Angus Kidman26 January 2007, 3:13 AM
Microsoft's official upgrade price for Vista Home Premium is $299, but there are plenty of ways to shave that cost down (even if you're not a student). We've done the price hunting for you.
People who are enthusiastic enough to queue for Vista just before midnight to score a copy on its January 30 release date presumably aren't going to care if they get slogged the maximum price for the privilege.
Those of us with a firmer grip on our wallets are more likely to look at the list pricing for Vista upgrades and start looking for ways to sweeten the deal.
The official numbers are certainly enough to induce a bad case of sticker shock. To upgrade to Home Basic (a fairly pointless exercise, we'd have to suggest) costs $199 for Australian customers.
Home Premium, the most likely target for the average consumer, is $299.
Vista maniacs who want the kitchen sink completeness of Vista Ultimate need to be prepared to shell out $495 (which sounds super-nasty until you compare it to the obscene $751 for the non-upgrade version).
Fortunately, not all retailers want to charge the list price (we're not in the iPod zone anymore, Toto!)
A quick trawl around online comparison shopping engines shows that you can easily pick up Vista at much lower prices.
The very cheapest (sub-$150) packages are all OEM versions which officially can't be sold unless they're bundled with a new computer. Some retailers will doubtless look the other way if you decide to go this route, but don't tell them we sent you.
Even if you want to stay on the right side of OEM licensing conditions, copies can readily be found for around $260, which is still a 13% saving on RRP.
Ultimate enthusiasts have fewer options, though. The cheapest listed price for the Ultimate upgrade is $459, which is a somewhat weaker 8% discount, and there's no OEM options to be found.
While there's savings to be had, we're still badly off compared to the US. For starters, customers in the US have the option of downloading the upgrade, thus saving on postage and petrol (or, as they'd say, gas), or taking up the bizarre "buy Ultimate and get two copies of Premium for $100" family deal.
Froogle suggests that education copies of Premium can be picked up for around $AU90 (a steal compared to the official Australian academic price of $79).
That said, it's tricky to take advantage of those differentials -- many US retailers, such as Amazon.com, won't ship software to offshore locations.
With local OEM pricing hovering around the $150 mark (and presumably lower for big-bang vendors), buying a new machine is another possible cheap route to Vista.
Dell is currently offering upgrades to Vista Home Premium for $35, though for some unexplained reason this only applies to machines purchased running XP Media Center.
Incidentally, even if you qualify for the relatively el cheapo $179 academic upgrade for Vista Premium as a student or teacher, it pays to shop around. Some retailers have the same package for $165, though one brave holdout -- WA's Nintek -- is hopefully quoting an above-list price of $189.
Related stories