Why so cheap ?

[JimShady23]

Am I missing somthing here ? I thought Vista Ultimate was going to sell for like $399 or somthing insane....

At newegg it is list for $199.99 wich isnt bad at all.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16832116213

 

[zipperman]

Future Shop quoted me $199 CDN for a XP to Vista upgrade.
Are you sure thats
not what you saw at newegg ?

 

[twite]

You are thinking of the retail version, which will be prob 3-400.

 

[kitty500cat]

are hardware upgrades impossible with OEM versions?

that's cool though

 

[twite]

I'm pretty sure you cant switch out your mobo, or hard drive, buy you can change the vid card, upgrade memory, and switch cpu's.

 

[Jesse_hz]

You can't change the Motherboard or the harddrive that has Vista on it, but I think it should be ok to change out other HDDs in the system.

Edit: I might have been wrong about the harddrives. I need to get a hold of the EULA.

Edit:

"Different components are assigned different values, with the hard drive and motherboard being the highest-weighted components."

 

[Tmagic650]

That's a great price for Vista Ultimate single license

Here's the 3-pack product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16832116214

 

[Tmagic650]

You can't change the Motherboard or the harddrive that has Vista on it, but I think it should be ok to change out other HDDs in the system.

If you are the registered user with Microsoft, I don't think there would be a problem "reactivating" Windows Vista. Of course I don't know how the activation scheme will be different from XP's, but I have a feeling it WILL be different

 

[raybay]

The upgrade is for a Windows XPP install, with a coupon to upgrade to VISTA... The upgrade must be installed on the same computer as the WXPP was... But it is a good deal... I suspect it is VISTA Basic, which is not good, but I don't yet know

 

[Tmagic650]

Yes,
and some people are talking a dual boot with XP and Vista. I have some hardware that is not compatible with Vista, like my sound card and a PCI IDE controller. A dual boot would not work with my present configuration. i hope people are aware of things like this

 

[vnf4ultra]

You can't change the Motherboard or the harddrive that has Vista on it, but I think it should be ok to change out other HDDs in the system.

Are you sure you can't change the hard drive? I've never heard that before. I know you aren't legally allowed to put the oem copy onto a new motherboard, but I don't think the hard drive matters. You can, after all, (re)install the oem version as many times as you want, as long as it's on the same "computer" (motherboard). I haven't been able to find a copy of the vista OEM EULA yet though, so I'm assuming it's like xp from what I've heard. I'll know soon enough though, vista ultimate oem is on it's way...

The most info I could find was:

For Windows Vista, Boettcher says, the algorithm has changed significantly. "The algorithm in Windows Vista has gotten a bit more intelligent and lenient," he told me. "Different components are assigned different values, with the hard drive and motherboard being the highest-weighted components."

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=166
So it seems it's not as locked to any particular component, but rather on how much the system has changed overall.

 

[twite]

I'll take you word for it because i am not 100% sure whether it was the hard drive or the mobo, but i know its one or the other. (on xp). It would be interesting to see exactly what you can/cannot switch, and how much can you "change your system"

 

[JesseM]

With my new computer I got a free upgrade to Vista Home Premium, but I'm not sure I want to upgrade. Isn't it true that Vista uses up a considerable amount more system resources than XP and Media Center? Or should I not be worried...

 

[Jesse_hz]

Even if you don't want to, you're kinda forced to if you want to play DirectX 10 games.

 

[Tedster]

there are going to be many flavors of vista with many different packages and price levels.

 

[Tmagic650]

there are going to be many flavors of vista with many different packages and price levels.

Vista Starter
Vista Home Basic
Vista Home Premium
Vista Ultimate
Vista Business

Vista Enterprise
(This offering is available only to customers who have their PCs covered by a Microsoft Software Assurance agreement)

Windows XP has:

XP Starter
XP Home
XP Tablet Edition
XP Media Center
XP Professional
XP x64 Edition

 

[JimShady23]

Hmmm

With XP if I had to switch a motherboard or the ram, video ect and reinstall I basically just had to call microsoft when I could not active automatically online and they would ask what my reason for reactivating this product was I would say "hardware changes" they then ask if this is the only computer Windows XP is installed on and I would say "yes" They would then give me the new activation code and I would be on my merry way. Activation Complete. And my copy of XP is OEM that I bought from Newegg and is unregistered with microsoft.

They never ask me what type of hardware changes, if I switched the motherboard or scrapped my old machine and installed it on a new computer.
Basically their main concern is if you are only using the specific number of licenses on the right amount of machines.

You own the license, you paid for it period..... As long as you have that license and only use it on one computer there is no reason they should not activate the software for you. 1 computer is 1 computer period.....

If they didnt it would be like Sony telling you that you can not listen to a specific artists CD if you switch the CD player you have with a new one.

Hey if Microsoft ever asks me what specific hardware I have changed or advises me that there is a problem with me changing hardware frequintly they I will tell them.