Digital Home Thoughts: Dell Canada Releases Vista-based Machines

It's not quite January 30th, the official launch date of Windows Vista, but don't tell Dell that: they quietly released their first batch of Vista based desktop machines today (laptops too). I woke up to find an email from Dell promoting their new batch of systems.



I've been waiting for this moment for quite some time, with various friends and family members waiting on buying new PCs until the official Vista hardware ships. I was thinking (hoping) we'd see the systems running Vista Home Premium ship with nVidia or ATI-based GPUs, but no such luck: the Intel GMA X3000 has the basic requirements to hit DirectX 9 functionality and run the full Aero Glass effect. I haven't done any before/after price comparisons, but these new Vista-based machines don't seem any more expensive than their XP-based counterparts that were being sold last week. You can get into a Vista Home Basic machine for $629 CAD (Athlon 3200+ CPU, 512 MB RAM, 160 GB HD) or a Vista Home Premium machine for $799 (Pentium 4 3.06 Ghz, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB HD). It's time to phone my mother in law and order her a new computer. Have you been waiting to order a Vista machine from Dell or anyone else?