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32 bit vs 64 bit
If you occupy a lofty position in the hierarchy of technical expertise then I guess that some of you may chuckle at my naivety but someone has to ask these daft questions!
There are clearly 32 and 64 bit versions of Vista and I do know enough to figure out that there is some square law at work here and that the 64 bit version will have considerably more bandwidth and thus will work much faster than the 32 bit version. I speculate though that this muscle can only be harnessed if the platform on which it may be running has the matching solid state real estate and resources.
When I bought my very first Vista OS days ago, I went for the 32 bit because I had no idea whether A. 64 bit would run on the machine I have just put together and B. subject to the answer to A. being "Yes 64 bit Vista would run on your PC" what benefits would that bring vs my 32 bit OS?
Forget for a moment that I am a wrinkly feeding my ageing brain rather than a fast moving business exec. I just want to understand these issues more clearly and I do appreciate all the resources of experience and knowledge into which I regularly tap through this excellent set of fora.
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There are several 32 and 64 bit version threads.....
The "considerably more bandwidth" would only be true with applications that are written in 64bit...Currently there are very few....The main reson to use 64bit is if you need 4gigs of ram or more....
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As you've got 4gb of RAM installed x64 will recognise the whole 4gb and use it, it can always be helpful as with everything Vista has running at startup by default, many people run Vista with 2gb of RAM, and find that around 40% is used at startup, so if you like to game, or do any video/photoshop work then more RAM would be nice, especially as you can give Photoshop a set amount of RAM to use.
Liam
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Though as yet I have not done any video editing, I use CorelDraw 12 a lot and I must say that I am very impressed so far with this new machine and Vista. I am only guessing from the noises coming from my tower but it seems to me that Vista powers down a hard drive if not directly being used. Certainly, I occasionally hear noises that sound very much like a hard drive spinning up even when working on a CorelDraw document. The evidence suggests that Vista uses resources in a different way to XP. Too late now to think of 64 bit but perhaps next time. I suppose it will run on the machine specified below?
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It will run on the machine, no probs, the Core 2's are 64 bit, and with 4gb of RAM it would enjoy itself.
Liam
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As long as you can find the 64-bit drivers, and they are readily available for recent hardware, there is no downside at all to running 64-bit Vista. It will run 32-bit apps just as well, and can run any 64-bit apps with a performance advantage. Also it has a higher level of security than the 32-bit version, insofar as it will not accept unsigned drivers, and guards changes to the kernel very vigorously.
I've been running x64 since Vista went RTM, and I have no regrets at all. If you bought a retail version of Vista, then you should be able to get a 64-bit DVD for the cost of postage and packing if you felt like upgrading.
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Sadly I suppose, I bought an OEM Vista for £63 so I guess that rules out an upgrade. It doesn't really matter as my use is only home though my software works hard producing all kinds of stuff used in my other hobbies of modelling and woodworking. Usual story - retired and far busier than ever.
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I am just about to build my son a machine, he has opted for 32bit because he wants a wireless USB adaptor and we have struggled to find one with 64bit drivers.
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Hello Philgo,
If you haven't already, be sure to check the Windows Vista Hardware Compatibility list to find network adapters that will work with 64-bit Editions.
http://winqual.microsoft.com/HCL/Def...g_id=10048VHb1
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Thanks ecross, left my son to do most of the research. There was such little choice he opted for 32 bit.
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