 days! Thanks again for all the help.

 

Congrats! Another vote for Vista here, you'll love it. When you've got up-to-date hardware it makes XP seem ancient. I always avoid having to boot up my old notebook, since Vista is just too good

 

I say go with vista. I love it and I have no problems with it!

 

I would have said get Xp and only upgrade to vista when SP2 comes out.

I have Vista/XP dual boot on my laptop, which i set up about 2 weeks ago, and in that time I have almost completely migrated back to xp and am considering of giving xp the whole hard drive (stupid vista taking up about 20 gb by itself)

The only things I will miss from Vista Are, the start menu search, the hover over window previews and the way it handles desktop wallpapers

 

i also would have said xp.. but vista should be fine too.

 

Good choice on 64 bit Vista. If you only had the option for 32 bit though, I would have gone with XP.