Hi  all,

Does anyone have Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit installed as their OS? If so what are you opinions?

Thanks

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I've used Vista Home Premium 64 Bit for almost one and a half years now. The only reason I upgraded to Vista was that I wanted to use 8 GB of Ram and was not willing to buy another version of XP when the next Windows Version was already available in 64 bit. To be honest, at that time I was not very happy with my OS change. A lot of drivers weren't available for 64 bit and when I found third party drivers they could not be installed if they didn't have a digital signatur. By now there are drivers for almost every device out there that are compatible with Vista, but there are still some missing for the 64 bit version.

I also didn't get any speed improvement with Vista at all, because it demands so much more processing power. In fact, if I had stuck to XP with my new hardware everything might indeed be a bit faster.

However, I found Vista to be very stable in most parts, much more than XP at least. I know that Vista hides a lot of warnings instead of showing them to the user, but nonetheless I have experienced very few issues aside from the driver problems.

PRO Vista 64:

• Very stable
• some neat new features and better safety
• use of 8 GB Ram
• many drivers are available for Vista...

Contra Vista 64:

• ...but not necessarily for the 64 bit version
  - setting up networks is a mess
• needs lots of space on your hard drive and much processing power
• Windows updates take ages to install
• needs configuration for your own needs. There's a lot of stuff you probably won't need and some features that could come in quite handy

So I'd suggest that you look at your hardware manufacturer's websites and see if there are Vista 64 bit drivers for all your devices available before upgrading. Also, if you want to experience the new Aero desktop you should have a Graphics card with at least 256 MB Ram.

I bought a new computer with Vista Home Premium 64 bits some months ago to get access to 8GB, as Daniel. I'm very happy with it. It's very stable, very fast. I removed Aero and all other graphic stuff from Windows, I have it graphically "old-fashioned" (similar to Windows 2000) because I only care about performance and stability.

Indeed, setting up home networks is difficult, especially if the other machines are XP. This was the most annoying thing of all (and I finally gave up, after going through several forums and knowledge-bases).
The new security features of Vista are also quite annoying. I know it's all for the best of the average user, but it gets too much in the way of everything.
Apart from these two things, Vista is great, IMO. Vue runs great on it (if you "run as administrator").

Aye have 64 Vista Premium, and art apps work fine, and on quad core and 8 gigs RAM, good motherboard etc, wow, blows through renders! :)

iirc, only app I haven't got to work,will try again is a plugin for Photoshop, Ulead GIF X (think it was htat one, know it's a plug in I love, sigh, or maybe it's the old  Genesis plugin)

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I have this version of Vista and after switching of all those "security" features I have no problems with it. The only device that isn't supported on my machine is the Microsoft fingerprint reader (it is now supported in the 32 bit version but still not in the 64 bit version), it did surprise me that the only issue for me was with a Microsoft device. Everything works fine if your hardware is capable and new (less than 2 years old), anything older or less capable might give problems with Vista overall and even more so with the 64 bit version.

Thanks all I have the opportunity to have a new machine built with these specs

Asus P5K MB
Intel Quad core Q9300
8 gigs RAM
500 gig SATA HD
Geforce 8600GT 512MB
Vista home premium 64-Bit
Antec NSK6580 430w PS

This machine will only have the operating system, Vue 6 Inf, Poser 7, Paintshop pro X, wings, Xnview and  Ulead SmartSaver installed. This machine will not see any internet use strictly rendering and light modeling. I know the video card does support Vista 64 bits.

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PaganArtist,
get a bigger PSU, you will need one with the big video card etc.

always get at least a 500V PSU nowadays for a serious desktop PC, not an issue if you do not have the beefy Video cards and such, but if you do, it's essential, 
Those cards draw a hell of a lot of power, and also, if you add in more hard drives etc, it all adds up.

I like the HIPER power supply units, about £10-£20 more expensive, but they are very quiet!

I'd also suggest getting a second hard drive, at the same time, and using that oen to either RAID (and thus have perfect mirror of main drive), or frequently copy/backup onto this second drive.

From experience, it sucks ASS when you lose your hard drives and files, so backups are essential 

:) 

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So would you all recommend vista 64 over xp 64 at this time?  I also will be getting a new system soon and can get either OS.   Can you really turn off all the bloat and security settings?

The problem with getting XP64 is that Microsoft will no longer be supporting XP of any kind very soon. And yes you can turn off a lot of the bloat and the security settings.

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Based on my personal experience, I would definitely recommend Vista. If you really want to turn off most (all?) the security warnings, you can do so. Anyway, I would personally not recommend investments in a dying system, like XP.

yeha it's easy to turn off the "UAC" system that does most of the annoying crap, and then run as Administrator, so you do not get any hassles :)

Ntoe however, that DOES leave it more open to hacking/viruses, so make sure to have AVG or such running and stay OFF any non-major websites (have seen huge explosion in number of sites being hacked, ugh)
Do NOT use Norton, worst piece of crap antivirus ever, total bloatware that eats up CPU cycles like ecrazy :(

"I'd rather be a Fool who believes in Dragons, Than a King who believes in Nothing!" www.silverblades-suitcase.com
Free tutorials, Vue & Bryce materials, Bryce Skies, models, D&D items, stories.
Tutorials on Poser imports to Vue/Bryce, Postwork, Vue rendering/lighting, etc etc!

Yeah, I will have my own security solutions. :) So vista is up to par finally?  I haven't followed it recently but I know at launch many had issues which is why I suggested xp.  But if it is working nice now then I think I will go that route.

This new machine of mine will not be hooked to the internet and no home network will be hooked to it either. It will be just a render machine for Vue and Poser. Here is what my final decision in regards to specs for the new machine:

ASUS P5K Motherboard, Intel P35 chipset
Intel Quad Core 2 Q9450 2.66GHz (12MB),1333MHz
8GB 
Antec Sonata III w/ 500W Power Supply
Western Digital 500GB SATA2, 7200rpm
ASUS 20x DL DVD-RW Burner, Lightscribe
Nvidia GeForce 8600GT 512MB PCI-E
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium, 64-bit

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Sounds like it should be a great rig! :)

"I'd rather be a Fool who believes in Dragons, Than a King who believes in Nothing!" www.silverblades-suitcase.com
Free tutorials, Vue & Bryce materials, Bryce Skies, models, D&D items, stories.
Tutorials on Poser imports to Vue/Bryce, Postwork, Vue rendering/lighting, etc etc!