Will my new laptop run Vista Ultimate well?

Hey Guys,

I ordered a Dell Vostro 1500 a few nights ago, I upgraded online from Vista Business to Ultimate, because its for personal use. But something I read on another forum is making me think my laptop won't be able to run Vista Ultimate smoothly and it'll be quite sluggish.

Here are my Vostro 1500 specs

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7300 Processor (2.0GHz,800MHz,4MB L2 cache)
Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate (32Bit) - English
15.4" Wide Screen WXGA+ (1440 x 900) Display with TrueLife
Matte Jet Black with 2.0 mega pixel camera
2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (2x1024)
160GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive
256MB nVidia® GeForce® 8600M GT
Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive
Primary 9-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (85 WHr)


Do you guys think my machine will handle Ultimate?

Thanks

 

Short answer, yes.

 

Thanks man. Will it be slow as hell though?

 

No it should be pretty sprightly.

 

Thats good to hear

 

Sprightly? Gotta rep for that.

It will run great but, by all means check out the tweaks thread below as well as the clean install thread...

Then it will roar.

Sprightly?

 

It's going to run smoothly. If your computer could not handle Business, there wouldn't be an Ultimate upgrade at the Dell side.

 

That computer should have no problem with Windows Vista. Its got 2 gigabytes of RAM, and a decent video card so I wouldn't worry.

 

Thanks guys.

I ordered 32bit Vista Ultimate as it was the only version available. What is the actual difference between 32 and 64bit? I've heard it mentioned a few times in the past and always wondered what it was.

 

64-bit is not the ideal version right now. While 64-bit can be faster, there's very few drivers and software doesn't run very well, so overall you get a worse experience. Stick with 32-bit.

 

What? How on Earth did you come to this conclusion. I can verify that just about everything you said is absolutely and utterly wrong. While the hardware compatibility might not be as good as Vista x32, I would hardly say that there are "very few" drivers. As long as you have fairly recent hardware its likely you will have no real problems finding drivers for Vista x64. Just do some research first and see if your hardware is supported.

As for your software comment, I have no idea what makes you say that. As an x64 user myself I have had no real problems running applications and games (including older games such as Fallout) on my system. If a program doesn't support 64-bit then Vista simply runs it in 32-bit mode, which as far as I can tell does not noticeably reduce performance over 32-bit Vista. Plus, Vista x64, along with Vista x32, has the same compatibility mode feature that XP had, so if something doesn't want to cooperate with Vista it should be possible to run it in compatibility mode. Of course, I must admit I haven't tested the compatibility mode, because I've had no need to. Everything I tried to run worked perfectly without it.

And Vista x64 has some real advantages. First, it supports more RAM than x32 and the OS itself is significantly faster, in my experience, than its 32-bit version. Vista x64 is also more secure than Vista x32, and in my experience has been more stable as well.

The only thing to be concerned about with Vista x64 is the hardware drivers. If you have those, then there's really no reason not to use it.

 

64-bit is better, and I wanted to upgrade to 64-bit for a long time. However, one does have to consider the availability of the software. Some software can run in 32-bit mode on a 64-bit system, but some others can not. It depends on what software you want to use.

 

I run 32-bit vista myself(lappy in sig)...I know my laptop isnt the latest and greatest, but I haven't had any problems with Vista at all. But about your software coment, in the post above yours Firov mentioned that the 64-bit version has a 32-bit compatibility mode, so software is not/should not be an issue.

 

32 bit vista is will work great on that system. But as Firov said, 64-bit would be optimal performance-wise, but again, this early in it's product life cycle the margins aren't substantial.

 

I am not so sure about 32-bit compatibility mode on a 64-bit system. For example, if you run a 32-bit version of antivirus or firewall on a 64-bit system, will it work properly?

 

I have the same specs as you do and I have Ultimate 32-bit. Don't worry, it will run it perfect. Enjoy!