Merom much better for Vista?

If I plan on installing and using Vista on my Macbook, should I wait till the Merom version comes out?

University starts next week for me (September 11th), so if I wait, i have to wait until after university starts, which I guess is not very convenient for me.

 

I don't know the answer to your question, but if you do install it on there, you must take pictures. I always love it when people put Windows on a Mac. Sorry I couldnt be of help.

 

It will only be important if you want to run the 64bit version. Given that there is still very few 64bit applications, it will still be a few more years before 64bit is necessary, thus no it isnt going to be vital to have merom now for vista....
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yes. if you have a macbook or macbook pro (or any intel mac), you will want a merom processor. 64 bit may be absolutely neccessary to ever run vista on your mac, and even if it is somehow possible to hack it eventually with a 32 bit processor (on a mac or other EFI only machine, normal windows machines can still use 32 bit with Vista because they support BIOS), it will likely be at much greater difficulty.

Why?

Because Windows Vista will not support EFI booting (never in the 32 bit version, and not at first in the 64 bit version)

Mac's do not support BIOS, they require EFI.

 

While what you wrote may be indeed true, it needn't be that way. Windows Xp doesn't support EFI out of the box, and via Bootcamp or third-party hacks, it is possible to use XP in a Mac (by using a bootloader with EFI support basically). So no one can be sure if it will be possible to use 32bit Vista in a Mac. I would bet Apple will make it, I see no reason for them to do otherwise - if they don't, someone else will do and run it ayway.

The real reason for anyone to want Meron or any 64bit CPU for Vista is that Microsoft has been signaling strongly that a lot of functionality may be missing from the 32bit version. The 64bit version will only accept signed drivers (this is convenient for disallowing copies of HD video using modified drivers), which apparently won't happen with the 32bit version. Question is, you might not be able to play hidef content in 32bit Vista, and who knows what else.

 

Here is the way I look at it for this situation. We are still years away from 64-bit being commonplace, and while there may be some things that are crippled in a 32-bit Vista, if you are installing it on a Mac it should not matter. I say that because I would not install Windows on a Mac as a full time solution. There are many PC notebooks out there that are cheaper. Also, Parallels already has support for Vista in their latest Beta, or it will be in the next Beta, I cannot remember which. Another thing is that Apple would not have put the effort they have into Boot Camp for it to be around for less than a year, so I am sure it will support all flavors of Vista.

In short, no I don't think Merom is necessary for Vista.

 

Actually its better to wait for Merom and not because of Vista, but because of Leopard. Leopard is a truly 64bit OS, it can natively run both codes, 64 bit and 32 bit ones, so you can take full advantage of Leopard if you have Merom, not Yonah. Anyway, nobody knows how much will be 32bit Vista castrated, maybe just HiDef video playback, maybe some feature that needs bigger registy, so if you look for a Vista, its better to be prepared properly too.

 

When people say you can only take full advantage of Leopard or Vista if you have a 64-bit processor is all hype. Understand these OS's will likely not be around when 64-bit is everywhere. Also, normal users will not notice any difference between 64-bit and 32-bit. The true advantage is only in calculation intense applications, such as engineering apps and serious encoding apps. In fact many consumer oriented apps actually run slower when they are coded 64-bit. Bigger is not always better.

 

btw, you wont' be able to play HD-DVD in Vista unless you have a 64-bit processor (at least natively).
You might as well wait for merom, the core speeds will be a tad faster.
We may see merom on tuesday or next week.

btw, heres one link to the 32 bit no hd-dvd native playback...
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/24/1325214&from=rss

do a search and you can find several other sites that confirm that.

 

@ above, as cashmonee said, HD media support will depend on Hollywood. So yes, it'll be 64 only

More to the point, who says HD DVD or Blu-ray will catch on enough in the next couple of years to let it influence your decision? 3 years, or thereabouts, you'll be looking to get a new laptop anyway. I don't plan on getting rid of the DVDs which I've bought this side of the millenium just because Hollywood want me to

 

More than likely, HD / Blu-ray will catch on very fast. HD-TVs have been selling like hot cakes and people want HD media to play. Cable has few, and often compressed HD channels and satellite only broadcasts about 20 hd channels (only a few full time HD).
Yes, people will want to get HD dvd media soon. But it'll be a year or so before the players are cheap enough for most people to afford them.

And why in gods name would you get rid of your current dvds cause you got an hd dvd or blu ray player? That just makes no sense.

 

Work with me here

I've viewed a HD TV set - yes it's nice. I'm just saying once you get a HD TV, you will want a HD version of that favourite DVD. If you say otherwise, you're a liar

 

Well for regular use ie: Photoshop, Word Processing, Surf, downloading things and multitasking, would a 32-bit processor sufficient for Vista/Leopard?

And would the price of of Merom (2.0Ghz) Macbook be much higher than Yonah?

 

Yes, 32-bit would be sufficient, and the price should be exactly the same. I would say wait out the current rumors (Sept 12) and then take another assesment.

 

lol, but remember, very few movies are really in HD.
Basically, only movies that were filmed digitally in HD are... well, HD. So thats like, 5 movies from teh 80's... maybe a handful from the 90's. Most current movies are filmed in HD (though not all).

I'd only replace part of my library for HD (not that I have hd tv at my house). but yeah, i'd only replace about 10 movies from my library.

What I'm more curious about is... How much of a difference will we actually see between progressive and HD? I've heard some people that were at CES said there was little to no difference between watching HD/blu ray and progressive scan movies. Then again, some people will tell you that theres no difference between tapes and dvds...

 

still years away from 64 bit? i dont think so at all.

think about how explosive the growth has been in pc memory use.

you can certainly buy a pc with 2 gigs of ram today.

or even 4 gigs (not in a notebook unless its huge and has 4 memory slots, or you are willing to pay $xxxx)

but expect those numbers to grow in orders of magnitudes in the near future, and then consider 4 gigs maxes out a 32 bit processor.

blow your mind?

 

not really. Not sure how many apps would need more than 4 gigs.
Only servers (which have been 64 bit for a while) would really need them.
And A/V work stations. And the serious ones.. for like, doing CG effects in movies. It's nice to have 2-4 gigs for virtualization... but not sure how much improvement we'd see with more than 4 gigs.

 

While I do agree with you on some of your points, I can also see the AVERAGE computer user will not utilize that much power in near future. I literary lived on my lappy and I use my current lappy for music, watching movies, heavy gaming, photoshop, some video editing all with 1GB RAM and I am happy with that.
I just cannot see an average user will need more than 4GB in their computer in near future while what they do is just microsoft office, internet browsing, and email.

 

As everyone has said, even with the memory hogs that programs are these days, most people could run just fine on 512 MB and be almost overdoing it going to 1 GB. Even geeks like us probably would not need more than 1-1.5 GB. Perhaps some games, but even WOW, which is extremely memory hungry does not need more than a gig. It just is not there yet. It will be I am sure, but not before most of us replace our current machines.

 

You know... at that point I'd rather get a ram drive. They may not be as fast as pure ram, but it's cheaper and easier to implement. After all, even low speed ddr ram will completely saturate sata 2 bandwidth.
yummy... ram drives...