Vista x64 Or XP 64 bit on Vostro or inspiron?

I was just wondering if anyone who has got a vostro 1400, 1500, or 1700,

or an inspiron 1420, 1520, or 1720 has tried it with a 64 bit OS... It looks like dell provides all the drivers, and NVIDIA does as well, so it there any reason not to use the 64 bit version?

 

Depends upon what OTHER kind of hardware you might be wanting to attach, like say printers or scanners, etc...

 

id say stick to32 bit the drivers are the beta of the beta drivers i mean like a baby thats not born yet seriosly youll have poor performance and all you get is the ability for more ram when 4gb is 300+ dollars

 

More ram capability is the least of the benefits of 64 bit computing...

And how do you figure the drivers are beta? they are all official, straight from the manufacturer...

Whenever i have tried 64 bit windows in the past it has run CONSIDERABLY faster than the 32 bit version, and the only reason I didn't stick with it was a lack of drivers. and since i have the drivers, and my printer is compatible, why not use it?

Its true that most programs will not notice a performance increase because the program is still 32 bit, but the os, and any 64 bit apps usually run FAST

 

Just out of curiosity, why do you want to run a 64-bit OS on a system which is utterly incapable of running an amount of system memory in excess of the maximum addressing capability of 32-bit OSes?
IOW: what's the point? Unless you've got some 64-bit only software, or at least some software that shows significant performance gains in 64-bit mode, there's really no reason to use a 64-bit OS on a consumer laptop.

 

There are several points:
- If you have 4 gb of RAM installed, you can address the full 4 gb with a 64-bit OS, while a 32-bit OS will limit you to somewhere between 3 and 3.5 gb or so usable memory.
- Any software for which a 64-bit binary is compiled should run faster (regardless of amount of RAM installed).
- 64-bit Windows is more secure and stable (if you can find good 64-bit drivers for your hardware) than 32-bit Windows because they dropped support for some legacy crap, and required that any code running inside the kernel (such as drivers) be signed by Microsoft. I think there are also some other security features in 64-bit Windows that aren't in 32-bit Windows.

 

Patchguard and (Address Layout Randomisation (randomise first 256 something))