Hi Everyone

I am thinking about buying Vista ultimate edition which is costing me way less than as an OEM than a retail boxed software. The thing is it really is not a very plausible option for me to dish out £300+ on a new retail boxed one. WHat are the coplications around it. I know it probly will mean i ll have to do a clean install for it to work properly. But then after that what are the limitations on it as in updating the system or in case i do a system hardware upgrade or change etc, would that be a problem given that i have an OEM version. Cos obviously I might think about getting a better drive in teh future and some other upgrades buyt would this cause a problem for me?

I am saving a lot of money if i do buy one as OEm than the boxed off the shelf version. DO enlighten me guys as I want to be fully sure about everything if i do take this step. THrow in any and every problem you can think of. Would it mean that if i do a hardware upgrade i ll have to reformat and do a clean install to avoid troubles.

Your help would be highly appreciated.

Regards
Raj

both have there on problems.if you r going to buy the boxed version then you have to upgrade your hardwares.like video card with atleast shader model 2.0,mother board with ddr2 compatible for descent working.and also minimum 1 gb ram as i am a regular vista user.these things will cost around the same rate of OEM.if you buy OEM it might have microsoft certified hardwares.

I recently got my motherboard upgraded adn had the amd athlon 64 x2 3800+ processor on an MSI board with 2 gb ram ddr2 667mhz but running on xp pro, so i dont think i ll need to upgrade any other hardware like the processor, mobo, memory etc for a good while. But i am definitely thinking about getting the vista ultimate 32 bit OEM so that is why i wanted to clarify my doubts after readin other posts and threads about OEM softwares. Please do keep em coming as all your thoughts are valuable to me.

Regards
Raj

Yeah

OEM is tied to the hardware

If you upgrade your CPU or Motherboarrd you will need to buy a new copy. Also, it must be purchased with a "system critical component" e.g CPU or Motherboarrd and there is NO support from microsoft. Also, it comes with NO manuals or packaging.

But as i just got my system upgraded I would not need to get anything changed at least for another couple of years unless something just gets completely messed up like spilling beer while using the dvd drive as a cup holder....juss an example, i dont actually do it.

Other than that would there be problems say if i want to upgrade the optical drive to say a blu ray one or something on those lines. Also what are the issues relating to hard drive changes cos that might be a possibility soon as my current one is only a 40 gig sata.

All suggestions welcome.

Regards
Raj

if you swap the dvd drives it will be fine

if you swap the hard drives you will need a new copy.

40GB wont do for vista anyway. An ultimate install is about 18gb

What?I thought they dropped that crap when people started complaining...

no, thats the whole point OEM is cheaper, its for distcibution with new PCs. Thats why dell disks arent supposed to be intalled on non-dell pcs, for example

wait...I an Acer with Vista installed. I'm not OEM right? Because I'm gunna need to upgrade my CPU in a few months....

Don't tell me I'm screwed...

if it came with your PC its almost undoubtably OEM and you will fail activation