Will I get a Vista CD with my laptop purchase?

I ordered a m1210 this morning preloaded with Vista Home Premium... Will they ship me a Vista CD so I can do a reformat/clean install? Or do I have to make backup cds? The last time I ordered a laptop was when they actually sent out windows CDs.

 

that interests me as well since I'd prefer to install vista x64.

 

I ordered my 1505 a month ago and when it showed up the MCE DVD was included. It "seems to be" the current process.

I'd suggest calling Dell if you really want to be certain.

 

Well, I went to the dell online chat to ask a cust service person if my computer would come with an actual disc... She did not understand my question. I got fed up trying to translate into whatever broken english they would understand and gave up. I guess we'll find out in a couple of weeks.

 

If for some reason you dont get it, just call Dell CS and they will overnight any software you need free of charge. I would bet the system ships with the vista DVD

 

As far as I understand, the vista DVD has all versions on it, from basic to ultimate, in 32 and 64 bit flavors. Your COA dictates which version you will have installed, and you can upgrade to a higher version at anytime for a fee. I would also assume you decide if you want to run 32 bit or 64 bit at the start of the installation, I highly reccomend you have at least 2 gigs of ram if you go 64, any less and you really need to go 32 bit, Personally I would hold off the 64 bit bandwagon for now, unless there is a specific 64 bit only application that you must run, If all you run are 32 bit apps, which most of us will be for quite some time, 64 bit is going to slow you down a bit, and thats all it will do for you,in the next year or two it will start becoming a viable solution for the average user, but right now its just a way over hyped gimmick.

 

I wouldn't exactly say its a gimmick, I assume they will pull most of there knowledge from XP x64 for vista x64, which I have been stably using for over a year as my only operating system. Yes app support isn't 100% but thanks to many x64 users lobbying we now have many true 64bit apps. There are some people who say x64 is a gimmick but also some who say it is more stable than the x86 release. I chose the later, and haven't missed out on anything.

 

If for some reason you dont get it, just call Dell CS and they will overnight any software you need free of charge. I would bet the system ships with the vista DVD

lol.

umm wouldn't this imply you could hypothetically lie and get a free copy of vista?

i've been wondering if they come preloaded with bs programs.

 

you probably need your model # and the like?

 

The reason I call it a gimmick is the fact that it wont benefit the average user for a long time to come, and in fact most likely all it will do is slightly lower your overall performance,the big thing it brings to the table is it removes the 4GB system ram limitation, most laptops right now will only support 2GB bottom line if your core applications are 32 bit, you really should stay with a 32 bit os, 64 bit sounds sexy, and the average joe has been buying 64 bit chips for years, the truth is the average joe is still best served with a 32 bit os, that will change, but not for some time, if your the type that likes to squeeze out every bit of perfromance from your machine, you really dont want to go 64 bit yet

Here is a good simple article that covers the basics of 32/64
http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Computer_Science/2004/64_bit.asp