I noticed that Videoguys is recommending "Vista 64 Ultimate or Business" for their new Core i7 DIY build.

For a machine that is only going to be used for Video editing, what advantage, if any, would those versions have over plain vanilla Vista 64 Home Basic?

Windows Vista: Compare editions (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/compare-editions/default.aspx)

So .... according to that table, no advantage.

(Although I won't be able to "have more fun with my PC")

Probably not strictly for video editing -- presumably there would be fewer background services to disable if you're a tweaker trying to squeeze the last CPU cycles out of the machine for your editing software. But the Home version is missing a few general features that can be pretty useful like complete backup, built in scanner support, Bitlocker data security and some other laptop support.

Besides, you're right about the fun. I wouldn't buy any OS that didn't have "Chess Titans" and "Inkball."
;-)

The Home versions of Vista do not support RAID setups. I think that was the biggest kicker for me, because I learned that the hard way. One of my systems came with Vista Home Premium, and it would not let me install a pair of new hard drives in a RAID 0 configuration. Upgrading to Ultimate fixed that.

Also, the colorful chart provided by Microsoft explaining the differences is kind of misleading, since its meant to make all the versions look good while steering the potential customer to fork over more for the Ultimate version. I'd suggest doing a Google search and checking out 3rd party reviewing sites.

Aside from that, Ultimate and Business versions do come with more bells and whistles, but also a greater degree of control than the home versions. Compare it to a pair of cameras: The $400 Sony Handycam vs. a $35000 XDCam. Sure, they both can capture great video, but why do the pros lean more toward the higher end?

Sure, but the extra features of the XDCam are all going to be video-related - that's not the case for 99% of what's in the higher-spec Vistas.

But the comment about RAID is very helpful - thanks!

Most useful differences are the amount of RAM that can be used. Home Premium is what I installed. Basic supports 8G, Premium 16G and Ultimate and Business 128G+. 32bit apps really only use 2G but with Vista64 with 8G one could have 4 apps open with full memory usage. As 64 bit apps become available then they will use whatever memory is available. The other feature difference didn't seem worthwhile for me. Software RAID is not the best use of CPU cycles.
Ron Evans

Yowza - that's definitely good to know, too!