Wraith said:
Thats the whole idea, if I buy it it will be for video game sand I'll be putting down 400 bucks on it.
I would like to get some hands on before hand in case I DONT like it!
First off, if you don't mind waiting then wait until Vista releases... say mid February...
There is an upgrade option called anytime upgrade which should upgrade a Vista version to another higher version if you pay an upgrade cost. This is kinda cool... you could buy the lowest common demoninator version of Vista and upgrade if you like what you see.
However, there is a flaw to this approach... Microsoft hasn't released the prices for the upgrades... and there is hints that they might make you pay retail upgrade costs. So, if you have Home Premium (for example) and want to bump up to Ultimate edition then you would pay around $400 (might be a bit off) if Microsoft forces you to pay full upgrade costs. Ironically, Home Basic would pay the same amount in that case... same for Business edition...
That is the problems with a not released product... you are dealing mostly with rumors, reviews of beta versions, incomplete drivers, and general lack of information. There is no real reason to rush into the next Windows operating system, let the rest of the world do so and then see what the reviews bring. Also, you can see if the upgrade as you go idea is reasonable in price or outright insane.
It might be a good idea at this point to prepare for Vista as if you were going to get it... as in make sure you have all of your vital data backed up and read the limitations of the new operating system. For instance, Vista does not support IPX networking so games which rely on that for multiplayer (many Command and Conquer series games for instance) will not have multiplayer capabilities. In addition, your hardware may or may not be supported. There is a utility that helps you identify issues though.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/upgradeadvisor/default.mspx
I do have the beta (beta 2 actually) and it is on my laptop as a dual boot. The trackpad driver (I know that the driver is in beta) goes insane quite regularly... enough to make me use a usb mouse in Vista. The audio drivers were not supported (funny, this laptop is Vista Capable...) and require hacked XP drivers to get anywhere. Plus, the video card drivers were in beta as well. All these beta drivers were causing performance issues (at least Vista was claiming that in the system reliability management center) and I fully believed it.
So, while you might be able to track down and install a beta version, be aware that it is just a beta. Also, if you do install Vista then you should be aware that many drivers aren't even fully released yet. So, there can be many annoying issues that would cause performance lapses anyways. Such issues would at least be acknoledged if not repaired come mid/end of February.
I know waiting is annoying but at the very least there is a release soon. How long has it been since XP released?