T43P runing VISTA ...

[sfara]

I just bought an almost new T43P that really rocks my world .
It's a 2.26 Pentium M, 1.5 gigs of ram, 80gb hdd 7200, 128 FireGL, DVDRW etc...It came ofcourse with Windows XP PRO.
My question is...does it worth upgrading to Windows Vista? I am wondering about this configuration with 1.5 Gigs of ram...will it run almost like XP?
I installed VISTA trought Parallels...but it's very subjective..i can't install this and that...and it's kinda slow.
So the question is.....is it worth screwing all on my box installing Vista? Does it run almost like XP in this configuration?
Thank you.

[bill bolton]

So the question is.....is it worth screwing all on my box installing Vista? Does it run almost like XP in this configuration?

IMO, probably not.

I have Vista Ultimate installed on a T41 with 1.5 gigs of memory and it is definitely slower than XP Pro on the same machine. My T41 doesn't have a new enough GPU to support Aero, whereas your T43 probably does, but the other Vista scores on my T41 are fairly respectable.

Cheers,

Bill

[gunston]

well,
experiences shared by the forum members, vista seems to drag more power.
in other words, let say 6 cell can last for ~3hrs running with Xp, well it would reduce roughly 30-50% of the power consumption running under vista. i.e. ~1.5hrs

Although 1.5gig ram is great running under XP, the ideal ram size for smooth Vista should be 2gig.
maybe you can upgrade to vista when the official release of Vista Service Pack.

Well, i am still awaiting for the X61s for sales over here, which is undoubtedly preloaded with Vista Business, the very first thing i would do is reinstall it with XP Pro

hope this help

[Temetka]

Vista will run fast. However it will not be as fast as a properly configured XP system. My suggestion would be to shrink your partition and install Vista. This way you can try it out without hosing up your XP install.

Failing that you can create the recovery discs for XP, wipe the drive and install Vista. This way if Vista does not meet your performance requirements you can always go back to XP.

Either way is a rather non-destructive way to test drive Vista without hosing your system up to much.

[sfara]

Thank you, i'll probably stick with XP with this box and when the time comes i'll get an T61P preloaded with Vista (SP1 too).
PS: VISTA eating more battery power...i hoped it would be even more optimised than XP.

[CZOLG]

My machine is also a T43p, the only difference being 2 gigs of RAM. The HDD is also 7200 rpm.
I did install Vista Business. While the system felt quite fast and responsive, it could not match the speed of XP on the same machine.
There were serious problems with rescue and recovery, it would not see my backups and later it refused to run altogether.
The battery performance was not tested but the laptop did get noticeably hotter running Vista.
After one day I came back to XP Pro.

[mgo]

I just bought an almost new T43P that really rocks my world .
It's a 2.26 Pentium M, 1.5 gigs of ram, 80gb hdd 7200, 128 FireGL, DVDRW etc...It came ofcourse with Windows XP PRO.
My question is...does it worth upgrading to Windows Vista? I am wondering about this configuration with 1.5 Gigs of ram...will it run almost like XP?
I installed VISTA trought Parallels...but it's very subjective..i can't install this and that...and it's kinda slow.
So the question is.....is it worth screwing all on my box installing Vista? Does it run almost like XP in this configuration?
Thank you.

===========
I have a T43p ThinkPad. I have Vista installed on a separate hard drive, so all I have to do is plug in the drive and Vista comes up.

With 2gig of ram, Vista runs just fine. With your 1.5 gig, Vista will still run very well. If you are going to try Vista out, get an imaging program like Ghost or Acronis and create an image. That way, if Vista isn't to your liking, you can simply re-image and have XP back on board in around 20 minutes or less. (I've done imaging many times and it works just great)

With Vista your T43p will run about 2 to 5 degrees hotter. It will run a tad slower, but not enough to annoying you.

Copy and paste functions in Vista are horribly slow. (it's a known Vista bug that may be fixed in SP1) Using Robocopy will solve that copy & paste problem. Robocopy comes native with Vista and is quite easy to use and is very fast.

With Vista I dumped the dumb Aero Glass and Flip 3D Thingies right away. They are little more than a novelty. Also, I use the Classic Theme rather than the overly busy Vista look. This is easier on the eye and less tiring to use because the Classic isn't as visually "busy" as the Vista themes.

Vista runs my old (90s vintage) programs and new ones, too. But, Vista does not do enough "neat stuff" to really make it worth all that money you have to shell out for the operating system. Microsoft is coming to realize that there is strong user resistance to Vista, and even manufacturers are not very warm to it. When Microsoft drops the Vista price by at least $100.00 it might be worth purchasing.

The Vista drivers and utilities from the Lenovo download site work just fine, so you should not have any problems there.

[sfara]

Thanks mgo, i may have a 40 gg hdd somewhere, i will use that to try Vista...but...after reading forums, youtube and googling about Vista...i come to realise that it brings nothing really new that's working without problems...so what i understand is that the old stuff does not work as it used to work in XP and the new stuff is buggy ; I hear about temperature rising, battery time loss, buggy windows base functions. XP PRO is working on this machine super fast...i've just finished F.E.A.R. today...i can't mess my box with an OS that's (as someone called it...late BETA).

