$366 PC scores 2.9 on the Vista-o-meter

I installed the “almost” RC1 of Vista onto my $366 PC and I’ve finally got sound! In addition, I’ve got the real transparent Aero effects and playback of my .msdvr files (Media Center recorded TV shows) over the network. The “experience” scores out at only 2.9, but only ’cuz of my crappy CPU (1.67 GHz) and the video card (although it does real-time video and Aero — what more should it do?!?). The DVD video playback worked but not the audio, which was one of very few glitches (another was that it doesn’t show video on Google videos).

I’m running Vista Ultimate, and while I can’t tell what’s “ultimate” about it, it feels about time to make Vista the OS on my main computer. Certainly my sons like it on their computer, which is the real test.