Official LonghornXP review of Vista preloaded on new PC:

[LonghornXP]

First I've been a very big hater of Vista when installed on my old Dell Computer that should have done far better under Vista than it did. So onto my review of Vista installed on a brand new HP Desktop computer.

Computer model is an HP Pavilion A6300f and it has the following specs below.

Intel Dual-Core E2180 CPU operating at 2Ghz.

2048MB of Dual Channel DDR2 PC2-5300 (two total slots can support 4GB of RAM via two sticks of 2GB).

500GB Western Digital 7200 rpm SATA drive.

LightScribe Dual-Layer DVD burner.

Nvidia 7100/nforce 630i chipset with 128MB of dedicated graphics memory on board.

Vista Home Premium is included.

So after booting up and installing all windows updates and removing most of the bundled software I was working.

All I can say is that Vista is wicked fast on this new machine with full aero support turned on. Booting is completed to a working state within about 15 seconds. Software applications start without delay. Video previews within explorer and file copies are also faster than my Dell with XP and that was very quick.

All in all I can say that all the issues and quirks I dealt with on my old Dell just aren't present on this new machine. My Dell was still very slow even with aero disabled using the classic theme.

So for now I'm very happy with this new machine and am glad I got it. It also seems that Vista just isn't an upgrading operating system at all. Vista however does seem to work great on new systems that come with Vista installed from all the reports I've read. My experience seems to confirm those reports as well.

So this is my score for Vista.

Vista installed on most computers bundled with XP = Bad to Horrid.

Vista installed on brand new machine = Better than XP but this is IMO only but its very good.

 

[Tecmo SB Guy]

Thanks for the review, Longhorn. My computer is almost the same as yours. It's a different model (HP m7760n) but a lot of the specifications are similar. My computer also has an Intel Dual Core 2 Ghz. 2 GB of RAM. 500 GB hard drive. Lightscribe DVD burner. Pre-installed Windows Vista Home Premium.

So my question is, you got your computer to boot up in 15 seconds? How do you do that? It usually takes like 1 1/2 to 2 minutes for my computer to boot up to a working state.

 

[LonghornXP]

Crap when I read my review again I left out a few very important things which I intended to put in the review. I must have got distracted when I was writing the review. The specs I provided is the default specs the system came with.

I failed to mention the other upgrades I did which provided the extra speed boost. First with the base specs I got the system to boot in about 35 seconds to a working state via the following below.

First I got my hands on a Vista disk (downloaded it via torrent) instead of using a recovery disk. I used this disk to install Vista and I used the product key on the side of my computer during the install and activation. Activation will not work online on its own for some reason. Because of this I needed to click on Activate Now and find the option to enter a product key. I just entered the product key on the side of my computer again and clicked Activate and it worked online without an issue.

The product key during install just allows the install disk to know what specific version to install (Vista Install DVDs include all versions of Vista and your product key determines which version gets installed).

Before you do this install you must download and copy to any USB drive the Nforce drivers for the 7100/630i chipset from Nvidia. If you don't do this ahead of time and you have no spare computer you cannot get on the internet to get drivers.

After install download and install all Windows Updates and any programs making sure that any quicklaunch or taskbar icons are disabled via their respective programs.

This should provide a bootup time of around 35 seconds.

I increased my bootup time by replacing my two gigs of RAM with two sticks of 2GB Ram for a total of 4 gigs of RAM in dual channel mode. I also got a fairly cheap ATI video card (PCI Express) and I used a USB thumbdrive for the readyboot speed cache thing.

All of this combined for me provides a very fast, responsive system along with an extremely fast bootup and shutdown. I also used the hibernate mode which allows bootup and shutdown speeds of under five seconds each.

 

[gbjbany]

Longhorn, what other apps are you running ? would good to know the following
Any AV software ? if so which
Any Type of Audio Software for your hardware
What "office" product if any ?
Any type of mouse or keyboard or other types of peripheral drivers (e.g webcam) /
Any type of media product such as nero or scanner software, or others that can start when you insert a CD/DVD, scan or print a page etc.

I ask because generally as you install the apps you use each day, they tend to slow startup, i know many of people disable them but there are benefits in preloading some.

Also are you running with a SP ?

Anyway thanks for starting this thread as i am thinking about an upgrade (based on this I will probably go dual boot) so would be good to get some real world input

 

[LonghornXP]

I use Avira AV software.
nForce audio software (uses vista sound controls).
OpenOffice (no taskbar preload).
Wireless Keyboard and Mouse from Logitech (USB) plus a microphone via USB.
ImgBurn and HP AIO printer driver (without the extra software) and iTunes.

The only thing I let preload at bootup is the Tversity Media Server so I never need to go into the other room when using my PS3 in the next room for media sharing.

I'm currently using Vista Service Pack 1 with all available security and optional updates via windows update.

I hope this helps and I'm also trying the new version of Ubuntu that just installs a file on your Vista partition. You don't even need to install a bootloader nor do you need to partition any drive. Everything runs full speed just like a normal installation. I'm really enjoying Ubuntu right now.

 

[Tecmo SB Guy]

First I got my hands on a Vista disk (downloaded it via torrent) instead of using a recovery disk.

Why is that better than the recovery disk? Is it because the recovery disk installs a lot of unnecesary junk?

 

[LonghornXP]

Why is that better than the recovery disk? Is it because the recovery disk installs a lot of unnecesary junk?

Tons and tons of junk along with the fact that doing a full recovery via HP took nearly three full hours compared to a Vista DVD install which took half that time including installing all drivers and windows updates. The exception to this rule for the most part is Dell as their recovery install DVDs are normal Vista Install DVDs. They just include a second disc which contains all the drivers for your system via an installer you run after installation. Beyond Dell most other brand name computer systems use custom recovery disks which take hours before even touching windows update and at first bootup they are so bloated you must spend another half an hour to remove all the crap slowing down the system to a crawl.

 

[Tecmo SB Guy]

After install download and install all Windows Updates and any programs making sure that any quicklaunch or taskbar icons are disabled via their respective programs.

Yeah I also was wondering what Startup Programs can I safely disable so my bootup time is faster (I found the list of Startup Programs in Vista in Windows Defender in the Software Explorer link)? I mean what Startup Programs are unnecessary.

 

[vurbano]

So if you buy a new computer then you can get Vista to perform as it should.

 

[LonghornXP]

So if you buy a new computer then you can get Vista to perform as it should.

Umm yes after you remove all the crap the computer came with.