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Making the switch to Vista...

AFurryReptile

Golden Member
I will be upgrading to a Core 2 Duo, which versian of Vista should I get? I am currently looking at the 64 bit Home Premium, will this work for a casual gamer? Also, it says its for system builders only, and cannot be transfered between computers... does that mean if I ever upgraded or had to reformat I would not be able to install it again?
Sorry, but I am a noob when it comes to OS's! Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
I've just started using x64 this weekend (dual boot with XP) so I can't comment on gaming yet as I've only had a few hours to play around in it.

As far as the second question, you can of course reinstall it as many times as you want (only one copy can be activated at once of course). I think it means that x64 is supposed to be OEM only or something, e.g. they don't want people buying it in stores because the 'average' consumer will not be aware of 64bit issues (having a 64bit CPU, 64bit drivers etc). I don't think OEMs like Dell even ship machines with x64 because they don't want to support it.

At this time, MS is still easing people into 64bit, it will probably be mainstream later in Vista's life or the next OS. I wish the change was faster to force software to come up to date.
 
yeah, I know the problems that may come about with the 64 bit... but there's no way I'm going to waste money on the 32 bit when 64 is going to be required for a lot of things in the near future
 
Originally posted by: AFurryReptile
yeah, I know the problems that may come about with the 64 bit... but there's no way I'm going to waste money on the 32 bit when 64 is going to be required for a lot of things in the near future

Near? Unless you mean 2-3 years from now...the only way that 64-bit will become a "requirement" is when you only see 64-bit applications. People using Windows/Vista 64 are gaining nothing because 99.9% of them are still using 32-bit applications. Those applications do not re-encode themselves because they are on a 64-bit OS. They still suffer from the limits of the 32-bit world.
 
Originally posted by: jonmcc33
Originally posted by: AFurryReptile
yeah, I know the problems that may come about with the 64 bit... but there's no way I'm going to waste money on the 32 bit when 64 is going to be required for a lot of things in the near future

Near? Unless you mean 2-3 years from now...the only way that 64-bit will become a "requirement" is when you only see 64-bit applications. People using Windows/Vista 64 are gaining nothing because 99.9% of them are still using 32-bit applications. Those applications do not re-encode themselves because they are on a 64-bit OS. They still suffer from the limits of the 32-bit world.


Don't forget if you want to use 4GB of ram or more then Vista x64 is the right choice,personally I don't have any issues with Vista x64 and the fact that it can run 99% of 32 bit software is really a bonus,add the fact that you can add present and future 64 bit software,slightly better security, plus the benefit that 4GB+ of ram will bring to games and software down the road.

As you can see it does not take a lot of thinking to see which is the wiser choice,sure its all down to 64 bit drivers and your hardware, but thats easy to figure out.

OEM version is tied to the motherboard its installed on,so basically you can't upgrade/change the motherboard with the OEM version its installed on,you can do multiple reinstalls of OEM OS with the same motherboard its tied to and also change/upgrade other hardware like video card,ram,cpu etc but not the motherboard.
 
Ok, thanks a lot, that has helped a lot... I actually need to buy a versian that I can switch motherboards, because I do plan on making upgrades to the motherboard in the future, and I can see now that there is really no point in going with the 32 bit right now either.
 
Originally posted by: Mem
Don't forget if you want to use 4GB of ram or more then Vista x64 is the right choice,personally I don't have any issues with Vista x64 and the fact that it can run 99% of 32 bit software is really a bonus,add the fact that you can add present and future 64 bit software,slightly better security, plus the benefit that 4GB+ of ram will bring to games and software down the road.

As you can see it does not take a lot of thinking to see which is the wiser choice,sure its all down to 64 bit drivers and your hardware, but thats easy to figure out.

It doesn't matter because the 32-bit applications will never take advantage of that additional memory.

Vista itself has issues working with certain 32-bit software. I would never say it can run 99% of what's out there.

When 64-bit applications are a requirement is when you'll need a 64-bit OS. From what I've seen that won't be until the next Microsoft desktop OS release after Vista. When is that scheduled for release? 2010 or so?

 
Originally posted by: AFurryReptile
Ok, thanks a lot, that has helped a lot... I actually need to buy a versian that I can switch motherboards, because I do plan on making upgrades to the motherboard in the future, and I can see now that there is really no point in going with the 32 bit right now either.

Show me your 64-bit application that will take advantage of your planned 64-bit OS purchase.
 
Originally posted by: jonmcc33
Originally posted by: Mem
Don't forget if you want to use 4GB of ram or more then Vista x64 is the right choice,personally I don't have any issues with Vista x64 and the fact that it can run 99% of 32 bit software is really a bonus,add the fact that you can add present and future 64 bit software,slightly better security, plus the benefit that 4GB+ of ram will bring to games and software down the road.

