Vista Questions

[stealthtib]

Hey guys I'm a long time lurker around here and I had a few questions based on my future plans to upgrade to Vista. I obviously plan on buying the Ultimate edition because it has everything that I need. My main question is, will I absolutely need to get the 64-bit version? I know the retail version comes with both but I only buy oem software especially when it comes to M$. My hardware will easily run Vista without even blinking I am just nervous about doing this and not having things work right. Is it true that Nvidia still doesn't have any decent drivers for Vista yet? Pretty much all of my hardware is Nvidia based and that would really blow if I tried to install and none of it worked properly. Thanks for you help in advance!

[Duo Joe]

I bought Ultimate and installed 64 bit to my E6600. Im using 100.59 with my GTX8800 and Ive not had one problem wth the system. Not all my software works, but the things that dont work are inconsequential. Im very happy with all of it.

[coachjohn]

a) Drivers for the NVIDIA motherboard chipsets, all the way through the 680i, are on the Vista DVD and work well. Vista will automatically update to a newer NVIDIA graphics driver on it's first boot after install; that driver is working well for me until NVIDIA does a better job with the 100.xx version updates (they've gotten pretty mixed reviews to date).
b) I've installed Office 2007 and Creative Suite 2 from Adobe on my machines...Photoshop needs to be run as an adminstrator for plug-ins to work, but other than that, everything is fine...you'd have some problems with that suite on the 64 bit version if you use it. I use NOD32 as an antivirus and the newest version is compliant with both 32 bit and 64 bit versions. Printer drivers are problematic for some printers...check with you vendor first. I have two Epsons...an R380 (Vista drivers are out and work well) for daily chores, and an Epson 2200 for photo work (drivers are NOT out yet...Epson says to use XP drivers, but I've heard mixed reviews on that..). Logitech G5 mouse (Drivers are out from Logitech), and a Velocity Micro branded Creative keyboard (waiting to hear back from VM on that one). UPS works without a hitch, optical drives (Lite-On) and HDs (three SATA drives from WD, one of them a Raptor) also work well - and didn't have to F6 during the install! Creative X-Fi Audio Extreme works with with current Vista drivers from Creative...haven't gamed yet though, because the only game I really play is Madden 2007 and I've heard of a lot of lock-ups with this game under Vista, so I haven't installed it to date. CoreTemp works fine if you run it as an administrator.

All in all, I'm very happy with the upgrade...Vista at this early point in its evolution is FAR ahead of where XP was at the same point IMHO. Don't misread that...XP is a great OS, and is still on another machine at home (the "family" PC...too many legacy apps/games on that one for me to bite the bullet right now without my daughters having a fit *grin*), as well as on my work laptop (hardware issues...otherwise I'd upgrade it as well).

Good luck with your build.