should i upgrade vista to 64?

[xmountainxlionx]

so i just got my new Asus laptop in today
i dont know whether i should install a copy of vista ultimate 64 or just leave vista home premium 32 on the system. there is no performance concerns, i just dont know if its worth the upgrade. what advantages does ultimate 64 have over home premium 32? (i own copies for both already)

 

[spearman914]

Theres only 1 advantage of X64 over X86 is that X64 supports all 4 Gigs that are installed, which laptops don't even have 4 gigs of ram yet. And besides X64 OS's uses a lot more memory then X86 OS's.

 

[xmountainxlionx]

well some come with 4 gigs. i was planning on going to 4gigs...that totally slipped my mind.

 

[AsRock]

Only reason i went x64 was more ram. I see a easy 4+ gig taken up by some games. Or i would not of bothered about it really.

Mayas well just wait till Windows 7 comes out only 18months away, well they say. Only reason i have vista is from it being free or i my self would not of bothered. But then i have been on a x64 bit OS before Oblivion came out.

So no and just wait.

 

[jonmcc33]

Theres only 1 advantage of X64 over X86 is that X64 supports all 4 Gigs that are installed, which laptops don't even have 4 gigs of ram yet. And besides X64 OS's uses a lot more memory then X86 OS's.

Only advantage? You missed that a 64-bit OS is more secure from 32-bit viruses and the performance increase of 64-bit applications.

 

[Kursah]

Only advantage? You missed that a 64-bit OS is more secure from 32-bit viruses and the performance increase of 64-bit applications.

Yeah there are advantages to running 64-bit, and there are a few flavors out there...I have chosen Vista...XP Pro 64 was good, but for me Vista 64 has been a great experience OS wise...better-so than my Vista x86 experience during most of 2007. Stable, feels just as quick as my XP Pro (who cares if it's not with a stopwatch on some things...overall this OS is pretty snappy in my experience with it). Games are FINE for me...if performance is less...obviously it's not enough to deter my gaming experience, I game a lot on this rig.

Really Vista x64 is pretty good...you want my recommendation, if choosing Vista...x64 is the only way to go imo. x64 is the future, a lot of people out there have x64-bit capablity...you can run it fine on 2 gigs...it will let you use all the GB's you can fill in the dimms of a modern enthusiast board and then some on RAM. If you don't like the "extra" goodies, turn em off...some like my G/F likes all that stuff...Vista x64 runs fine on a Core2 6300/Gigabyte P35DS3L/2GB DDR2 1000 Ballistix/Seagate 7200.9 500GB SATA2...her games are no slower, and she said she hasn't noticed a difference in performance with anything she does on her PC. Sure there are those out there, that I will agree with, Vista is slower in some things...but in reality, if it's not something you depend on, or notice.

XP is a good OS, took years to get there...Vista has improved quite a bit imo in the last year, sure Windows 7 is coming soon...I read an article on some PC Magazine site recently that said they've scrapped the MinWin Kernel in favor of using Vista as the base for Windows 7...so if ya don't like it now...you may be just as dissapointed in the future. Maybe Windows 7 is just SP2? Who really knows? That could be completely bunk info.

LINK: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/146525/windows_7_the_story_so_far.html

Sorry for the long post, if it wasn't for Solaris17...I would probably have gone back to Xp 64...good OS, but support just didn't seem there...Vista is udpated, has continuing support, and if what I read was true, is the wave of the future...you'll just get to choose from more flavors (well sorta...I'm sure W7 will be a pretty good improvement).

 

[jonmcc33]

Vista has improved quite a bit imo in the last year, sure Windows 7 is coming soon...I read an article on some PC Magazine site recently that said they've scrapped the MinWin Kernel in favor of using Vista as the base for Windows 7...so if ya don't like it now...you may be just as dissapointed in the future. Maybe Windows 7 is just SP2? Who really knows? That could be completely bunk info.

LINK: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/146525/windows_7_the_story_so_far.html

Interesting article...

"Last October, a Microsoft engineer revealed that the company had 200 programmers working on slimming down the Windows kernel for Windows 7; he dubbed it 'MinWin' and said it would sport a memory footprint less than one-sixth that of Windows Vista's kernel."

So people with 256MB RAM can be happy and stop whining.

Windows 7 isn't coming anytime soon. They will start beta/RC testing it in 2010 at the earliest. Look for 2011 for RTM. That's still 3 years from now and that's a long time. By then Vista will be rock solid and much improved anyway. I sure won't jump on Windows 7 when it is released, never seen a good Windows OS before it's first Service Pack.