As many of you may have read, I just ordered a Dell XPS 13. It is a P8700, 4gb DDR3, 128gb SSD and 256mb graphics. Seems to me like it should perform very well. It came with Vista Personal. Through my school, I can get XP Pro 64-bit or Vista Business 64-bit. I plan on wiping the computer anyway at the beginning to get rid of Dell's bloatware but was curious which you guys think I should install? I obviously could save about 15-20gb going down to XP Pro (which I am using now). What do you all think?
vista vs. xp new laptop
- Thread starter hah2110
- Start date
Geoff
VIP Member
Honestly I prefer Vista, it has many more features, simpler networking, better GUI, better with handling media (photos, music, videos, etc.), newer/better integrated apps, etc. You can reduce the size of the install by creating a custom install using vLite which lets you remove things you don't need and then create a custom bootable disc. You can actually save quite a bit of space by not installing language packs, accessibility tools, drivers you know you will never use, etc.
Driver support and application compatibility is much better with Vista64 over XP64. While you may save some space with XP, the hassle from trying to get things to work (if you can) would not be worth it in my opinion. Dell does offer Vista64 drivers for this model.
Omega's suggestion for vLite is worth it. You can slim down a standard Vista installation significantly.
Omega's suggestion for vLite is worth it. You can slim down a standard Vista installation significantly.
Bodaggit23
Active Member
Agreed. XP is dead...
PHATSPEED7x
New Member
The computer has more than enough power to run Vista. XP is outdated. Just my .02
Thanks for the replies guys. I'm not sure it would be worth creating new install disks although I may go through the add/remove accessibility and remove stuff that way (thanks for the ideas). I'm pretty sure it is okay to talk about Seven because it is publicly released as a BETA. Unfortunately, with only 128gb, I'm not sure I could dual boot it. Would it be worth upgrade from Vista Personal to the Business version I can get from MSDN? Cleric - glad you love the laptop! Is there anything you don't like or any advice you may have? I am sure that the computer could handle Vista perfectly. How much RAM/HD out of box will be used by Vista?