as per title, i’m after either a copy of XP Media Centre or Vista Home Premium either retail or OEM and want to pay as little as possible. dabs is looking quite pricey – where else to try???

Got a "student" in the family?

Educational Discounted

you could always beta test win7 from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/beta-download.aspx

Legally you will need to buy a retail version. OEM product is supposed to be sold with PC/Laptop etc via a retailer

Legally you will need to buy a retail version. OEM product is supposed to be sold with PC/Laptop etc via a retailer

Not AFAIK; you can buy a motherboard or new hard drive and be entitled to buy an OEM operating system.

Try eBuyer?

Buy? You’ve lost me?

You mean someone would actually CHOOSE to buy Vista?

i use xp pro on the laptop and main computer but this is for the one hooked up to the telly so i like the media centre features. seems that vista is available for less money than MCE so figured i may as well give it a bash. i cant install the latest version of media player on my *evaluation* version so cant use C4 on demand services.

Vista is a superb operating system, I’ve been running it for well over 18 months now with not a single glitch or crash.

I’m running the 64bit Ultra version with some pretty complicated hardware that used to make XP unstable.

XP can only handle 3gb or RAM in correct sequencing, any more is lost to the OS and can induce instability. XP64 was a Dog.

Vista Home premium in either 64bit or 32bit is available as an OEM from ebuyer for £85

Ebuyer Vista 32

Ebuyer Vista 64

Also, you can’t buy Home Premium on an education license only Business, which doesn’t have the Media Centre applications.

Also available from Amazon for the same price:

Amazon Vista 32

I didn’t like the look or feel of vista at first but I hate chabge.

Now though I think it’s really good.

Been looking around myself for a cheap copy of Vista. Lowest cost was for an OEM version from: Digital Sunrise.

Don’t know anything about the company though.