We’re beginning to get a glimpse of the OEM (own equipment manufacturers) pricing for Windows Vista.

Ars Technica has calculated the following prices from a quick survey of a number of sites :

Vista Home Basic $99 (full version retail: $199)
Vista Home Premium: $119 (full version retail: $239)
Vista Business: $149 (full version retail: $299)
Vista Ultimate $199 (full version retail: $399)

These sites will sell you Windows Vista in an OEM package meant to be sold with a new computer, CPUs, hard drives, or motherboards.

The Home versions are priced about the same as the upgrade so, if you have an older version of Windows to validate the upgrade, you won’t be saving much here.

“The Business and Ultimate editions are priced significantly better in their OEM forms, both a full $60 cheaper than the comparable upgrade (for instance, Vista Ultimate upgrade has a MSRP of $259).”

So, it’s mix and match and deciding whether a $60 saving is worth the hassle involved.