CPU change to Core 2 Duo, preferably T8000 or T9000 family... the higher FSB of 800MHz, SSE4.1 instruction sets and bigger L2 cache will help in ur editing works...

RAM to 3GB or 4GB... ur work will require quite a lot of RAM... but minimum 2GB... or else running Vista will be sluggish as well...

Vista Home Basic is fine if u dun need Aero and Media Center

GMA X3100 is fine if u re not playing games...

HDD, depends on ur preference, but i believe photos and movies are pretty big...?

depends on the work that u do...

for Dry Pillow, i recommend him to get Core 2 Duo and 2GB RAM min becuz of his work...

new photo/video editing softwares now take advantage of SSE4.1 to help speed up, an example is Photoshop CS3. and the instruction sets can only be found in the newer Penryn DC CPU, which are the T8000, T9000, P8000 and P9000 families...

and as far as i know, such softwares are always RAM eater, and with Vista itself also being quite a RAM hungry OS, 2GB is, imo, necessary for him...

slightly, but not alot...

prefer to get 4GB RAM instead...

it really depends...

i also ve an unknown brand 256MB that works, but my Imation and Toshiba 2GB dun work at all...

currently using SanDisk Extreme II SD 1GB for ReadyBoost

3GB is alright, in fact most ppl find 3GB to be the sweet spot for Vista x86

Vista x64, imho, seems to run better and faster, and even more stable than Vista x86... compatiability is not a problem too, most, if not all, 32-bits programs run as per normal... main advantage is, of course, the amount of RAM u can use... 8 or 12GB are not a problem...

in that case, u'll need to format and reinstall XP into the laptop...

MS only allow either of the 2 OS to exist at any one time with the same CD Key...

This post has been edited by astria: Sep 5 2008, 11:08 PM

Vista Business OEM has the option of downgrading to XP Pro...

OEM if u re going to use that copy on one and only one computer, else take retail...

SP1, even if dun ve, can be downloaded from MS

lol, Aero is already DX9...

pls ask ur friend to get his fact rit... if like wat he say then everytime i format i need to buy a new Vista...

by old i presume u mean Vista pre-SP1 (or Vista Gold to be correct)???

u juz need to update to SP1 and that's all...

SP1 is nothing big, really, it mainly contains all the hotfixes and patches released by MS since day 1 of Vista...

This post has been edited by astria: Oct 17 2008, 11:57 PM

juz like XP Gold, Vista Gold is the very original Vista...

some ppl prefer to call pre-SP1 or SP0... juz a matter of preference...

yes and yes for me...

even good old Red Alert 1 runs fine on my Vista x64...

another one...

pls read the stickies...

http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/763819

This post has been edited by astria: Nov 10 2008, 08:26 PM

the version merely describes wat re the in-built functions in Vista...

Business mean that the functions are centered around corporate users, such as backup, better networking and stuff

Home Premium means for media center

Home Basic, well, if u can do away with the media center stuff and Aero, it's fine

try calling Sony (Malaysia) for help...

No