Vistalicious! ★
One of the resolutions I was planning to have was to post something on my blog everyday, no matter what! But….due to unavoidable circumstances, I have left a gap of more than 24 hours many times already.
So today’s post is all about Windows Vista, and the kind of PC, I think, you’ll need to use it effectively..I have sent this post as an answer to the following question on CNet.com.
Q I’m currently getting ready to either buy or build a new home computer. However, in anticipation of Windows’ new operating system, Vista, to be released later this year–what is the best hardware to have inside the case that will prepare me for this? I’m wondering about not only the CPU, but motherboard, graphics board, fans, cases, power supply, single or dual hard drives (RAID), monitors, and so on. Or would it be wise to wait until the release of this new OS before getting this
new system?
A As I have always seen after upgrading to a new version of windows, the performance of my old pc hardware, go down terribly. If you love windows like me, there’s no question about you switching to Windows Vista. It’s always going to be a yes.. Luckily I have tested Windows Vista 5270 on my computer, and can probably give you a good opinion on what kind of hardware you’ll be needing.
Let’s start first, with the processor: With changing times, we need our computers to be able to give us better performance, without requiring us to constantly upgrading our PCs and Notebooks. The processor is one of the most important parts of computer, and having more RAM and less processor power, won’t be very practical. So here’s what I suggest. Buy an Intel Dual Core processor, Intel Pentium D or any AMD 64-bit processor. Seeing that most of the new features on Vista give extra performance on 64-bit processors, I would never suggest the Pentium 4 series of processors.
The motherboard: We have many options for the motherboard these days and for Vista it would be best if you could get one of the motherboards that have nVidia
GeForce Graphic Cards bundled with them as a package. I tested Vista on a 6200GT(256MB), and found the performance was decent enough for home usage. If cost is not the problem, go in for a 6800GT(256MB) or 7800GTX(512MB). DirectX rendered objects look real on these. Any ATI-radeon with 256MB of memory would be as good. Also look out for motherboards with more than 1 AGP slot.
Hard Drives: The hard drive is the component where you save all your data, and wan’t them to stay there for a long long time. Most hard disks that you get on clearance are the ones that don’t perform as well the others. So I should tell you not to compromise on your HDD. Get a hard disk with a 2-year warranty(minimum), and at least 250GB of space. Having dual hard disks is a very good idea and a very good way to create backups with the RAID functionality, with which any data copied on the 1st HDD is also copied on to the 2nd one. I think a couple of Seagate Barracuda(s) should do the trick.
RAM/Memory: The temporary memory which acts as medium between the HDD and processor is the RAM or internal memory, which also determines how fast you can access data on your computer. Memory is becoming cheaper than ever these days, and Vista’s requirement of 512MB of RAM is not enough. How much RAM you get depends on affordability. The more, the better. Anything between 1GB - 4GB will be good.
Display: Vista looks really good on High-Definition TVs. You should try using something of the size of Apple’s Cinema Display, gives you a good pixels-per-inch output, without any distortion. Otherwise any CRT-monitor would do fine. Most times we find that Old is Gold, and if you compare the CRT to an LCD, it even lasts more usually.
This will be the configuration of my Vista PC..You may wan’t to look at the Microsoft Website, to get any details I have missed.
Another suggestion would be to go in for an iMac or MacBook Pro, they’re all a breeze to use with Tiger installed on each of them. They usually do everything you wan’t them to do, though PCs still win the competition because of a wider set of applications and games.
