Whats the differnce with these two Vista packs?

Whats the differnce wiht he Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (64-bit) and the Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (32-bit)? Does the 64-bit take more memory? Does it make vista run faster? If so if I have a 250 GB harddrive should Iget the 64 bit?

 

Guide in sig.

 

so i have to have 4 Gb of ram to use 64 bit?

 

No, it doesn't matter how much ram you have. It is the fact that you cannot get by the 4GB barrier in 32-Bit. It is only possible to have more than that in 64-bit.

 

My laptop will have 3Gb of Ram should I get the 64 bit or the 32 bit?

 

Here's a general rule: if you have to ask what the difference between 32-bit and 64-bit is, you don't want 64-bit. 64-bit is only useful if you a) have a specific need for it, b) have 4+ GB of RAM, and/or c) truly know what you're doing.

 

Couldn't have said it better.

 

Sounds pretty true to me

I jumped straight into Vista x64 when it came out and found no benifit from it and only additional compatibility issues that did not exist in x86 Vista so I use x86 on my laptop and x64 on my desktop.

 

I wish there was a way we could make that comment sticky. And I didn't even know MS made a 64bit version of Home Premium. Interesting...

 

They made 64 bit versions of all Vista versions.

 

Well then now I know, AND KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!!!!!

 

i have 4gb ram, but running 32bit os, by updating to 64bit and using that extra gig , will i see any game performance increase?

 

If you dont rely on any old legacy hardware/apps, you should have no trouble with vista 64, I've been using it for around 4 months now and I'm extremely happy with it, noticeably snappier and more stable than vista 32, also requires much less frequent restarting after extended periods of use, ie weeks at a time without a reboot.

 

If you want to be on the bleeding edge but still have compatibility for legacy applications, set up a dual boot between Vista x64 and XP 32.