hp 6910p vista 32bit or 64 bit?

I just recieved a 6910p that I purchased for my son who is in college. (His old laptop had a water issue and since I had student insurance for him I was able to pretty much cover the cost of the new laptop).

I will have to make a decision to go with either 64 bit or 32 bit. He doesnt use photoshop or any program like that. Its mostly uesed for microsoft office type of programs. itunes, watching youtube movies or similiar, watching some dvds. What are your suggestions?

Also I understand that if I choose the 32 bit now that I cant change to 64 bit later. the laptop came with both sets of discs. drivers for 32 and 64. and seperate discs for 32 and 64 bit vistas.

I uderstand you can use the unsigned drivers in 64 bit but each time you start up you must do some added steps? Is this correct?

Does it even matte for him it seems as if 32 bit is more compatible.

Your imput is appreciated as I need to set it up tongight.

Jack S

 

32 bit and 3gbs of ram will be more than enough for him. The biggest reason to get 64 bit now is for the use of 4gbs of ram and some specific 64 bit software.

Also, you can always change it to whatever OS you want, including 64 bit. You'll just have to do purchase and do it on your own.

 

32bit is more compatible with applications than 64bit. Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 2.0 GHz support both 32bit and 64bit so you could switch around with you want but reformatting and reinstalling can take a lot of time. with 2GB RAM it is suggested that you use 32bit. there are people that are saying having 64bit is pointless when you dont have 4GB RAM or more.

 

32-bit would be my pick too, certainly for everyday tasks

 

the 6910p that I got has 2gigs of ram 2x1. and the ati graphics. didnt really need it but that is the config. I could always add more ram but if this works with three kids every penny counts. does 64 bit run faster?

 

Here's the thing about 64-bit v 32-bit:

You won't notice a difference in speed between the two unless the program you are running was written for 64-bit. The problem with this, is that most manufacturers still write everything for 32-bit OSs, and barely any create 64bit applications. That is why people say that the only true benefit for 64-bit is the 4GB of RAM and higher.

I have 64-bit Vista on my machine and have used the 32-bit versions of Vista and I haven't really noticed any significant difference in speed. As for the signed driver issue, I've only run across a couple applications that didn't have signed drivers and I doubt your son will run across it very often.

If you can install only 1 version and then you can't change I would say just go with the 64-bit in case you want to install 4gb of RAM in the future. At the same time I would say go with 32-bit because if your son is only using it for college he won't need more than 3GB of RAM.

 

Well I really dont know why I did it but I chose 64 bit vista business edition. I'll see how it goes. or actually my son will. If its slow I can always ad ram. If he has conflicts with drivers I can always switch to 32 bit, or go to xp if necessary. We will see.

Im going to something else too.. use norton anti virus 2008. not the internet security or 360 just anti virus. I think for him it might be the best bet.

I really don't know why I chose 64 bit. Will I have to ad ram?