Abit BE7 and Vista

[tonymarcus]

Hello,

Thinking on installing Vista Home Premium on my system (Abit BE7 with PIV
3.06GB (O/C'd to 3.5GB), 1GB Ram) when it's released in a week or so, I have
run the Vista upgrade advisor and this has said that my HPT372 Raid
controller on my 4 year old ABit BE7 will not run. I have had a look on the
Abit and Highpoint web site and there doesn't seem to any Vista drivers
available.

If there is no Vista drivers available is there a chance that the latest XP
drivers will be OK, when XP was launched 5 years ago some of my hardware
manufactures didn't release XP drivers but Windows 2000 drivers did the
trick.

Also my Creative Live 5.1 soundcard is not going to have Vista drivers
available, what's the chance of this running with Vista.

I know installing Vista will slow my PC down but I am planning to build a
new PC at the end of this year or start of next so if the worst comes to the
worst I'll just stick with XP until then but I'd like to be familiar with
Vista before I upgrade.

Another option would be to dual boot, how do I set this up on the same hard
drive, is it an option during Vista install. What I would like is a menu
upon boot as to with OS I wish to boot to.

Thanks

Marcus

[ABIT Sean]

I think in this case the BE7 is just too old to cope with the demands of vista. I would hate for you to purchase a copy of vista just to find out that its incompatible.

[Richh]

Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V:

Thinking on installing Vista Home Premium on my system (Abit BE7 with PIV 3.06GB (O/C'd to 3.5GB), 1GB Ram) when it's released in a week or so, I have run the Vista upgrade advisor and this has said that my HPT372 Raid controller on my 4 year old ABit BE7 will not run.

Hmmm, I've installed beta Vistas on my old system which has an HPT372 on it, without needing to load any supplementary drivers during setup, so it's possible the Advisor might be giving you a bum steer there. Anyway...

I have had a look on the Abit and Highpoint web site and there doesn't seem to any Vista drivers available.

Can't have looked that hard, there are Vista compatible drivers listed at Highpoint's site:

http://www.highpoint-tech.com/BIOS_D...ista-2.351.zip

Also my Creative Live 5.1 soundcard is not going to have Vista drivers
available, what's the chance of this running with Vista.

There are a number of issues with Vista and older sound devices. Think Creative's Alchemy is supposed to be fix but not sure how complete or effective it is.

I know installing Vista will slow my PC down but I am planning to build a new PC at the end of this year or start of next so if the worst comes to the worst I'll just stick with XP until then but I'd like to be familiar with Vista before I upgrade.

Your option of course but this sounds like a load of hassle and money to no real benefit. The only things that Vista home does that XP doesn't are the Aero Glass UI (on a suitable card) and DirectX 10 games. It sounds like your system isn't going to be up to DX10 gaming anyway and there are addons for XP that do a Glass-like trick, so why faff around with something that will, as you say, slow your system up and also saddle you with a load of DRM?

What I would like is a menu upon boot as to with OS I wish to boot

What is the point of dual booting Vista *and* XP? Sounds like you're volunteering yourself for a stack of hassle here, just for the sake of being able to say you've got Vista. When you get it, you may realise that you didn't really want it that much after all.

If you're thinking you might stick with XP for the time being, and aren't planning on building a new system until the end of this year at the earliest, there is no point getting Vista now. It doesn't give you anything you can't live without, and IMV isn't worth the cost, either in terms of buying it or the hassle you're likely to have getting your sound as good as it was.

If you're going to get it, the time to do so is when you're getting your new hardware. By then you'll be able to buy a Vista DVD with SP1 and no doubt more already integrated, and indeed you'll have learned enough about the OS from other sources to decide whether you want to go with Home, Ultimate, or stick with XP.