T61: Vista Ultimate or Server 2008?

I have 4gb of ram coming from Crucial, and Vista Home Premium will only recognize three. I can anytime upgrade to Vista Ultimate x86 for $10 (university license), clean install to Vista Ultimate x64, or install Windows Server 2008 x86. These three OS's will recognize all 4 gb.

My major concern is spending 6 hours doing the clean install process which is why I lean toward the anytime upgrade option. But a clean install would probably do this system some good. I'm also concerned about driver compatibility with Server 2k8. Until Vista SP1 came out, this computer would BSOD twice a day on account of the nVidia, driver and I'd rather take a bullet to the brain than put up with it again.

Thoughts?

 

Are you sure that Ultimate x86 can use 4GB of ram?? I was under the impression that all non-server Windows operating systems maxed out around 3-3.5GB (Server 2003/2008 use PAE to get around this limit).

I like 64 bit Vista myself, and have very few compatibility problems. Plus, 64 bit native applications are starting to appear and they should be faster than 32 bit apps if you are working with huge files. However, if you have Server 2008 (and a use for it), you can't go wrong with that.

 

64bit vista ultimate or server 2008. Just check for compatibility issues for your software and hardware in 2008.

 

All the Vista versions have the same limitation. If you want to use the full 4 GB in Vista, you must use the 64-bit one.

I think you should wait until you receive the 4 GB memory and try it with your Vista 32-bit. Some systems can actually use up to 3.75 GB. Maybe someone with a T61 can post their result?

 

Agree.

 

This is not really a Vista versus 2008 thing. It’s really very simple. If you want to fully leverage your 4GB, you need an x64 OS—regardless of Vista, 2008 or Linux. PAE is an ugly hack and all three OSs can leverage it. As for driver compatibility, Vista and 2008’s driver model are the same—so most drivers will work for both. My vote is for Ultimate x64 unless you can give me a good reason for installing a server OS on your notebook—and 2008 is not really faster, it’s just doing a lot less than Vista is out-of-the-box and, if you wanted to, you could disable this stuff in Vista. Both OSs leverage the Vista SP1 kernel.

 

So, I waited to install, and my x86 Vista sees 4.0 gigs.

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(take out space after htt--you can't post well formatted url's until you have 15 posts)

Any idea about what's going on?

 

Your 32 bit system sees less than the full 4 gigabits, as a matter of fact its 4 gigs including an os which usually runs .6 gig.

Also you've fotgotten the most important. You've forgotten the 64 bit piece of Vista that will honor 64 bits-Vista 64.

 

It knows you have 4gigs installed but it can not address 4gigs...

 

Thats true if hes running Vista 32 not true for Vista-64.
Renee

 

His SS was for 32bit.

 

Well them he make better make a quick call and do some fast talking because otherwise he's going to get exactly the performance he's complaining about. There's nothing that can be done about it.