Microsoft would have you walk into a retail store and shell out upwards of $250 for a copy of Vista, the only copies worth owning that is. The full version of Home Premium will run $250, the Upgrade version of Ultimate will run $250 and the full version of Ultimate will run $400.

That’s not to say those are the ONLY versions of Vista one should consider but they are the versions that consumers are most likely to go after. There is also Home Basic and Business Edition. Business Edition lacks the media center functionality found in Premium and Ultimate, Home Basic lacks Aero Glass and DVD authoring.

I do not recommend Home Basic, this is a stripped down, almost useless version of Vista and it should only be run on systems with less than 1GB of memory, everyone else should consider the other editions. That being said, these versions of Vista appear to cost more than the full versions and upgrade versions of XP did when it was first released. That could be argued and I am not here to discuss the economic side of things with you.

You need not pay retail prices for Vista though there are some catches to what I suggest. Full OEM copies of Vista Home Premium can be had for as little as $120 online. What you get with this is less than the retail package. You do not get documentation or phone-in support from Microsoft. The OEM versions also come in 32-bit or 64-bit versions whereas the retail boxed version comes with the 32-bit and 64-bit edition on the same disc. That makes it more convenient should you wish to switch to a 64-bit version in the future.

For now, it is best to stick with the 32-bit versions as driver support for the 32-bit version isn’t stellar, it is okay but will no doubt send the less savvy computer user screaming for help. There are mainstream drivers for the 64-bit versions of Vista from the likes of Creative, ATi and nvidia but no-name hardware is not likely to have a 64-bit driver. It is not possible to use a 32-bit driver in a 64-bit environment.

Here is how the prices stack up for the OEM versions of Vista:

Basic $95

Home Premium $120

Business $150

Ultimate $200

You can see that it is possible to save quite a bit of money buy purchasing the OEM versions, just keep in mind what I said about them. Those are for the full versions, these ARE NOT upgrade versions. Just to compare, the upgrade version of Home Basic costs $99 and the full OEM version costs $95 as listed above. The situation is similar for the other editions. Prices are for both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions; they both go for the same price.

If you are ready to purchase an OEM copy of Vista, I reccomend buying it here. They are one of they very best online hardware and software vendors in the business.

Related:

The Save XP petition garners attention, Vista neglected more

Instead of Vista, save XP

CIOs speak out: Vista’s dying, but the iPhone ain’t bad

Microsoft drops Vista price to entice hesitant consumers

Save yourself the hassle of a Vista anytime upgrade

Entry was posted on Tuesday, March 13th, 2007 at 1:10 pm under Upgrading, Vista.  Print This Post

Read more entries by Jonathan Schlaffer.
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