The official Vista Operating System thread

[Amraam]

Originally Posted by grim reaper

I'll probably put it on a partition sometime soon to have another mess around since the beta. But I can't for see me running it as my main operating system for some time. There just isn't any reason too.

Exactly what I've just done. It's a nice OS, but nowhere near ready to become my main OS IMO.

[Caslon]

I'm in the midst of building my new Vista pc. Antec P150 case arrived a couple of days ago. I went out today and bought the mb, a couple of optical drives,
hdd (all SATA) and a Zalman 9700 cpu cooler. I wasn't home today when Fed-X tried to deliver my Corsair 620w psu.

I spent this evening wiring up what I have so far. I mounted the mb and the back bracket on the mb for the Zalman cpu cooler (that Zalman is huge).

I'll go out tomorrow and pick up an Intel E6700 cpu, Corsair XMS2-6400pro (2 gig kit), Vista Home OEM and a cheap $50 pci-express vid card to get things running untill the ATI R600's are available in a month or so.

It'll probably take me a month to work out all the quirks and get everything running smooth. It's nice to have my 3 yr old pc on hand for backup.
I'll fire it up when finished and see if I can even load Vista...lol.
The Antec P150 mid tower case is so damn easy to work with. I took out the Antec 430w psu that came with the case. I'll sell it eBay for $40.00 or so.

So far: $810 (tax, and tax+ shipping for the few items net ordered).
That leaves all the remaining items I'll go to store to buy, tax included in cost).

CPU: $550, Corsair ram: $250 (Fry's local is $100 cheaper than Newegg), ATI R600 vid card (est. $400 for less than fastest), Vista OEM, $99.

About $2100 total. If I decide to go with ATI R600 faster card (2800XTX) add $100+ more.
(No SLI for me).

Not really an outrageous sum for upgrading from scratch after 3 years. I plan to OC my cpu also.

In a few days, I'll be able to check out Vista OS, maybe..with luck. RMA's I may have to do (bad ram, bad whatever).

[NavalLord]

My PC is 5 years old

Sounds good. I'd love to be able to upgrade to play some of the newer games on high settings, but with the whole college thing coming up, there's no need. I'd only be able to play a couple weeks out of the year.

[Copperhead]

Originally Posted by NavalLord

My PC is 5 years old

Sounds good. I'd love to be able to upgrade to play some of the newer games on high settings, but with the whole college thing coming up, there's no need. I'd only be able to play a couple weeks out of the year.

Same here, older than 5 years now. BF2 was ok but at minimum settings the game really lost a lot of playability. I guess when you dont play that much, its a bit pointless to buy a new rig.

[hsimah]

Originally Posted by Caslon

(No SLI for me).

SLI is nVidia.

Nice rig. Are you sure you wanna jump right into Vista? From what I hear most people have issues. I can't imagine any BF game will run well considering the issues people have under XP with them.

[grim reaper]

I really wish Q2 would get here sooner.

Massive Intel price drops and R600 is coming out.

Q2 is the time to buy.

[Caslon]

Originally Posted by hsimah

SLI is nVidia.

Nice rig. Are you sure you wanna jump right into Vista? From what I hear most people have issues. I can't imagine any BF game will run well considering the issues people have under XP with them.

I've got everything installed. I'll be firing it up later today (fingers crossed).
I bought a cheap video card to get things going. Waiting for R600.
I'm going to install Vista for upcoming DX10 games like Crysis and Alan Wake.

[grim reaper]

Originally Posted by Caslon

I bought a cheap video card to get things going. Waiting for R600.

Would it not be a good idea to wait for the R600 benchmarks before buying one? Unless of course you are buying one out of blind loyalty to a particular brand.

[DanTesla1]

calson, that is a sick comp.

[Caslon]

Originally Posted by grim reaper

Would it not be a good idea to wait for the R600 benchmarks before buying one? Unless of course you are buying one out of blind loyalty to a particular brand.

They'll be R600 benchmarks at lots of sites before I even can get my hands on one.
I'll check them for sure.

[Cøyøte]

Cas, Im dying to know what heat level your proc hits with that copper butterfly on it. Ive seen them but only remotely considered one.

[Caslon]

I've run into a bit of a snag. I'm in the midst of troubleshooting it.
Asus P5B-Deluxe MB. Conroe ready..not just supported....ready to go.
Intel E6700 cpu - OEM. Less than 1% are bad brand new.
Corsair 620w psu.
Corsair XMS2-2048 DDR2 6400Pro memory-Corsair compatible with this mb.
WD HDD- Sata 250GB OEM.
Zalman 9700 heatsink and fan.
2 Sata optical drives
A Cheap EVGA PCI video card to get it up and going.

