As I noted in my last post, I installed Vista x64 on my W3J. Most of the devices and hardware works on the default driver, but everything else is kinda iffy, and all of the Asus utilities are x86 only (including, most importantly, Power 4 Gear Extreme). So....no go on Vista 64 bit, essentially. I'm waiting on a friend to loan me a copy of x86-based Vista 32 bit, and once that happens (probably on Wednesday), I should be in business.
Even with the generic drivers, performance-wise I'm not seeing any problem with Vista, it runs very similar to the W7S. The Windows Experience Index scores are all in the 4.5-5.0 range, pretty much the same as the W7S, other than the far more powerful graphics (the W7S has a low end 8400M, which nets it a 3.1 WEI score.) Switching from XP to Vista makes me notice that regardless of how everyone hates it, Vista still looks nicer than XP, and barring inadequate hardware (like a netbook, for example) or a specific compatibility problem, there isn't any reason to run XP over Vista. I've really gotten used to some of the UI enhancements in Vista as well, starting with the search mechanism built into the Start menu. Very convenient, and just reinforces in my mind that Vista is highly underrated and got shafted early on by nVidia's driver issues and Apple's marketing machine.
At this point, I'm almost wondering if all of this is for naught, since by the time I get Vista properly working on the W3J, the Windows 7 Release Candidate will be almost out. Maybe I'll dual boot or something...we'll see in the future.
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