Venturing Into the World of Vista?

Anyone that knows me knows that I LOVE computers.  I spend so many hours in front of a computer screen that it’s ridiculous. On a recent shopping trip I purchased a new HP Pavilion dv9720us laptop with Vista so I thought I would share a couple of things that I think will help you as you are doing your shopping.  Since this computer is running Vista and also has a dual core processor I wasn’t as familiar with the new technology out there and found out some stuff after I made my purchase that may have changed the choices I made.  To keep you from making the same mistake as you contemplate your own transition to Vista, here are a couple of important things to consider. 

 A feature in Vista that shoppers will find helpful is a feature called the Windows Experience Index Base Score. This application will check the installed components of the system and give scores on Processor, RAM, Graphics, Gaming Graphics and Primary Hard Disk as well as an overall base score.  To check the score, click on the Windows icon in the lower left hand corner, click on Control Panel & System Maintenance.  Under System go to Check Your Computer’s Windows Experience Index Base Score.   This can help you compare different models with various components to see how Vista scores the setup.  For those of you that like to shop online, you can always narrow down your choices and then take a quick trip to the store to see which model has the best score for the features that are most important to you.    The lowest score is 1.0 and the highest is 5.9.  A base score of 3.0 to 3.9 is recommended to run the premium features of Vista including the new Aero features like the Windows Flip 3D which is my favorite feature of Vista.  Hopefully some of the online retailers will make the scores part of their product specifications to make shopping easier.

Another important thing to consider is the amount of RAM that your new system has.  In the case of Vista the more RAM you can afford, the better off you will be.  Make sure you check the requirements on your system to see how much RAM you can actually utilize.  My new model came with 2 GB, which I promptly upgraded to 4 GB.  I quickly found out after installing the new RAM that even though I had installed 4 GB of RAM, the 32-bit version of Vista can only access and use 3 GB.  To get full use of the RAM in my system, I would have to install the 64-bit version of Vista, which at this point can only be done by purchasing the full retail version of Vista Ultimate and doing a clean install.  You cannot upgrade from 32-bit to 64-bit by using the upgrade version of Vista Ultimate even though it contains disks for both.

I hope this information is helpful as you navigate all the new computer choices out there.  Happy shopping!