Is Vista already efficient or still a resource hog? should I still settle with XP?

You would still notice some difference in the two but with a system like that, it should be minimal. Also I've read on the internet that when Vista SP1 comes out, they are redoing the kernal (Vista program itself) to increase speed and not use so much resources. As long as your Windows Experience Rating (under My Computer-->properties) is 4.5 or better, you shouldn't notice any difference

Vista is good. But wait till service pack 1. Personally I dont like it. But thats cos I love XP and I dont need to change. There is not much in vista that i am missing and xp does it all.

It does hog resources, so i really advise 2 gb ram. If you got that, go for it. If not dont. I have seen 2 laptops running vista. 1 with 1gb and the other with 2gb and there is a world of difference.

Unfortunately the cool features gives you some fun for a while, but slowness will bug you till your next laptop.

Also ask yourself, why do you want Vista?

vista is verry efficient BUT: trew all your older programs away. because thats the problem. Example : office gived me a lot of problems, i had to delete it explorer 7 gives problems AVer Tv gived big problems as well as the office. Now on the time you can buy and download everything for the vista. Do that and trew the older programs out: your problems are solved. Like internet explorer use ie8 or 6. I'm using ie8 . The ie7 is an upgrade for older versions. I refresht it and since that very first minute I have no problem anymore. I tell you I love the vista PREMIUM; it's the best. Good luck.

Basically all versions of windows are resource hogs. So first thing is to have lots of ram available. Next is to fix the windows swap file size. Not let windows choose and be dynamic but fix it to a specific size (helps speed things up). So select a size appropriate to the ver of windows being used and hard drive size. So if lots of space give windows a gig or more, look at what it wants after booting up.

we found both these items made vista work better on our new laptop... and the older ones even under xp and win2000.

Well. Are you really worried about that...you just bought a laptop for gaming! So. Im sure any software you put in it isnt going to work as well as others.

There is nothing wrong with Vista. I bought it already installed on my laptop and desktop, I havent had any problems with it so far. A lot of people dont know how to use it yet so...thats why all the negative talking towards Vista.

Why don't you look at all the software that you will use or may want on your lap and see if they all work with vista,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Most of the people that use vista and have no problems

is because they look at there screen and hit the keyboard

and think they are running a pc,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

The real problems only show when you get into a lot of different hardware and software and there still new to wear some of the bugs are not fixed yet,,,,,,,,,,,mostly with drivers

and the chipset,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

It is only a small draw on your cpu because of the crayon that comes with vista,,,,,,,,,,,,

With your setup you will not see any major draw from xp to vista,,, good graphic's too,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

vista sp1 is coming out soon...

that laptop should run vista very well...

theres nothing wrong with vista...its very stable as long as you know how to use it..