Here is what my mother-in-law has for a system:
Raidmax O2 ATX302BP Mid Tower Case (Black) Retail

Asus A8R-MVP 480X CrossFire Athlon 64(FX)/64 X2 Dual-Core/Sempron Skt939 DDR ATX Motherboard w/Audio, Gigabit LAN, RAID/Serial ATA Retail

Corsair VS1GB400C3 1GB DDR400 PC3200 CAS3 Value Select Memory Retail

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Processor (Venice) Socket 939 Retail

Liteon SHW160P6S04 16X Dual Layer DVD±RW Drive (Black) Retail

Liteon LH-16D1P 16X IDE DVD-ROM Drive (Black)

Coolermaster TLF-S12-EB Neon LED Fan 120mm (Blue) Retail


Western Digital Caviar SE WD1200JS 120GB Serial ATA II 7200RPM Hard Drive w/8MB Buffer

Gigabyte GV-RX13256DP-RH Radeon X1300 PCI Express 256MB DDR2 Video Card w/TV-Out & DVI Retail

I was wondering if I just upgrade to 2 gig's of RAM that I should be okay for general home use (word,excel, powerpoint, pictures, etc.)?

Do you think this should be smooth enough with VISTA? It currently runs fine on Win XP Pro.

I'm concerned that alot of the programs that run on XP might not run on VISTA. Is this a major concern?

Please let me know if you have any ideas on this.

Thank you in advance for any input

Absolutely. Despite the bad press I thoroughly enjoy Vista. Have fun.

For Vista I'd definitely recommend 2GB of RAM for the best running conditions. But here we come to a problem. I'm not sure I feel comfortable telling someone to go out and buy a stick of obsolete DDR RAM (I see you are using S939) just so they can run Vista. If you want to, go ahead, but that's just my sentiment.

You should run upgrade advisor just to be sure but it appears to me that your system would be fine to run vista. Did you run upgrade advisor yet?--- What did it say.

You may be able to run vista and not activate it and return it if it does not run right or as smoothly as expected (believe most retail stores have 30 day return policy). If you upgrade to 2 gigs, vista would run better.

Thank you all for your replies I haven't run advisor on it, since the "mother-in-law" is over 3 hours away I'm only seeing what you guys think. I'm not much in favor of putting VISTA on her system, but that is what she's wanting to do. I was also thinking of putting in a X2 processor, before they go bye bye. Not sure if the X2 is needed, but I think this would make the "Vista" experience better for her. I'm just trying to maximize the system for the least amout of $, since that is the #1 priority on this system. She wanted me to build her a new system, but that would be around $800-$1000 for a basic setup.

Does anyone know where I can get a good deal on Vista Ultimate online? I've seen it somewhere through Froogle for about $199. Any respectable online e-tailers would be good. I don't like to take too many chances with shaky e-tailers.

So the bottom line is that I would upgrade to 2 gig's of RAM (1 more 1 gig stick at about $80) and possibly an X2 processor($125 ish), plus Vista Ultimate ($200 maybe) and Office 2007 ($200 or so). Total would probably be around ~$600. Instead of building a new system for about $700ish and then adding about $400 in software= $1,100ish.

What do you guys think about that?

Go for it.

Thanks for your input. It's nice to see quick and concise conversation in a forum I'm going to inform the "in-law" and we will progress forward

before i answer on your new proposed system--- what is objective with your system --- ie --- if your looking for gaming vista is not answer ----to be honest --- not sure what you gain from upgrading to vista even from business stand point --- have heard a lot of hype from both sides and dont know what to believe --- thus anything I say is speculative regarding vista === but xp there is no question --- its rock solid --- the same cannot be said for vista

It's not my idea. The mother-in-law would like to have it. I told her that I wasn't seeing any proposed improvement on what she has, but she still wants it. Not sure really why she wants it, maybe just because its the latest (which doesn't make sense). She only uses it for basic stuff, i.e. internet, emails, word processing, and the like. So basically it wouldn't be a gaming system by any means. I'm just quoting her what I would recommend if I had her system and wanted to spend as little as possible on it to run Vista.

I am going to stress to her that she should wait until at least SP1 gets released before even considering getting Vista.

I also don't see a reason for getting Vista considering what it will be used for, but we pretty much already establised that and it's her decision...lol... But why spend $200 on Vista Ultimate? Vista Premium itself will be much more than enough for her needs. If she doesn't want the Aero effects, then I would even suggest going with Vista Basic.

Just felt like sharing my thoughts

Yeah looking at Vista closer, looks like maybe Vista Business might suit her well, and save some $. She has a small business that she runs part time and the Business edition might just suit her well.

Thanks for you thoughts

I ran Vista on such setup, with the same mobo and cpuy, same video card and 1 gig of RAM. It was running nice and stable.

If she is only doing basic stuff, like emails, word processing, and such --- maybe home basic version might be best --- this would reduce cost even further ---- dont really know what she gains from vista business if just doing basics --- just suggestion to save you some money --- if she wants all the bell and whistles --- then maybe business or even ultimate might be choice--- dont worry, my father is same way --- give me the latest and greatest--- it doesnt matter what i say.

Thanks for you input. I was thinking that the setup would be fine for Vista. I designed the system earlier last year with the possiblity of having Vista put on it. I learn alot each time I put together budget systems for friends/family, so I hope I'm getting better at it. My first build is still running, only had to replace power supply recently (4 yr old syste). I didn't know much about systems then, but I'm definately seeing how to build them better now.

Yea I believe I'm in the same boat as you were, needing the latest and greatest without any thought if it could work or not better. I just hope that she doesn't think this will solve any issues or make things easier for her, because I don't know if it will or not. She depends on me to keep the system running or updated, which I haven't really had to do a thing with it since I put it together.