During this weekend I've upgraded two of my computers to Windows Vista. I started last night with my Windows Media Center computer. All my media content is either stored on a separate partition, or on a network share, so I didn't have to back up anything.
The installation procedure took exactly the same amount of time as I used to fry some minced meet, chop some salad and make me some taco for dinner. Once I was back to the computer it was ready to walk me trough the Windows Media Center wizard, and 5 min after I had my TV up and running. Xbox 360 integration with Windows Vista was on problem neither, and the UI looks amazing both on the PC and trough the 360 extender.
I was surprised how well Vista ran on my old HTPC. The computer is from December 2003 and wasn't even a top notch computer back then. The computer is built using a Shuttle SN41G2B Barebone, with a AMD Athlon XP2600 CPU (1.9ghz), 1280mb or ram, on board video and sound, and with a Hauppage 350PVR tv-tuner.
I didn't get the "glass" UI, but the Media Center UI runs like a charm.
The Windows Experience Index turned out like this:
- Processor: 2.3
- Memory: 2.5
- Graphics: 1.9
- Gaming graphics: 1.0
- Primary hard disk: 5.3
This gave me a base score of 1.0 determined by the lowest score, gaming graphics. This was no bummer, since I don't use my HTCP for gaming. I have a 360 for that!
Today I updated my primary computer, an IBM T43p. The computer has two physical hard drives. One internal, and one in the cd-rom bay. I have a really sweet Windows XP with Office 2007 setup going on my primary internal hard drive where I have all my work stuff, so I installed Vista on the drive inside the cd-rom bay. Since I have two physical drives I didn't have to care about dual boot. I simply hit F12 when the computer boots up to select which drive to boot from.
The IBM T43p is quite beefy and is running a 2.13ghz Intel Pentum M processor, 2046MB or RAM, 145GB of hard drive space and a Mobility Fire GL V3200 graphics adapter with 128MB of video ram.
The Windows Experience Index for the IBM turned out like this:
- Procesor: 3.9
- RAM: 4.4
- Graphics: 4.0
- Gaming Graphics: 3.7
- Primary hard disk: 5.0
This game me a base score of 3.7, which is decent. I get the glass UI and everything is running super smooth!
Tomorrow I'm going to celebrate my new Vista install by cocking together a sidebar gadget or two.