Anyways, thanks alot everyone...after reading about it, i know now that Vista is not ready for me...maybe after SP1...until then XP should do it.

[Stargate199]

Unless I have to upgrade to Vista, I'm sticking with XP. I may upgrade to Windows 7 (new code name for next Windows version) when it comes out, but I will need to see the system requirements. The only reason I would recommend upgrading to Vista is if you have a brand new system with new technologies (like a hybrid hard drive or Santa Rosa Pro) that Windows XP cannot take advantage of.

[SHoTTa35]

JUst figured i'd chime in a lil bit. I have Vista Business on my T42 (see specs in sig) and i wouldn't even dream of going back to XP. Sure XP is a great OS too but for what you gain with Vista compared to sticking with XP i say screw XP. Vista isn't perfect but to each his own.

I have a newish (98% capacity left) 6 cell in my T42 and i still about 3hrs on my system with wifi and lower brightness. I'm not 100% sure of what it would be like with XP as i formatted it instantly when i got it so no real testing was done.

Thinks like AERO people say is bad because it's distracting and the like but i find it pleasing and actually helpful sometimes. Having multple instances of Sharepoint (Frontpage), Word, Excel and just about any other application you can think of, makes it hard to find what you're looking for sometimes. By default it groups them into 1 button so it's neater. Having live preview either by pointing at the one of the group or Flip3d or Alt-TAB shows me a snapshot of which it is that i need.

There's things like SuperFetch, some people just seem to hate it but i can't love it enough.Vista's memory management IMO is just better in general but SuperFect definitely puts the icing on the cake.

The instant search also kick butt too, even my girlfriend proved it can be beneficial. We were relaxing and she wanted to play some nice music and she just grabbed my laptop (knowing my music is organized) clciked Start and typed some song she was looking for and it was there in less than notime. She selected the whole folder and played it and put the laptop away and she was done, didn't even have to open WMP first. After that plus other things she is a Vista convert

There's the new Networking Center too. I love how i can choose differnt groups for different connections (Home, Work and Public). I can assign them different icons so you can visually see if you're connected to your hotspot or some other guy trying to get private info. Most people don't know that people setup free wifi near Starbucs and the others using the same SSID so you connect to theirs and do your business. While you're there they just happily capture data based on sites you visit to steal person info. If it's newly setup you'd see that it's different from the one you connected to before because it will ask you to choose again.

Windows Mobility Center is nice also in that i don't have to even install the IBM stuff to turn off wifi, run a presentation and adjust other features.

Granted i don't game and all that so i have no major issues with drivers as it stands. I have been using Vista for a while but only since May on this machine and i wouldn't go back to XP even if you pay me

[gunston]

no one try windows 2003 server edition?

[Temetka]

[Off Topic material deleted]

Vista = good.

Moderator Edit: Please keep discussion focused on addressing the OP's question..... "will it run almost like XP?"

[NaT]

I also own a T43p, 2GB RAM, 7200 RPM disk (sound like an echo to CZOLG). I have switched between XP to Vista and to Linux for evaluation/testing for my customers. I can tell you that:

- a properly configured XP is definitely run faster than Vista
- a properly configured XP is definitely run more reliable than the current Vista
- a properly configured XP is definitely consume less 'unnecessary' resources (memory/IO/GPU/CPU) than Vista.
- I don't see a 'real business application' that runs on Vista but not XP but there are tons of applications that run on XP but not Vista.

So, unless you want to test out applications and increase your skills, or your apps need more than 3GB of memory, there is no reason to run Vista now on your T43p.

PS: Similar to CZOLG again, I came back to XP after just 1 day of extensive testing on Vista.

[Melvyn]

JUst figured i'd chime in a lil bit. I have Vista Business on my T42 (see specs in sig) and i wouldn't even dream of going back to XP. Sure XP is a great OS too but for what you gain with Vista compared to sticking with XP i say screw XP. Vista isn't perfect but to each his own.

My T42 is almost like yours. Vista works good, very good. I made a review in another post. Find it.

Vista appears "slow" isn't slow. if you try benchmarking it's head to head with XP. The "slow" feeling is not a bug, it's a featured introduced by Aero. When a windows is moving it do it slowly, it's the effect, like Mac OSX and Beryl.

Almost everything work, somethings a bit diferent, like fingerprinter or bluetooth.

SHoTTa35: which bluetooth stack do you use in vista? MS's lacks some services.

[SHoTTa35]

i say at least test the OS on your machine and see how it runs. If it works for you then great if not then back to XP you go.

[Temetka]

I know the T43's have the express card slot. Is there some form of memory stick that will fit in there to enable ready boost?

[billyrom]

Temetka

For example: http://www.hsc-us.com/Consumer2/express ... p34fd.html

[Temetka]

Temetka

For example: http://www.hsc-us.com/Consumer2/express ... p34fd.html

Yes, that is exactly what I was referring to. Thanks for the reference link.