User reports shipping Vista is different from RTM

ONE OF our readers already bought Vista OEM from Overclockers. He installed it and got back with a few first impressions. And he reckons that the OEM Vista is not the same as the RTM (release to manufacture) he tried before.

The DVD weighs in at exactly the same 2.49GB but the key activates the version you buy, in his case Vista Home OEM Premium edition. It installs in a respectable 25 minutes on his 3.0GHz Netburst Pentium 4 with 1GB of memory. He used an ATI X550 graphic card, passively cooled and it was able to run Aero well - on par with RTM performance. He reckons that this version is far more stable for him than the RTM he tried before.

The hardware gets automatically detected, at least most of it and our lad, Darren Powell of Manchester ,was impressed with the performance of Vista. Mind you he says, "After all, until DX10 hits, there is not really that much incentive to leave XP just yet."

Overclockers sent out Corsair TurboFlash readyboost key 512MB to the lads who were kind enough to preorder the stuff. Unfortunately 512MB of USB memory doesn't boost performance that much.

You have to thank Darren for the experience and the pictures, as Microsoft still won't let me fiddle with Vista.

Vista OEM Premium box

Vista OEM Premium CD, with new PCs only if you are not Overclockers

Overclockers gives away USB keys with Vista preorders

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