Win XP vs. Win Vista Home Premium -- 3D Mark 2003 Benchmark test. It's a miracle that Windows XP Home Edition runs as good as it does on the successor of the original EEE PC 701. Now we can push the limits of this new system by installing Vista Home Premium retail (unmodified or optimised). This is an OS that even most larger computers struggle to run. Many people are rightly amazed that a system slightly lager than a standard DVD box with some of the lowest specifications available on the market can even run Vista at all let alone in a usable form. But how does this system compare to XP? Surely it wouldnt stand a chance? Well Ive set up two identical systems running XP and Vista side by side and ran 3D Mark 2003 to test these machines to the max. The results may surprise you. You will need to see it to believe it. Left System: EEE PC 900 900Mhz Celeron Mobile ULV Intel GMA 900 GPU Windows XP Home Edition 1GB 400Mhz Ram 20GB internal SD HDD Right System: EEE PC 900 900Mhz Celeron Mobile ULV Intel GMA 900 GPU Windows Vista Home Premium Edition 1GB 400Mhz Ram 20GB internal SD HDD Test 1: Boot test Notice the fast boot speed of the Windows XP system. The Windows Vista System is actually not so far behind. You'll notice the same speed differential between two identical high spec PC systems. Conclusion: EEE PC 900 can boot up a standard retail copy of Vista Home Premium without a hitch. Test 2: 3D Mark 2003 The XP system loads this program faultlessly and quickly. The Vista system takes a little longer to load each test but once it does, it runs it as good as XP. The Vista overhead does not seem to detract from its 3D rendering capabilities. Test 3: Demo Mode Interestingly, when in demo mode, the Vista Unit loaded the tests fatser than XP leaving XP trailing a little. I have no explanation why this is. Conclusion: Draw -- Vista and XP scores are almost identical. Asus EEE PC 900 XP scored 481 Asus EEE PC 900 Vista scored 469 I ran this test several times off cam and in some cases XP beat vista and in other cases Vista beat XP by a small margin. There was no consistent differential in score. In this particular video XP just happens to beat Vista by a few points. Overall Im surprised at how well the 900 handles Vista's overheads compared to XP. This is all on a standard EEE PC 900 and a standard retail copy of Vista HP and Win XP HE without optimisations. The Future: The Vista install is a standard retail copy with no modifications or optimisations. Hardware wise I look forward to installing 2 GB 533mhz Ram (currently this module is not supported in the bios so lets hope Asus offer a firmware upgrade). Once indexing is switched off, background programs are turned off and other elements are fine tuned Vista on EEE PC should run even smoother. The same optimisations could be applied to XP too. Please comment away on your thoughts. Earthling10@hotmail.com Thanks for watching.