The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
32bit Operating Systems cannot mathematically address more than 4gb of RAM. And Vista 32bit will map some of your hardware (like GPU), which will acount for 512mb of RAM off the top. So, with Vista 32, you'll have acess to 3 - 3.5gb of RAM tops. With a 64bit OS, the sky's the limit (well, Vista Ultimate x64 can address 128gb of RAM). The choke-point will be what your MOBO can handle.
Not that many applications have address space usage over 2GB, so unless you do tons of AV editing or work as an architect, getting more RAM would not give you that much for your extra $. That said, with Vista not being ... the leanest O/S around, you could consider 3GB dual channel.
Before going for a 64bit O/S, you might want to consider doing some homework on all the drivers and applications that you personally
can't live without, and see if there are any known glitches or incompatibilities.
Also, do you have any applications (or know of any on the horizon) that utilize the advantages of a 64 bit O/S - can you name one or two? Weigh that against the compatibility issues we still hear a bit about on 64 bit O/S's.
Are you getting Centrino 2? If so, you'll also need to decide if DDR3 is worth the price. Decisions, decisions!
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
