The Vista Aero UI with Glass transparency effects is great to look at, but it doesn’t help you get your work done. If you don’t need the graphical previews and are content with the Vista Basic UI, you can run Windows Vista on relatively modest hardware.

Choosing Hardware for Windows Vista

Choosing hardware for Windows Vista involves two main factors:

Compatibility All your hardware must be compatible with Windows Vista. Compatibility should be an issue only if you’re upgrading an existing PC to Windows Vista or building your own PC. If you’re planning to buy a new PC to run Windows Vista, you shouldn’t need to worry about hardware compatibility, because any PC manufacturer selling Windows Vista PCs will design those PCs for Windows Vista. You may still run into compatibility issues when adding your existing hardware to a Windows Vista PC.

Power You must make sure your hardware is powerful enough to run Windows Vista well enough to deliver the level of experience you want. See the previous section for details on the good, better, and best levels of experience.

Choosing a Processor

Any current processor from Intel Corporation or Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. AMD will run Windows Vista at a decent speed. Intel and AMD constantly release faster processors and new technologies, so it’s worth spending a little time researching the latest processors if you’re planning to buy a computer. Here are suggestions for approaching the task of choosing a processor as of December 2006:

• For a high-performance desktop computer, consider an Intel Core 2 Duo processor or an AMD Athlon 64 processor.

• For a value desktop computer, consider an Intel Celeron processor or an AMD Sempron processor.

• For a high-performance laptop computer, consider an Intel Centrino Duo processor or an AMD Turion 64 processor.

• For a value laptop computer, consider an Intel Centrino not Centrino Duo processor or a Celeron processor.

• For an ultra-quiet PC, consider a VIA Technologies processor such as a VIA C7, VIA C7-M, or VIA Eden.

• Never buy the newest and fastest processor unless you simply must have the latest and greatest technology no matter how high the cost. The newest and fastest processors tend to be far more expensive than slightly slower processors, even though they offer only marginally better performance.

If you’re installing Windows Vista as an upgrade to an existing computer, you’re probably stuck with that computer’s current processor. Windows Vista does run on old processors for example, a 1999-vintage Celeron 600, but performance is poor. In practice, a Pentium 4 or lowend Athlon 64 processor will probably be usable, but you’ll get better performance from a faster and more capable processor.

Choosing a Graphics Card

Windows Vista is a highly graphical operating system, so your PC’s graphics card is a vital component. PCs usually have one of three types of graphics hardware:

• Unified Memory Architecture UMA The motherboard includes a graphics chip that borrows some of the PC’s main memory the RAM for video use. UMA is the least expensive graphics solution, so the lowest-cost PCs tend to use it. It also delivers the worst performance and reduces the amount of RAM available for non-video tasks.

Graphics chip on the motherboard The motherboard includes a graphics chip that has video memory built into it. This is a neat and effective solution as long as you don’t need extremely high graphics performance: The graphics chips used are usually not the most powerful, and in most cases you can’t directly upgrade them though you may be able to add a separate graphics card and disable the built-in graphics chip. Many laptops and desktops use this solution. Graphics card The graphics card is separate and fits into a slot on the motherboard. This is the most flexible solution, as you can fit any of a wide range of graphics cards, from the modest to the most powerful. This solution is typically used only in desktop computers, as laptop computers don’t have enough space for a separate graphics card. This tends to be the most expensive solution.

Few Laptop PCs Have Upgradeable Graphics Chips

If you have a laptop PC, you’re usually stuck with the graphics chip that came with it. A few laptops have upgradeable memory chips, so it’s worth checking if yours does. Otherwise, you can find third-party graphics solutions that use the PC Card slot, but these tend to be expensive and suitable for special purposes only, such as attaching two or more external displays to your laptop.

Choosing RAM

Windows Vista requires at least 512MB RAM and is happy to use up to 4GB on most standard PCs. Having more RAM greatly improves performance, so if you’re buying a new PC, look for 1GB as a practical minimum for normal computer use and 2GB as suitable for heavy use.

Choosing a Hard Disk

To install a fresh copy of Windows Vista, you need approximately 16GB of free space on your hard disk. To upgrade Windows XP to Windows Vista, you need a little less- around 15GB. These figures are pretty much absolute minimums for Windows Vista itself and allow you hardly any space for your documents, music files, photos, video files, and other files. So normally you’ll want to have far more free space than this. However, if your computer has two disks, you can install Windows Vista on a disk that has only around this amount of space free, and then store your files on the other disk.

Adding a Hard Disk to Resolve a Space Crunch

If your hard disk has only just enough free space for Windows Vista, you may want to add another hard disk to hold your files. For a desktop, this can be either an internal or an external hard disk. For a laptop, it can usually be only an external hard disk. Some laptops can accept a second internal hard disk, usually at the expense of the optical drive or battery. A few monster laptops have space for a second hard disk without sacrificing any components. Consider these four factors when choosing a disk drive:

• Interface type Check which interface type- for example, Serial ATA SATA or ATA- your computer uses. For an external disk drive, your normal choice is USB 2.0. Avoid USB 1.1 or USB 1.0, because their data transfer speed is too slow for hard disks.

• Size Desktops typically use 3.5-inch disk drives, while laptops typically use 2.5-inch drives. Some extra-small laptops such as subnotebooks use even smaller hard disks or 2.5-inch hard disks with a low height 9 mm instead of 12.5 mm. Flash-memory disk drives are just becoming viable at this writing, but their capacities remain low and their prices excruciatingly high.

• Speed The speed at which a disk can transfer data largely depends on its rotation speed in revolutions per minute rpm. For a desktop, look for a 7,200 rpm drive rather than a 5,400 rpm drive. For a laptop, get a 5,400 rpm drive or a 7,200 rpm drive. Faster drives consume more power, are noisier, and run hotter than slower drives. Power, noise, and heat tend to be more serious considerations in laptops than in desktops, but you can find extra-quiet 7200-rpm drives for desktops too.

• Cache This is memory built into the disk drive that lets it store frequently accessed data and deliver it faster than reading it from the disk. The more cache memory, the more data the drive can cache- but the more expensive it is.

DVD Drive

You will need a DVD drive on your computer to install Windows from the DVD. If you want to use Windows’ DVD-burning features for backup or entertainment, buy a DVD+/–RW drive rather than a plain DVD drive.