My Windows Experience Index Score is 3.4, I have voted also. The lowest score of 3.4 is from the 3D business and gaming graphics performance. The scores are:
Processor (Calculations per second) = 3.8
Memory (RAM) (Memory operations per second) = 4.4
Graphics (Desktop performance for Aero) = 3.6
Gaming Graphics ( 3D business and gaming graphics performance) = 3.4
Primary Hard Disk ( Disk data transfer rate) = 5.0
I would have to agree that I think these scores can be a bit miss-leading. My subjective experience is that Windows Vista Business Edition runs faster and is much more stable than Windows XP Professional SP2 was on exactly the same hardware. Not only does it boot-up much faster, but programs open faster and run more smoothly than they did under XP Pro SP2.
I'm running Windows Vista Business Edition on a Dell Inspiron 9300 Notebook (originally purchased in April 2005 with XP Pro pre-installed):
CPU - 1.86 GHz Intel Pentium M Processor (533Mhz FSB)
RAM - 2Gb Dual Channel Kingston Memory (@ 533Mhz)
Graphics - ATi Mobility Radeon X300 graphics adaptor with 128Mb dedicated video RAM
17" LCD Display at 1920*1200*32
HDD - Hitachi Travelstar E7K100 (7,200rpm, 100Gb 2.5" HDD)
While this might seem quite an 'old' notebook to be upgrading to Vista, I've found that it works very well and even comes out with a better WEI than some much newer, supposedly 'Vista Capable' Dell Inspiron notebooks that I've worked on upgrading recently!
Jonathan.
Jonathan R. Portwood
Technical Director,
Professional Quality Support & Assistance Network