Operating system and ram concerns

Hello again NBR. It was NBR that originally convinced me to purchase a vaio Z, and my experiene has been very pleasant with it, but there is something frightening me.

I just now looked at my system and discovered it was running a 32 bit version on windows. Naturally, I was shocked because the vaio Z is supposed to support 4 GB of ram. I only bought the 2 GB model, understanding that I could upgrade to 4 GB later.

Has anybody else had success upgrading their ram on a vaio Z? Can those who payed for more ram testify that they have a 32 or 64 bit operating system?

edit: if sony only gave me a 32 bit OS as punishment for not buying ram from them, I am going to be sick.

 

Are you serious? When you choose your Z, it tells you which version of vista you will be getting regardless of how much ram you have. On customize to order models, you can upgrade to vista ultimate (64bit). Standard, I beleive all Z's come with Vista Home 32bit or Vista Business 32bit.

Even if you're running 32bit, you're operating system will see 3.5gb's if you have 4 installed. So no big deal.

Also, if you're running 2Gb's in single slot, you're not getting the benifit of dual channels. In this case, I recommend you buy another 2gb stick, pronto.

 

u can naturally add more ram, but here is the catch with 32bit os there is no way in the freaking hell to read them all... ull get being lucky ~3.2 GB of ram... now here is the funny part... the ram nowadays is nowhere near to be the bottleneck of your computer... i just saw an asus eepc with 512 ram and OMG! it started office faster(about 5~6 times faster) than my *office* PC with 2gb ram... why? because of the SSD hard drive...

now... what im trying to say is that 2GB of ram will be more than enough for any user... if u really feel that ur computer needs 4GB ram because u are running ro many processes that are actually eating up the 2 or 3 GB then go ahead and worry about 64OS and upgrading.. otherwise.. i would think twice


hope helps

 

Office is not the reason to buy more RAM. I have a hard time believing a notebook running Vista with 512m of ram and SSD would be faster then a similarly optomized PC with 2GB / 7200rpm HDD....

 

never said office was the reason... hell i never said that 512 would be faster EVER
if u read carefully i said " IF U ARE EATING UR 2 OR 3 GB OF RAM THEN WORRY"
saying that...
...well i think i dont need to explain any more

edit: i will....
if u have.. lets say 2 gb ram (ddr2) with vista and only use MSN then u wont even notice 4, 6,10,11, 1000000 GB of extra ram..
now.. if u actually run 100+program at the time and use all ram needing to use a lot of virtual Mem then omg worry!

 

I understand. But you mention office being faster due to the SSD. I have to wonder what you meant by that. However, I completely understand what you're trying to explain.

Nevertheless. Doing a few things at once, you will benifit from more then 2gb's. Especially when running in stamina mode where discrete video won't be helping out.

 

ill explain what i meant by SSD...
i want one T.T
hehehehe i just cant believe how fast it opens stuff up XD

 

Wrong, I was never offered to choose between 32 and a 64 bit OS. Check the build-to-order page if you want proof, it hasn't changed. I take that as a "yes, sony shafted you because you didn't buy ram from them".

Ok, so without 64 bit windows I am screwed. I tried to install windows 64 bit once using my own genuine copy and obtaining the proper drivers online, but that failed miserably because I couldn't find an option for 64 bit drivers. All sony offers if I search by model number are 32 bit drivers for various vista editions. Could somebody prove me wrong please?

If worst turns to worst, I'm going to have to go driver hunting for individual components, which is always fun.

edit joeski

If what you meant was that sony delivers a 32 bit OS regardless of how much ram you ordered, that is even worse. Anybody honestly trying to defend sony on this has been backed into a corner.

 

On both sony.com and .ca you have the choice to upgrade to vista ultimate (ie 64bit)

correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Me too!!!

 

Hey dude, Calm down, take a deep breath, everything is going to be OK ... =)

I am an owner of a 4 GB version, which comes with 32 bit Vista, and I'm not at all worried about it - for multiple reasons.

First, I am sure (if you decide at some point you want it), if the drivers aren't out yet, they will eventually be for 64 bit.

Next, understand that there is almost no advantage to having a 64 bit OS with <= 4 GB. While you are right that OS'es can't address anymore than ~3.2 GB with 32 bit OSes (the reason is that the rest of the address space is used to address your hardware), even if you install Vista 64, you do understand that the extra 800 MB that you acquire access to will be more than consumed by the interface that has to run to allow you to "sandbox" and run 32 bit programs.

See, that is the problem. Most software (and drivers) are currently compiled for 32 bit OSes (which is exactly why your having trouble installing Vista 64 bit). Because of this, Vista has to run special software to make 32 bit software compatible, which consumes as much if not more memory than you gain from the 64 bit switch.

Now, if you ever decide to upgrade to 8 GB, or 16 GB of RAM ... Then the 64 bit OS makes more sense ... =)

Ps. To those of you who say there is no advantage to more RAM - that's just not true. First, I am a computer architect so I'm always using tons of memory for simulations, virtual machines, etc. But even if your someone who simply browses web pages, most modern operating systems will "Cache" and pre-fetch stuff that your doing from the hard drive into memory even if it isn't necessary at the moment. This can (will) result in "startup" and response speeds that will more than surpass any SSD drive...

 

Thank you jpoe for your sanity.

I've just checked, and the hybrid GPU that makes the Z tick has no 64 bit drivers.

Bloody hell, how can sony get away with this? They are deliberately selling a faulty product! Having people pay more for ram they cannot address is pure robbery!

 

I'd say "watch your words" as the Z isn't faulty.

If you build a car with say an engine delivering 1000Nm but limit it to 650Nm (I believe there was something like that on TopGear once...) because it couldn't use 1000Nm then its not faulty is it?

This has been discussed time and time again.
The reason they put in 4GB is because of Dual Channel.

Now why Sony doesn't offer a 64Bit system - possibly because most Sony customers don't need (stress need) it and can work well without.
Aditionally as jpoe pointed out (and he knows more than I) it becomes only really worthwile with more than 4GB like 8 or 16GB.
On the FW2 series Sony will offer a 64Bit System and 8GB of RAM.

Why use a technology with (currently) little support and little compatible software when the actual hardware isn't capable of delivering advantages in a laptop?

 

I can just imagine how much 2x8gb DDR3 sticks would cost!

 

Possibly the same as a 2GB stick in 2 years.

 

So I just got off the phone with Sony support. I called to see if I could get a 64-bit windows restore CD for my FW 190. They basically said that its not available and that there are no plans to release it. This really pisses me off considering the new 200 series comes with 64 bit vista as an option, but I can't have it on my one month old computer. I'm passed the return date and all my attempts to install 64 bit from a retail disc have ended in failure. What gets me even more is that the FW 170J comes with 64 bit. Sony is really on my bad side right now.

 

If some of the hardware is the same, which it most likely will be you may be able to get some drivers from Sony.