Vista OS - Hardware Rating

[DaveLembke]

Hello Everyone,

I took the leap to Vista Business Edition on my computer which is a HP/Compaq running a 3.0Ghz HT Pentium 4 w/ 1MB Cache - socket 478 CPU, 2GB Ram, NVidia GeForce FX5200 8x AGP w/128MB Ram, and 80GB SATA HD, and only got a rating of "2.0"

Made my jaw drop that it was only rated a 2.0, when I was expecting a 5.0 for the fact that its not new, but also not that old of hardware.

Those of you who have taken the leap to Vista or bought a system preinstalled with Vista, what does it report? Anyone reporting a higher rating with similar hardware to mine? Thinking my video card might be holding the rating down.

Dave

[Vishu]

Hey Dave.
nothing to Worry about the Rating. Before the Rating is shown on ur system there are a lot of things which are taken into consideration which includes system processor speed, Video card capacity, FSB , L2 cache and every part which could perform...

Still 2.0 is a lil low...may be increasing a few thing might help

[patio]

Why do you want Vista ? ?

[Raptor]

Why do you want Vista ? ?

 

[DaveLembke]

Since I will have to support it at my job, I figured I should install it on one of my systems and familiarize myslef with it. A order of laptops are on their way for users with Vista Business, so I had the company buy a copy of Vista Business for me to install and work with.

Not very impressed with it so far, and I had to switch it to classic view to not go insane since I use Start-> Run a lot.

I imaged my system before installing Vista, so I can revert back to XP Pro SP2 when done working with it.

Dave

[Calum]

2.0 seems right to me for that system.
The RAM is fine. but the CPU is quite old, and the graphics card is not only old but low end, plus it is AGP.
But the RAM is fine.
The score is based on not only the speeds but the technologies, so a PCI-E card will score more than an AGP card (or so I've been told).
The GPU is a big part of the score now too, as is having a fast HDD.
Take a look here - that article explains a lot about the scores, including how and why you may score low.
The score also goes up to 5, not 10.

[Raptor]

The bottleneck on your system for multimedia usage is indeed your video card.

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

I dont need a good GUI or background or effects in the toolbar or the sidebar thing, i just need something that can do my work.
That includes browsing CH, playing games and doing homework. I dont have the need for a fancy 3d toolbar.
I voted in the middle because i think Vista has a fair share of disappointment and approval.

[Neil]

If you don't want a fancy 3d toolbar then don't use it. If you purposefully vote incorrectly on a poll just because you don't like the software it is going to cloud the results. The poll is what hardware rating you were given by the upgrade tool thing, not what you think of Vista.

OP, your graphics card is the main bottleneck I think. I wouldn't use an FX5200 to play Solitaire

Callam or others, I'm a bit concerned about a 3Ghz processor being weak. I have an Athlon 64 3000+. I know it's not the top of the bunch but is my computer now   *sniff*   old?

[DaveLembke]

LOL - FX5200 for solitaire ... Funny thing is that when you go to games on this Vista OS system it scores so low with 2.0 that Solitaire isn't even an option.... 

Going to switch back to XP Soon!!!! Better performance and less troubles with software yet to support it like Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition 10.2.2002.

Also my appologies for setting the scale rating from 0 to 10, didnt know it was based on 0 to 5, makes me feel better I guess that It scores in the 40% range vs 20%.

Also thanks for the link to the ratings, now I understand it better.

[patio]

I've never seen a machine score 5...just finished a new build with a Dual core Intel 6600 an MSI Platinum MBoard with 2G of matched pair RAM modules and it scored a 3...i honestly don't know what they expect.

[Calum]

Callam or others, I'm a bit concerned about a 3Ghz processor being weak. I have an Athlon 64 3000+. I know it's not the top of the bunch but is my computer now   *sniff*   old?

It's not 64 bit though and has only 1Mb of L2 cache, whereas newer CPUs have 2 or 4, which would bring the rating down.  It will also be a slower version as it is S478, which is rather old.
I said it was old, not weak.
And yes, your PC is old.
All of them are - as soon as you buy a PC, it is outdated.

OP, your graphics card is the main bottleneck I think. I wouldn't use an FX5200 to play Solitaire

Well said, my thoughts exactly.

Also thanks for the link to the ratings, now I understand it better.

You're welcome.

I've never seen a machine score 5...just finished a new build with a Dual core Intel 6600 an MSI Platinum MBoard with 2G of matched pair RAM modules and it scored a 3...i honestly don't know what they expect.

What graphics card?
I bet that's what's holding it back.

[patio]

We put in the:

 Video Adapter Properties   
Device Description    NVIDIA Quadro FX 3400/4400

He chose this for Autocad...not much gaming.

[Calum]

That's equivalent to the GeForce 6800, so I don't see that card holding the rating back more than maybe 1 point.
The only other thing I can think of would be the HDD, if it was slow that would hold the rating back.

[patio]

Brand new SATA II Maxtor 200g partitioned in half....

Next ?