Vista Business 64-bit or X86?

My buddy is on his way over here with his Alienware computer for me to reformat and tweak it. The computer is about 1.5-2 years old I figure, but I don't know any of the specs. He wants me to put Vista Business on it as we get it free from our university. Can the AW run Business 64-bit or just the X86 version? If it can run both, which would be more stable for him?

 

Well for vista business it should need about 1GB of ram and he should be pretty good ram wise....

 

I wound suggest you stick with x86 build more drivers are out for it

less issues

 

If I just blindly followed some of the advice on this board to stay away from x64, I would never have achieved the "computing bliss" that I am experiencing now. Remember that everyone's usage is unique, and you will never know the true answer unless you give it a try.

Windows XP x64 has a trial available for download. Not sure about your buddy's computer specs, but if you can run this and are happy with it, you can surely run (and be happy with) Vista.

Good luck either way.

Regards,
Paolo

 

I second your opinion....check out the driver support for ur configuration for x64.....worth a try....Check out the link below if u wud be loading x64 on Dell notebook....

 

And you base this one what, exactly? How many computers have you tried running x64 on? How many of those were recently, with the current driver situation (rather than, say, a year ago, when fewer drivers were available)

Because if you're just parroting what others have said, with no first-hand experiences to add, you're just needlessly confusing people.

The fact is, *most* hardware is perfectly supported on 64 bit. Some isn't, but unless you have had some very negative experiences with it *yourself*, you shouldn't tell people to wait. Because you have no clue how likely they are to encounter problems.

If people stop parroting the same tired old lines, without even checking if they're true, then some people might actually be able to use the OS that works best for them. Which in many cases may just be x64.


Let's not scare people away from that unless we have something *concrete*, and even then, talk about specifics, not a blanket "don't do it".

 

x64 is great at the moment. There is no reason you shouldn't try it.

 

I agree with the Romanian guy above, try x64; but first, see if you can get your hands on the necessary drivers first. I too am interested in installing a 64-bit OS on my laptop.

 

So what's stopping you?

 

Good advice. It doesn't hurt to check that drivers are available before you start installing.

 

It's the first thing a sane person would do. But maybe the Alienware doesn't support Vista x64.

 

64bit Vista works just fine, but I would be hesitant to put it on a computer that is so old. Even if it has a 64 bit CPU, the main problem is the drivers. You may see a lot of people bashing Vista, and I really think they are having problems because they installed Vista on an older machine and expect it to work.

For an older machine, I would stick to XP. Only put Vista on new systems that are made to support it.

 

Not necessarily. I'll happily bash Vista, but not because of the driver situation. Simply because I disagree with most of the design choices they've made, because I think it's less efficient to use, and is needlessly complicated. And just doesn't provide anything I need, that XP doesn't do better.
But that's for another thread. I had no driver problems when I ran Vista.

Anyway, even for semi-old computers, Vista 64bit should run just fine. Most popular hardware is supported, the main problem tends to be peripherals such as scanners, printers, webcams and so on.

 

I don't have a 64-bit version of Vista, just the 32-bit Home Premium edition that came with my laptop.

 

I'm running 64-bit Vista on my new Laptop. Driver support seems good to me. Do your homework. I checked to make sure the Canon printer I wanted had 64-bit drivers before I bought it.... it did.

I run XP Pro 32-bit on my two year old Alienware Desktop. I think it has full 64-bit driver support for the ASUS motherboard. I really just don't have the need to change though.

I have found that there are very few applications I come across that won't run on 64-bit Vista. There are drivers for most hardware as well. I think the driver support is still poor for some PCMCIA and express card adapters. Also, for old or specialized hardware. But, you should be able to find drivers for most any hardware put out in the last 1-2 years.

 

No driver problems here either on my laptop.

My printer does not have Vista x64 drivers but when I choose it the first time in my network, it will install and ask me for the Vista x64 .inf file, I just put the driver CD and took the XP X64 one and it worked.

 

You dislike Vista? Wait for Windows Seven (what the hell kind of name is that anyway?); subscription service chains you like a dog to Microsoft and consumer rights are infringed on even further.