Is installing Vista x64 worth it????/?

I have
HP Pavilion dv6500t CTO NB
- Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate (32-bit)
- Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo processor T7500 (2.20 GHz, 4 MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)
- 15.4" WXGA High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)
- 2GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)!!
- 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
- HP Imprint Finish (Radiance) + Fingerprint Reader + Webcam + Microphone
- Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 4965AGN Network Connection and Bluetooth(TM)
- 160GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
- LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-RW with Double Layer Support
- 12 Cell Lithium Ion Battery

Today I upgraded the RAM from 2GB to 4GB. But in vista32, it only shows 3.07GB.

So I am thinking of changing from Vista 32bit to 64bit. So is it worth it. I know I will get almost full 4GB. Other than that is there any other benefits. Will 64bit install on this machine........
Please Advice.

Thanxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

It's up to you. We have the 64 bit vista Ulimate on a Dragon and love the speed this thing has. We love how the Videos from Stage6.com and other web pages start up instantainiously. With the new memory handaling feature. There is hardly any disk activity while browsing the internet or watching videos. The only drawback is. Durring bootup there is a large amount of activity for about 30 seconds. The interesting thing is. The more we boot our PC the less disk activity we are seeing at startup.
We had gone though the special setup guide to turn off UAC and other features.
Before we bought the PC we were made aware that much of our XP hardware may not work becuase of the strong security on 64 bit ultimate. We had only 2 devices not work. One was our scanner and the other was Celestron Skyscout.

Our Aleratec burner, Winradio and HP devices all worked great.
Our new SATA TB external drive also worked right away.

We recently turned back on the AERO desktop after updating the video drivers.


So to review from reading the many posts on the web about Vista 64 bit. The bigest problems people have with 64 bit are.

Finding signed drivers for your hardware
Requires 4GB of Memory to run Vista 64 at top speed.
Long boot times of Vista. (This is fixed by turning off UAC) Then Boot time very fast. Mine is 11 seconds from poweron to Desktop after turning off UAC.
Buitl in Web cam does not work in some programs such as AIM.



The old story goes, "If it aint broken ......

Good luck

 

I would love to give a great response on how much I and many others here swear by 64bit...but, this thread is repeated every week...

Can I ask a favour....just search 64bit and read any of a ton of threads....yes you will like 64.

 

hey guy thanx for the help..... i have installed 64bit.... but now my problem is that i cannot run peer guardian..........

 

"if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

 

Why do people use 64bit are there any programs you can use on 64 that you can't on 32bit?

 

imo, 64-bit is really only worth it if you need more than 3.5GB ram.

I've been running it on my desktop for a couple months and never really noticed a difference after upgrading from 32-bit outside of the difference that going from 3GB ram to 4GB made.

 

I've been running 64-bit vista on my desktop now for quite some time and it works great. I have all the features of vista still turned on at it takes less than 15 seconds to boot. It is actually the fastest OS boot I've experienced on any of the machines I've owned.

Even with 64-bit Vista you CAN install unsigned drivers. I know on my old HP machine it wouldn't let me, but there is a way around it. If you hit F8 during bootup you can enable the installation of unsigned drivers. I don't know if this is something that was put inside of the OEM versions of Vista, because I don't have it on my retail version of Vista Ultimate.

I haven't had any problems installing or running different programs in 64-bit. Microsoft has actually done a nice job on backwards compatibility with 32-bit support, unlike their previous try with XP-64 bit.

So in all honesty I would say go for it, I mean 64-bit is better than 32-bit so if you have the option for it, nothing should be holding you back.

 

there are 64 bit programs i use cad and 3d studio max 64 bit version which runs faster on a 64 bit system than the 32 bit versions run on a 32 bit system

 

You can do this on any version, by booting with F8 then selecting the option, but that is not a satisfactory fix. You have to set that option every time you boot, and currently there are issues with sleep mode, so you need to reboot your system pretty often (I have stopped using sleep altogether).

 

Here's the thing I don't understand, is this only on the OEM version? I have the retail version of Vista Ultimate 64-bit and I don't have to do this, it allows me to install unsigned drivers without having to hit F8 and then select it every time I boot. Also, isn't it possible to config the boot files to include this automatically during the bootup process so you don't have to manually select it every time?

 

There is no difference between the OEM version and retail version, other than the licensing. When Vista first came out it could do this, but then one of the updates disabled the ability to change it. Without the update you could change the boot files to make it permanent, until that update came out. Now the only options is using F8.

Is it possible that you did not install that update? Or maybe the driver you got actually is signed by someone. What driver is it for?

 

I don't remember what specific drivers I installed, I'll have to look through it. Then again, it might be possible that I didn't install the update, or it didn't install properly, because I keep my computer up to date. I'll take a look through at my hardware and see what drivers were unsigned, I just don't remember off the top of my head because most of the drivers I end up installing are never signed by Microsoft. I remember having to hit F8 every time I rebooted while I had my dv9500t, it was really annoying. I love how Microsoft always finds little ways to irritate the end user (especially users like us).

 

The signing requirement is only that they are signed, but they do not have to be signed by Microsoft. Any developer can write a driver, then pay to have it signed by Verisign, and then it will install. Getting it signed by Microsoft is part of the MS certification process, which is a different process.

It really impacts freeware developers, as even getting it signed by verisign costs like $500.

 

Oh, ok, I thought that the drivers had to be signed by Microsoft in order to install them if you don't manually set it every boot.

 

well guys i have tried the F8 option... it works but eachtime i boot i have hit
F8... now that is not a good option.......... i have searched everywhere... not found a bypass.... there is a command line options but is now dissabled coz of 4 updates (info i found from various sites)... i dont want to uninstall updates........ so searching for better options.............

 

As of now there are no other options. Microsoft does this as a security measure, so providing a way around it would be a security problem. Maybe when SP1 launches they will do something about it, but until then (if ever), we're out of luck.