The Andersen 200 isn't a bad window actually.

I prefer the Integrity and find that most times, the prices are comparable.

Where is the home located?

Thanks WoW. We are in central SC. So would you recommend the Anderson 200s over the Softlite?

Not necessarily. The Soft-lite is a great windowband if you don't mind vinyl, go for it. It is a better performing and warranty protected unit.

No comparison. AW 200 all the way.

No comparison in what way? Performance, looks, warranty, air infiltration, etc?

I think jumpy prefers pretty much anything that is wood over vinyl regardless of performance numbers. I prefer Softlite in the vinyl options.Your best bet is to do what you're doing and get some more quotes to help you decide.

That and in my opinion be leery of the guy you were talking to who sells but does not install Softlite and uses Atrium as his window of choice as that window is not generally regarded as a quality product.

+1 to MWM's post.
On product choice, the first thing that you really should do is figure out which material is going to best match your goals for the project. As WoW alluded to above, a premium vinyl choice like Softlite, Sunrise, Okna, etc will offer tremendous value with better measurable performance, warranty, etc. That said, many people require the rich appearance of a wood product. Ultimately you are sacrificing a little bit one way or the other. In my experience, most folks are open to vinyl options end up going that route at the end of the day.

Thanks for all of the input. It's just so confusing and I'm trying to get a good product that is also a good value without sacrificing appearance from the outside. From what I can see from looking at pictures, driving by houses, I can't really tell the difference from the outside which are vinyl and which are aluminum clad. Please tell me if I am incorrect because maybe I just don't know what to look for. I can tell which ones have the cheap looking flat grills and I want contoured grills and a softer white rather than the stark white. I have plantation shutters in all of my windows now and plan to put them in all of the windows in the new home so the window frames won't be visible from the inside. If I weren't doing plantation shutters inside, I would definitely do a clad with wood interior. Thanks again. Appearance from the outside is important to me so please advise if vinyl (softlite) looks different than the Anderson 200.

You will find some difference in appearance from the exterior, however not necessarily better or worse either way. A wood clad product has an appearance advantage on the interior, but vinyl vs aluminum, fiberglass, etc on the exterior is a horse a piece IMO. The higher end vinyls have the softer "painter's white" which will be very close to what you get on a clad product. On the grilles, you can do the contoured, or even an sdl (surface mounted) for a richer look. Another option is full screens which is most common on wood windows.

We are going through similar process in NC. We are looking at MGM all vinyl windows model 8010. Anyone have any experience with them?

Quality vinyl such as the aforementioned brands go very well in older homes and also offer much better performance/ structural ratings than wood. You need to use higher end brands and its Money well spent.

Most windows are better than Andersen. They're overpriced garbage living off of their name. I've been installing Softlite windows for over 20 years. I have also installed Marvin, Simonton, Thermal (now out of business), Crestline, Alside and a few other of brand windows. I personally use Alside windows for my business but mainly subcontract for a company that uses Softlite. Softlite would be my second choice out of all of them. Marvin's are probably the best windows of the bunch but definitely not worth the extra cost. Especially if you plan to move in 15 years. New construction type windows are great but can cause a world id issues if not installed 100%correctly. It also adds a major headache and a lot of expense in the future for the new owners or you if you end up staying. If it were me, I would save some cash and have the builders build buck frames and use replacement type windows. Since you're starting with a clean slate you can usually get a better fit and better insulated opening doing it that way.

Soft lite, okna, sunrise, and kensington are great vinyl brands. I would not ever install alside windows, i just dont think they are close to being upper end. The andersen 200 is a cheap piece of garbage in my opnion.

Better look up efficiency and durability ratings before saying Alside isn't upper end. I love Softlite but they do have a lot of issues with seal failures, tilt locks and they are really sloppy with sealants at the factory. I owned a rental property with sunrise windows and I may as well have seran wrapped the opening. A ton of air infiltration and a lot of heat gain/ loss through the glass. They are actually a generic version of another brand. I can't remember which at the moment. Im not familiar with okna and don't know a lot about Kensington though. But back to Alside, I've literally installed thousands of them and have never had a service call back or complaint. They also have a bunch of extra options that can turn their middle off the road window into high end without the higher base price. The only thing I would change is the outside appearance. It's a little plain compared to some of the competitors. But I'll take functionality and performance over looks any day.