Purchase Advice: 32bit vs. 64bit (Vista)

I went to Costco a couple of days ago to purchase a new laptop and found to my surprise that the better HP laptops (3 out of 5) were all 64 bit Vista OS. I was wondering if it isn't a bit early for a 64 bit OS and whether drivers and software would be available (other problems?). Would purchasing an older 32 bit version of Vista be wiser? I guess I am just surprised that HP would be selling so many of these in what I imagine would be one of their premiere sales outlets. At any rate I need to purchase a new machine. Any input (or suggestions) would be most welcome as it will be a significant investment for me. I am a home and casual business (financial software) user. Thanks!

 

Upgrading to a 64-bit OS is a wise decision, but you should plan ahead. Vista x64 can run 32-bit applications using an emulation layer; but you should check online to make sure that your programs will work well.

 

It really depend on applications you will use. You have to check whether they can run on Vista 64-bit.

Personally, I suggest using 64-bit version. Here is one of reasons:

32-bit version of windows has fragmentation_of_virtual_memory problem that was fixed in 64-bit version. This problem prevent application to use large contiguous memory. For example, assumes you had 2GB of RAM installed, 1536MB available (512MB is being used) and an application requested to use 1GB.

However, your 2GB RAM was fragmented like this:

700MB: free
512MB: occupied
836MB: free

So the application will fail to launch since the largest contiguous memory available is 863MB, even though the system has a total of 1536MB free memory.

Not many applications I know that actually use large amount of contiguous memory but just to be future-proof, choose 64-bit.

 

you should be fine with x64 as long as all of your external devices have x64 drivers

 

The Vista license that you purchase with your computer will work for both 64-bit and 32-bit versions. You can switch any time you want, provided that you find a detailed guide (do NOT attempt to figure it out by yourself) and are willing to do a full re-install of the operating system.

 

Thanks for the replies folks. Would it be a terrible mistake to go with 32bit 3Gig Vista, as in this machine? I understand that the hardware requirements for the 32 bit are a bit less. My needs are fairly modest, mostly browsing and brokerage software (need to check this for 64bit compatibility tomorrow anyway), but would like at least decent power to manage photographs and video clips. My impression is that if one wants to do something specific (like AutoCad) that would specifically benefit from 64-bit OS then it is justified; but, I don't really have anything that specific in mind and price is a factor. I didn't know that the Vista license included both OS's (that's certainly nice) and I understand PocketAce's statement to mean that I could boost the RAM and install the 64-bit system a little later on, with some effort, when things settle a little more and most of the software has caught up. This seems a bit safer. Any comments welcome as I am zeroing in on the target above.

 

your plan seems wise to me.

 

Spend $150 more and get the gateway 6860 FX, its 8800 GTS will pwn that HP

 

Thanks for your input cyclist and harpreet.

 

32 bit Vista OS: If you have a mix of old and new hardwares and softwares, and need to connect to a variety of of old hardwares or use older versions of softwares.

64 bit Vista OS: If you have new hardwares and softwares and are unlikely to connect to older hardwares or use older versions of softwares.

If you buy 32 bit Vista OS and later decide to reinstall 64 bit Vista OS, all you need is the 64 bit Vista OS disc (which you can beg, borrow, steal or download from legal sources). The key that came with your 32 bit Vista OS can be used to install and activate your 64 bit Vista OS.

One version is not necessarily better than the other but depends on your usage and the environment in which you use.

 

You guys are great, I really appreciate your help!

 

One more: In relation to the laptop I linked to in my first post on this thread, I called HP Tech Support about the number of hard drive bays on the dv9700t series (the Costco Tech was not sure and thought two bays might be an option); and, it turns out that, as I thought, the entire series has two bays which allow for two drives. The configuration I am choosing has only one 250Gig drive filling one of the bays, which would allow me to add another drive in the future. That's pretty good news as far as I am concerned.

In passing, I asked about the upgrade to 64-bit from 32-bit Vista and was told that one can use the same license key to upgrade from a lower version of Windows 32-bit (say Basic or Premium) to a higher version on the same 32-bit OS, but that to get the 64-bit OS entailed purchasing it outright as it was considered a completely new operating system and a separate product altogether (more expensive than the 32-bit). Possibly, he was mistaken, and something has changed without him knowing it though, since two of the members here seemed fairly convinced that the 32-bit license included the 64-bit OS. At any rate, he strongly steered me to the 32-bit Vista OS since I was a new Vista user and did not want to purchase all new 64-bit program versions of the programs I own (a significant investment). He did confirm that I could install the 64-bit Vista later on on the same machine if I felt the need. He looked at the machine I purchased and suggested that it was a very good price for that configuration. Again, thanks for your help folks!

 

Following my last post on this thread, I re-read this post and, what I think I'm getting from it is that the 32-bit key just works on the 64-bit OS, plain and simple (probably a little known fact). It seems that the problem would be in getting the 64-bit OS disc or download.

 

yep, all of the dv9000 series laptops have 2 drive bays

 

~~~~64bit Vista== SWEET

 

You should check with HP to make sure this is legal. Most OEM licenses (licenses that come with a new computer) in fact do NOT come with both versions. Only the retail license for sure allows you to run either 32 bit or 64 bit versions of Vista! While the OEM key may work with a downloaded 64 bit Vista disk, do keep in mind this might be against your EULA. I made a post earlier about this. I'll have to dig it up again.

Lesson learned? Don't believe everything you hear. Make sure you get the scoop from the Manufacturers themselves. If you call Microsoft, they will definitely tell you NO, your OEM key does NOT entitle you to both 32 bit and 64 bit versions of Vista, because for the OEM keys Microsoft sells, they in fact only allow one version of Vista, not one or the other.

On the other hand, some OEMs allow you to switch out the disks, like an exchange. Just a word of warning.