looks like your 2.5 ghz pc doesnt have a directx 9 card, if you dont have one of them you will have troubles.
Service Packs and updates dont necessarily bog down a PC, with the superfetch Vista enables a more dynamic page file system that, unlike XP, deals more efficiently with files.
I need to find you this article I read earlier today. The author reviewed Vista on several different machines, from a 5 year old p3 upto a modern core duo. The most money he had to spend was 50 dollars to replace an old video card to get Vista to run properly.
One other question, what gave you a rating of 1?
Thanks in advance if you can find that article. I think even my 256mb agp card is lacking. It's a Radeon 9250 - ATI. DirectX 9 lacking on it
Definitely lots of laptops and base level computers are being sold that have only 512mb ram. Any computer with 512mb comes with Vista Home Basic. Computers with 1024mb come with Home Premium.
I observed this in today's Sunday advertisements
Windows System Assessment Tool ---->>>
http://www.answers.com/topic/windows-system-assessment-tool
I forget when you see this. But I guess it's not too hard to find out how to run this Vista tool/
You get a number from 1-5. I is miserable. No Aeroglass. 5 is all bells and whistles. Dual core processors will get you there if you have the graphics capability