Vista 64-bit Questions

Ok, recently I bought a Clevo M570TU with Windows Xp Pro on it. In order to fully utilize all 4GB of RAM I need to upgrade at least to Home Premium 64-bit. However, if the version of Xp I am using is 32-bit, which would wipe out the option of upgrading, correct? Because that would install the 32-bit version of Vista.

If I were to do a clean install of Home Premium, would it automatically install the 64-bit, or is there a certain procedure for installing either 32-bit or 64-bit? Especially with upgrade discs. If I have to, I'll buy one of the clean install discs, but wanted to be sure that this procedure cannot be done with an upgrade disc.

I have more experience with Windows Xp, but have used Vista numerous times in the past. Even had a couple of laptops prior that had the 64-bit edition of either Ultimate or Home Premium. I use Ubuntu for all my daily work, sometimes for songs, movies, word processing, and even some of those great open-source games. Mainly the Windows partition is going to be for gaming in which I need to be able to utilize the full scope of power that the laptop is capable of.

Appreciate everyone's input.

 

You need to install the 64-bit version of Vista, meaning that you need to have on hand the 64-bit Vista disc. During installation, it will explicitly say whether you're installing Home Premium 32 or 64 bit.

 

Shoot, was hoping that wouldn't be the case.

Hoping that there was some option that I had skipped over....

 

ditto! Clean install / new license key FTW

 

Ok, I might go ahead and buy the 64-bit. Or do you guys think that it may be more beneficial to wait until Windows 7 comes out? I know that they've fixed almost everything that was wrong with Vista. Probably better to work on Vista another few months after release to allow time for fixes.

 

Clean install, but if you have a Vista licence, it can be used for 32 or 64 bit.

 

maybe use win 7... the RC is released tommorrow. from what I understand it is very stable. the RC expires June 2010 so it will easily make it to Win 7 launch(Oct 23 2009 AFAIK). At this point I'd wait and use beta.

by the way, what 'problems' do you speak of in Vista?

 

Oh, the initial problems when it was released. Driver issues with both nVidia and ATI and that it was such a resource hog since technology hadn't caught up with it. One technology caught up however and Microsoft had more time to work on it, it became quite stable and an ok operating system.

 

True...true. I need it as a gaming OS, there has been a lot of positive feedback from the beta tests, so I may just go ahead and try it out. Otherwise stick with Xp until it is released.

 

Ok, decided to go ahead and get Vista Ultimate 64-bit. After 3 or 4 months of Windows 7 being out, I might switch. For now though, at least I will have DirectX 10 for my games, and will be able to utilize my laptops full capabilities.