Vista x64

[mediaboy]

I'm building a new computer.. spending around ~£350 on it atm, but it's probably going to go up.

Especially since the price jump from Basic to Premium is around £50.

Worth it?

Or do I just stick with Basic, as this computer won't be doing anything more hefty than something like playing games and a bit of coursework here and there.

Mostly strategy games if that comes into it, but I was wondering what the major differences between the two were, and even if it's worth doshing out ~£150 for Ultimate... any help appreciated!

[dangel]

Home Basic vs. Home Premium:

No Aero interface, including transparency in many parts of the GUI (worth having -looks nice speeds up drawing/lowers cpu load)
No Media Center (worth having as it's pretty good)
Five included Windows games, instead of nine (irrelevant to you)
No automatic network backup (irrelevant to you)
No relationship between PC and Xbox 360 (?)
No advanced slideshows (big deal lol!)
No Movie Maker / DVD Maker (might be handy)
Weak Tablet PC functionality (irrelevant to you)
No SideShow Support (might be useful one sunny day)

Home Premium vs. Ultimate:

No advanced complete system backup tool (you can buy one seperately though)
Small business apps, such as Fax and Scan (useless)
No Ultimate "extras", which could include games and special utilities (but more or less doesn't - extras are worthless)
No BitLocker hard drive encryption software (not necessary)
No automatic "Shadow" copies of your documents (nice, but not earth shattering if you backup anyway)
No Remote Desktop (you can hack premium so it does)
No advanced group policy editor (irrelevant to you)
Inability to run UNIX-based applications (through SUA) (irrelevant to you)
No support for dual CPU's (2 physical processors) or 128GB of memory (irrelevant to you)


Which one to get? Home Premium offers the best balance of features/price IMHO.
Ultimate is a waste of dosh for most.

[BUFF]

I'm building a new computer.. spending around ~£350 on it atm, but it's probably going to go up.

Especially since the price jump from Basic to Premium is around £50.

if you are buying OEM it's about £6 SCAN

I just noticed that they are all SP1 too now

[directhex]

I'm building a new computer.. spending around ~£350 on it atm, but it's probably going to go up.

Especially since the price jump from Basic to Premium is around £50.

Worth it?

Or do I just stick with Basic, as this computer won't be doing anything more hefty than something like playing games and a bit of coursework here and there.

Mostly strategy games if that comes into it, but I was wondering what the major differences between the two were, and even if it's worth doshing out ~£150 for Ultimate... any help appreciated!

for building a new pc, go oem (unless you really really want the option to re-use windows on a new motherboard at a later date). it'll slash costs

[Splash]

Home Basic vs. Home Premium:

No Aero interface, including transparency in many parts of the GUI (worth having -looks nice speeds up drawing/lowers cpu load)
No Media Center (worth having as it's pretty good)
Five included Windows games, instead of nine (irrelevant to you)
No automatic network backup (irrelevant to you)
No relationship between PC and Xbox 360 (?)
No advanced slideshows (big deal lol!)
No Movie Maker / DVD Maker (might be handy)
Weak Tablet PC functionality (irrelevant to you)
No SideShow Support (might be useful one sunny day)

Home Premium vs. Ultimate:

No advanced complete system backup tool (you can buy one seperately though)
Small business apps, such as Fax and Scan (useless)
No Ultimate "extras", which could include games and special utilities (but more or less doesn't - extras are worthless)
No BitLocker hard drive encryption software (not necessary)
No automatic "Shadow" copies of your documents (nice, but not earth shattering if you backup anyway)
No Remote Desktop (you can hack premium so it does)
No advanced group policy editor (irrelevant to you)
Inability to run UNIX-based applications (through SUA) (irrelevant to you)
No support for dual CPU's (2 physical processors) or 128GB of memory (irrelevant to you)


Which one to get? Home Premium offers the best balance of features/price IMHO.
Ultimate is a waste of dosh for most.

You forgot Domain support (in Ultimate, not in HP) which was the biggy for me. Largely irrelevant in most cases posted on Hexus though.

[dangel]

You forgot Domain support (in Ultimate, not in HP) which was the biggy for me. Largely irrelevant in most cases posted on Hexus though.

True - good point!