Vista x64 SP1 review

Overall-6/10
Pro
-easier network setup
-aero interface
-able to turn on AHCI after installation
-improved windows update
-shadow volume
-better security
-DX10?
-fast shutdown(usually)
Fugly
-some hardware problem still exist
-useless services just got more...
-unsigned driver limitations
-dont even think about it without 4gb ram
-lots of tweaking to be done
-defrag program just got worst
-start menu difficult to navigate
-superfetch is USELESS
-high CPU cycle while playing songs due to DRM
-wierd bug where shutdown takes 5 minutes
-bug where GUI is not refreshed properly

Congragulations microsoft.After 19 months, you finally make vista a "useable" OS for me.First, i must emphasize, vista have not brought any new feature that worth purchasing an upgrade.The time to tweak it to let it work with all hardware and software is a long and frustrating journey.At the end of the day, all you get is a cosmetically spice up OS.
Now lets get to what it matters,gaming.The performance drop from windows XP is non existance,but the memory consumption for the game application increased.That holds true for Directx9, but directx10 performance is still a massive drop compared to directx9 with no visual improvement.That is very bad indeed,since directx10 is suppose to improve efficency over directx9 as it uses unified shader,however after 1 year, the performance is still going south.Of course, time will tell who is at fault, may it be hardware vendor or microsoft,but to a consumer, its the performance that matters.Furthermore many considered vista just because of directx10 support, which make this new OS more unappealing than ever.
For memory consumption,its unsightly high.At up to 1.8gb memory conumption at desktop and after shutting down useless services, it still hover above 1gb.And here comes the super aggressive caching,superfetch.It created heavy HDD thrashing when u startup your PC and it doesnt offer any observable benefit over windows xp.Not to mention starting up applications that you doesnt use often cause a massive slow loading which shouldnt exist on a 4GB system.Furthermore, i have encounter out of memory situation once while running crysis 64bit.Of course, every new OS would ALWAYS consume more memory, but this is way too bloated.In fact i would suggest 4GB as minimum system requirement for running vista and the sweetspot should be 8GB or more.
The extra features are Aero interface,which isnt truely essential.Improved security is much welcomed and have pretty much proven since the security vulnerabe alert is considerably lower than windows xp,in fact no major security breach is yet to be announce as of yet.Other than that, no other new features is visible to the end user, which is hard to justify the high cost of vista.
In conclusion, dont waste money upgrade to vista.If it comes with your new system, and doesnt have the choice to downgrade to XP, its still a decent OS,if you have the memory to let it consume of course.And lastly avoid Ultimate edition as plague, their ultimate "only" features is a total joke...