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Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate - Licence and media - 1 PC - OEM - DVD - 64-bit - English
- £96.13ex vat
- £112.96inc vat
Need it fast? You have:
Tuesday, 9th September.
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- manufacturer #: 66R-00838
- quickfind code: 123047
- 202 in stock for next day delivery.
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Product Reviews
OEM
os:
Not ApplicableJust to clarify what OEM means for those that dont know.
The only difference between OEM and retail is the licence, and the fact that you dont get any free technical support from Microsoft. (It is the system builder who has to give the support.)
You can put retail versions of Vista on a new PC as long as you remove the version that is on your old one, but you can not put OEM versions on a new PC.
If you upgrade, or change the motherboard then it would effectively be a new PC so you would have to buy a new copy of Vista OEM as well.
(Although you are allowed to repair your PC with OEM versions so you could try rining Microsoft and telling them your motherboard has died and you had to have it replaced.)
All other components such as RAM, Processors, Graphics cards etc will be fine to upgrade or replace without any problems re-installing Vista.
Personally though, I only replace my motherboard every couple of years anyway, and you would have to do this 3 times before it would be worth forking out for the retail version.
By the time you have done 3 motherboard upgrades there will probably be a new version of Windows out anyway.
VISTA is Great
os:
Not ApplicableWell just got my copy of Vista 64X Ultimate through the other day. I went for the ultimate edition as it has all the extras and for the proce was worth paying a touch more. But Ebuyer gave it at an excellent price.
After a good install from a clean system (Actually worked booting from my external USB DVD-ROM which really impressed me). Whole setup when like a charm. Must admit there are a lot less options to pick from and menus to work through on the Vista setup. It seems to do it all it self which was real good.
First impressions when installed were, where do i start. So much included and so many new features what do i check out first. Took a day to get used to it and to work out what was what and where everything was. Must say though is working like a charm. Have got to move my computer into my new case later and add in my new AMD 4200 X2 cpu to replace my 3000 CPU runnin at the moment but windows sails through with this even too.
Since the Install i havent installed any packaged drivers for my motherboard, sound, network, graphics card and they were all recognised and setup for me automatically by vista which i REALLY REALLY LIKE.
WELL DONE MICROSOFT
Overall i think Vista will be 100% great OS and seems more secure already.
Just a lil advice to anyone reading this. I have 1GB of memory and although it is enough it does use up most of it, would be worth upgrading to 2GB and as the RAM is so cheap now would be a good improvement just to get that tip top performance.
If i could id award it 5 stars.
FEW TIPS FOR NEW USERS:
- At first will seem there is so much you dont know where to start, just be patient and work through everything and use the tutorials and videos. Makes life much easier.
- Once installed for the first time let Windows update it self and set everything up, might seem as if its not doing anything but is working away downloading.
- Dont worry about popups, these are just extra security windows, will be useful when you have all your software and documents on the computer and dont know whats being installed.
- Check out the new screen saves (ALL UPDATED) and desktop backgrounds. All great.
- And finally i recommend that you should have 2GB mem, would just make system run better, ive ordered mine, is well worth it. Especially if you have a good G/C and a high end Dual COre CPU.
Vista Ultimate
os:
Not ApplicableI have been running windows vista RC1 for about three months. My sense is that it is very solid and reliable, when I switch back to XP it seems to be crashing all the time.
It looks very nice, god after five years staring at XP a change is as good as a rest. It can be annoying, it has higher levels of security, it seems to ask you four times before it lets you run things or save them, but then that is the hackers fault.
If you have a high specification then it runs very well, but I think for it to do so you need to upgrade key components. I now run with 2gb of memory and upgraded graphics card to a nvidia 7300 - the processor is amd 64 3000mh. However I am running 32 bit - I have two sata drives and you dont seem to be able to set up the 64 version on a sata drive - yes I know you should be able to but dont take my work for it google it.
Other bugbears to be prepared for, if you have a nice logitech bluetooth keyboard (I have a dinovo media 2) then Logitech seem to have no intention of producing upgraded drivers. Got the thing going eventually (pair it in XP, go to vista and keep trying until it works)
Also HP dont seem keen on vista drivers - my old scanjet and deskjet will not work properly.
So, inevitably you are going to have to upgrade my final advice would be that if your pc is not very high spec and you are going to do a major upgrade or buy a new one wait until then. Oh by the way - the big diffrence is really office 2007 which is dramatically better and when teamed up with vista runs like a dream. But it does not seem to run quite so well with xp.
