Optimized clean Vista install

[gamer2171]

A few years back I read a guide on optimizing XP and 2000 by a guy named Ned Pyle. He talked about pagefile configuration, leaving a partition the size of your pagefile and creating a new pagefile on that. Formatting that to Fat 16 to increase speed. Suggestions on which services to disable.

Basically I was wondering if anyone knows of a site that may have tips on optimizing a clean Vista 64 Home Premium install. (or if you have any).

As a side note I may not be able to use the disk I have because it came with a prebuilt and I will need to call CS on that. The reason I mention that is because if I need to buy a new OS should I just go with Win 7? The machine is for gaming and movies...with internet surfing, email and the like.

Thanks in advance for your time.

Ron.

 

[gamer2171]

Also if I need to buy a new OS either Vista or 7 are the home versions enough?

 

[Josea]

Gamer2127, first I need to know a little about your machine, -- Make, model number
Amount of Ram (3 GIG or more), Video memory ... to determine if it is win 7 compatible (if it is less than 4 years old it most likely is.
If you need to buy an OS go with With WIN 7 home 64 Bit because:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/help/end-support

Also this chart may be of help for comparison:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/compare?T1=tab20
Note I would go with a full version not an upgrade. It may be more of a hassle (you will need to find drivers for your devices, hence the initial question

 

[gamer2171]

Hey there Josea,

I will be building a new rig. Just purchased it last night.

Ram: A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit
GPU: MSI N460GTX Cyclone 768D5/OC GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 768MB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16
CPU: AMD Athlon II X3 445 Rana 3.1GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Desktop Processor
Mobo: ASRock M3A770DE AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard
HDD:Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

A few other things but I doubt you want to know everything I got.
The situation is that I have a 3 yr old Vista (64-bit) machine that I am giving to my girl. Its is a pre-build with a couple part upgrades I have made (Ram and GPU).

The DVD that came with the machine I thought was the full Vista install but now that I have opened the package I am not so sure.

If I need to by a new OS I was trying to figure out if Vista is a good gaming OS and general all around better option. Or if I should just go ahead and get Win 7 64-bit.

Thanks for your initial response and your time.

 

[Josea]

Gamer2171, NICE rig, it will run win 7 64 very well. If you are into modern gaming on it, I would go with win 7 home.
IF the 3 year old machine is a dell the OS install CD will probably not look like an OEM disk, that is because it will only install on Dell computers.
If you start up the older machine, and pop in the CD with windows running what dialog box do you see? This should help ID what you have.

 

[gamer2171]

Ok so I called Customer Service and all that I have is a recovery disk.

If I buy Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium Full (OEM) version can I install it on both my machines? Or is there more of a difference then the packaging, manual and extra support from non-OEM version?

 

[Josea]

In response to your 1st question, NO IF you buy one copy you can only legally install it one one machine. I just asked the same question in another forum and am sure about this.
I am not sure about the answer to the second Q.