XP or Vista

saubryn

I run Vista on some machines, XP on others. It seems Vista 64 runs great compared to 32bit XP on the same machine, but 32bit Vista just crawls on the machines I've seen it on. So if the laptop is only a 32bit processor that's something to consider.

bigfishman

About that 32 and 64 bit note.. if you buy a laptop for 400quid that has a 64 bit cpu you will probably have the 32bit of vista on it still. And the only performance increase will be in 64 bit applicaitons which i doubt you will be using for your uses .
To be honest i havnt benchmarked my vista machine or done any big processing with it but its as fast as i need it for what i do on it and it runs pretty well no problems so far. And if your spending £400 on a machine your not going to be expecting or needing it for cutting edge performance anyway. Everyone has different opinions on this just google vista vs xp and read a few articles and make your own mind up.