Paul
Why pay £350+ when you can have this version?
os:
Windows VistaWell, what can I say? I actually quite like Vista. It is simple to use, friendly without being patronising, and has some awesome features like the flipping desktop thing and the streamlined updater.
Some people have mentioned the constant security nags. That is simple to disable; by turning off User Account Control. There are many other ways to tweak Vista which I will not go into here, but just Google it to find some useful tweaks!
As for hardware, software and compatibility, most things work with Vista now. All the graphics companies have released proper drivers and most audio cards have at least beta drivers. I have had no problems with my hard drive or optical drives. The only thing I have had issues with is my Bluetooth dongle, but that is a Belkin error not a Microsoft one (the drivers were dodgy).
As someone asked about Nero, I have Nero 7 Ultra Edition installed and it works fine. I also have Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Sibelius installed and running with no problems. There are still a few games that need patching, but the companies are working on those, and most popular games - such as The Sims 2, the new Tomb Raiders, World of Warcraft, F.E.A.R., Stalker and Half-Life 2 - work fine.
The fact that it is OEM does not make one iota of difference to everyday use. All OEM means is that you cannot ring up Microsoft and complain if it goes wrong, and you can still use the support websites freely. I have never called MS in my life, even using retail versions of software. Also, you can't put this on two computers (duh). If you change a major component (like the proc or mobo) of the PC it is installed on, you have to ring MS and they will give you a new license key.
All in all, I would say buy this if you are building a new system, but do not bother upgrading from XP.
windows ultimate truely is
os:
Not Applicablei've been waiting for this for sometime. i've currently been using the RC and now this is out i dont mind paying the 115 for it. xp has now been out for about 5 year and if vista has the same life 23quid a year for an os is a bargain. hooking up to the 360 is only possible in a 2 versions out of the four but saves having to turn the pc on to listen to mp3s or watch vids.
Loving it (so far so good)
Install went smoothly on my 4 year old PC that I upgraded to required spec. Some software and drivers will need to catchup to be properly compatible in the same way as when Windows 2000 and XP were initially released. This is a great price for a great piece of software.
Wonderful now that the drivers are all out
os:
Windows VistaFinally the Vista drivers (that I needed at least) are out of Beta. That was my one concern when I installed Vista: I knew that a lot of stuff was going to be missing drivers for a long time.
I really cannot fault this OS. I've not had it crash on me in 3 months of HEAVY use (I use it at least 8 hours a day and it's never switched off) in games and movies. I was telling everyone that I was freaking out that the OS would be crashing "just like every other new OS that's ever come out" but I've honestly not had any problems with this OS. I have 2gb of RAM which is constantly at at least 50% usage so make sure you've got above 1gb before you even consider using this else it'll run slow as hell!
Boot time and general use are both quicker than on XP. I'm running a triple-raid0 with a dual-core CPU and the whole system is running great.
The new features, although gimmicky, are handy: Tags for files, better folder navigation (the breadcrumb access for folder paths is *brilliant*) and a better look overall (and I'm not talking about Aero here yet...)
Networking is a little fiddly at first, as is most of the OS. The Control Panel has been *completely* re-worked to the point where I wasn't able to find stuff I needed but typing it into the search bar on the start menu quickly sorted that out. But still, what is new and confusing quickly became second nature once again.
Lots of stuff that's new, lots of pointless stuff that you say isn't a reason to buy the OS but you still find yourself using them and loving it anyway...
I really would recommend that if you have the money get it. Anyone who has problems with this OS clearly doesn't know how to set up their computer correctly (I refer there to the low-rated reviews in this section)
General question
Is the price of this oem version going to remain this low, even when it is released on the 30th jan?
Thanks for any replies.
P.s. Tried this operating system since BETA 2, the improvements are massive. Don't listen to general gossip, this isn't just a bit of candy over xp, many of the new features are hidden beneath its skin. It also runs faster than windows xp when you have over the 512mb minimum ram, and gaming is excellent.
BIT OF A PAIN
Has anyone managed to get any version of nero installed yet
Applications
Regarding Nero it seems that all Nero products after Nero 6 will work fine as long as your drivers are upto date for your device. I don't agree that Logitec are a bit laid back on the drivers as this company was one of the first to complete all their drivers in advance before the final release of Windows Vista x64.
