According to microsoft, its states that the system requirements for Windows Vista are the Following:

Home Basic
Home Premium / Business / Ultimate


1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor

512 MB of system memory

20 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space

Support for DirectX 9 graphics and 32 MB of graphics memory

DVD-ROM drive

Audio Output

Internet access (fees may apply)

Additional requirements
Actual requirements and product functionality may vary based on your system configuration. Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor can help you determine which features and edition of Windows Vista will run on your computer.

While all editions of Windows Vista can support multiple core CPUs, only Windows Vista Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise can support dual processors.
1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor

1 GB of system memory

40 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space

Support for DirectX 9 graphics with:

WDDM Driver

128 MB of graphics memory (minimum)

Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware

32 bits per pixel

DVD-ROM drive

Audio Output

Internet access (fees may apply)

Additional requirements
Actual requirements and product functionality may vary based on your system configuration. Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor can help you determine which features and edition of Windows Vista will run on your computer.

While all editions of Windows Vista can support multiple core CPUs, only Windows Vista Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise can support dual processors.

Home Premium / Ultimate
TV tuner card required for TV functionality (compatible remote control optional).

Home Premium / Business / Ultimate
Windows Tablet and Touch Technology requires a Tablet PC or a touch screen.

Ultimate
Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption requires a USB Flash Drive and a system with a TPM 1.2 chip.




Windows Vista minimum supported system requirements
Home Basic / Home Premium / Business / Ultimate
800 MHz processor and 512 MB of system memory

20 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space

Support for Super VGA graphics

CD-ROM drive

Now hw does microsoft expect one to understand and even know specifically what hardware would be required to run vista well is something that is beyond me. for this reason, i have decided to give you guys the real specs to running vista smoothly. (ofcourse with some tweaking on the side which i would be discussing later when i have the time)

Note: Recommendations are based on real life test that hve been conducted by me. also, since i find windows vista basic as useless, i will only be focusing on the Aero Included Versions 32bit and 64bit (AERO? the glassy interface)

LAPTOP N DESKTOP (u wanna run vista business, premium and ultimate versions 32bit?) u must have the ffg

Processor: any Intel or AMD Dual Core Processors clocked at 1.8 above will be fine (if u serious want to use single core, pls go for AMD Turion64 or a pentium 4. they both have to be clocked at at least 2.0ghz)

Ram: 2GB is optima for 32bit and 4gb for 64bit (if ur using 64bit, get more, i have 8gb)

Graphics card: the most important part, pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeee, dont buy any laptop that comes with an intel and Nvidia graphics card, they suck, trust me,
if yur pressed for cash, go for ATI Radeon 1100,1150, 1200 graphics cards. otherwise, pls go for dedicated. once again avoid Nvida, they have a lot of driver issues. ATI is much more stable. you can go for ATI HD2600. its cheap

HDD: vista uses 15gb alone, so pls look for something in the range of 250 to 500gb

Drive: its has to be a DVD drive or if yu wanna go extreme, yu can upgrade to blu ray drive but then i think its really not popular in nigeria Quote me wrong

Motherboard: Intel has the best motherboard out there

Thank You

Moonraker