It powers up and no boot...not even to monitor. No beeps, and I have to
power off at the psu unit (not front power button).
The boards power led lights up with power on..fans spin, hdd light stays on.
I did the usual switching memory to diffrernt slots one at a time.
I even returned the Corsair memory and on the way back home took my
mb and had it benchtested. It booted to bios. So it's not my mb.
Chances of it being my ram are somewhat small since 4 sticks used one at a time can't ALL be bad.

It narrows down to my carefull install of the mb being faulty...the ram just not compatible (I doubt that), the expensive and highly praised Corsar psu or the E6700 cpu (or just something dumb I did on reinstalling the board to case).

Noone I know has a 965 mb to take my oem E6700 cpu over to test.
PC Club store wants $75 to test. Another store will test memory and cpu (out of the case) for $39.99. I may go for that.

I'm wondering tho (to eliminate all else but the cpu) this question.
If you power up for 30 seconds or so...shouldn't the cpu get a little bit warm?
Mine is stone cold after 30-60 seconds when I touch the Zalman heatsink pipes.
Maybe this is because if the fault lies other than the cpu, the cpu has nothing to computate, and it won't get warm? Shouldn't the cpu get even a little warm regardless (Mb is ok).

I'll figure it out one way or another over the next 4 or 5 days.

[mrhahn]

Have you tried a different graphics card? From the sounds of things, everything's powering up as it should but you're not getting any output - the first thing I'd check is the graphics card in this case.

[Caslon]

Possible.

Only...I should be able to power down the system from the front off switch, not have to use the psu off switch to do so. LOL, I know using a $47.00 graphics pci card (not even pci express), could cause problems on a high end system.
I was sure to put that card in a non pci-express slot of course, tried other non pci express slots too.

I'm kinda discounting that as the problem, but something to consider.

If the cpu eventually checks out ok, and I know the mb checks out ok, and since new two packs of Corsair Twin sticks didn't help (yes, I tried using them one at a time too) I am a little perplexed. Less than 1% of intel cpu's are bad from the get go. It happens tho.

The hdd is new and oem, WD. Sata.
The ram is recommeded by Corsair website for my board.

I could be grounding the board on my case, I don't see how. I used brass stand offs. Todays mb's don't need those little paper washers under the 9 mb mounting screws, to mount a mb to chasis.

I've already tried just using bare bones to get system to boot.

I'm no dummy at following wiring procedures after the mb is mounted. Altho ya never know.

I'll figure it out and post back. These minor things often happen when buying other than Dell type packaged pc's.
I'd have it no other way.

[grim reaper]

I could be grounding the board on my case, I don't see how. I used brass stand offs. Todays mb's don't need those little paper washers under the 9 mb mounting screws, to mount a mb to chasis.

Erm, yes they do. Although that wont be the problem.

Have you tried re seating the graphics card or trying it in another slot? With no video out I would think the graphics card may be at fault.

[Caslon]

Originally Posted by grim reaper

Erm, yes they do. Although that wont be the problem.

Have you tried re seating the graphics card or trying it in another slot? With no video out I would think the graphics card may be at fault.

Grim..todays mb's no longer need those cardboard washers under mb mounting screws. Not that I know of. MB manuals don't mention them, pc cases don't supply them. I think that is a past issue.

Also, a defective or ill placed video card should still allow the system to go ahead and boot to hdd. It won't get there, but will at least try.

I doubt that's the problem, but it is a really cheapo pci graphics card.
Stranger fixes have happened.

When you don't even hear any hdd noise and you cannot turn off your pc from the front button...something else is amiss.

At least I KNOW my mb booted up in store benchtest, and I replaced my ram with similar sticks and tried them one at a time, on each slot.
Like I said, Corsair swears it should work with my Asus P5B-Deluxe, at worst, 1 GB stick at a time. 4 single attempts on all slots with 4 Corsair memory sticks (individually), no way can they all be bad.

It will be kinda puzzling if my cpu checks out ok after I remove it and pay $39.00 to benchtest it.

I'm discounting the Corsair psu. It's supposed to be impeccable. I'll bust a gut laughing if that's the cause. Hell, between you and me we know how many Corsair mem sticks have to be RMA'd. But surely not their new psu...so forget that.

I'll pay the $39 to have cpu checked probably. If it's bad, I get a new one free.

I swear to god I've thought of everything else.

Also...noone else was able to answer this...that cpu under the Zalman huge heatsink fan is as cool as a cucumber. What makes or prevents a cpu from computating and therefore heating up or not heating up, even after 45 seconds? It could still be a good cpu but wasn't given the enviornment to heat up.?

I'm saying that after 45 seconds of firing up the pc, the heatpipe part of the heatsink to cpu was totally cold. I touched my finger around there and not heat was felt.
I'm also suggesting that this may be a good cpu, but that it did not have the system paramaters neccessay to even make it want to heat up (computate).