As you can see it does not take a lot of thinking to see which is the wiser choice,sure its all down to 64 bit drivers and your hardware, but thats easy to figure out.

It doesn't matter because the 32-bit applications will never take advantage of that additional memory.

Vista itself has issues working with certain 32-bit software. I would never say it can run 99% of what's out there.

When 64-bit applications are a requirement is when you'll need a 64-bit OS. From what I've seen that won't be until the next Microsoft desktop OS release after Vista. When is that scheduled for release? 2010 or so?

superfetch can use all you have 🙂

also any java app can too.. any .NET as well.
 
Originally posted by: jonmcc33
Originally posted by: Mem
Don't forget if you want to use 4GB of ram or more then Vista x64 is the right choice,personally I don't have any issues with Vista x64 and the fact that it can run 99% of 32 bit software is really a bonus,add the fact that you can add present and future 64 bit software,slightly better security, plus the benefit that 4GB+ of ram will bring to games and software down the road.

As you can see it does not take a lot of thinking to see which is the wiser choice,sure its all down to 64 bit drivers and your hardware, but thats easy to figure out.

It doesn't matter because the 32-bit applications will never take advantage of that additional memory.

Vista itself has issues working with certain 32-bit software. I would never say it can run 99% of what's out there.

When 64-bit applications are a requirement is when you'll need a 64-bit OS. From what I've seen that won't be until the next Microsoft desktop OS release after Vista. When is that scheduled for release? 2010 or so?

Although an individual game cannot address OVER 4GB, if you have 4GB total memory, superfetch and Vista itself can use a significant chunk for itself and a game can use say 2-3GB of physical memory with no penalty, whereas in XP 32bit for example you will never have a game using that much unless you force the Kernel to be restricted to 1GB address space (which is a crappy OS experience, I've tried it). I think the point some posters are making is, IF all your devices have quality 64bit Vista drivers available, and you do not run software that has issues in x64, why not use it? I'm dual booting for a month or two until I have a chance to try everything I do in XP in x64, if it works fine, I'll fully switch. It definitely feels snapier than XP32 on my system, and the GUI is a nice step up.
 
Originally posted by: jonmcc33
Originally posted by: Mem
Don't forget if you want to use 4GB of ram or more then Vista x64 is the right choice,personally I don't have any issues with Vista x64 and the fact that it can run 99% of 32 bit software is really a bonus,add the fact that you can add present and future 64 bit software,slightly better security, plus the benefit that 4GB+ of ram will bring to games and software down the road.

As you can see it does not take a lot of thinking to see which is the wiser choice,sure its all down to 64 bit drivers and your hardware, but thats easy to figure out.

It doesn't matter because the 32-bit applications will never take advantage of that additional memory.

Vista itself has issues working with certain 32-bit software. I would never say it can run 99% of what's out there.

When 64-bit applications are a requirement is when you'll need a 64-bit OS. From what I've seen that won't be until the next Microsoft desktop OS release after Vista. When is that scheduled for release? 2010 or so?

99% was a figure of speech ,in my case it runs all my 32 bit software (100%) ,the only thing it could not run was an old 16 bit paint program(I knew this anyway) I had due to no legacy 16 bit support in Vista x64,btw I just got the newer 32 bit vesion(problem solved). I'm happy with my 32 bit success rate ,oh and all the 32 bit games I have thrown at it runs too(so far about 42 games I have tried,more on the way).
Vista itself has issues working with certain 32-bit software


You make it sound like Vista/Vista x64 can't run 32 bit programs ,I did say 99%, the other 1 % was for 32 bit specialized software for XP only or software thats not compatible with Vista,I'm not going to argue over the percentage since in the real world its very small for most users,a lot of 32 bit software will work on Vista this is a known fact.


When 64-bit applications are a requirement is when you'll need a 64-bit OS. From what I've seen that won't be until the next Microsoft desktop OS release after Vista. When is that scheduled for release? 2010 or so?

Its not a question of requirement,its a question of choices and progress,not to meantion change which takes time.
Their next OS is Vienna which probably will get delayed knowing Microsoft.

Microsoft is pushing for 64 bit software/OS,one of the reasons is WHQL drivers ,companies in question have to submit both 32 bit and 64 bit drivers to them if they want WHQL testing,why do we have 64 bit CPUs etc,you can get some 64 bit software right now,do you think ram won't be an issue down the road,you think we never need 4GB of ram or more,its called progress just like 32 bit software phased out 16 bit software,64 bit software is coming ,yes it might be slow at this time but nothing wrong with jumping on 64 bit bandwagon right now, especially when its easy to check what 64 bit drivers are available and what 32 bit software will run.


Vista is very good and more efficient at using available memory,have a readup on it .Gamers know we will always need more ram every year,I won't meantion how video cards are getting bigger ram wise too and we all know what that means with available ram limit on a 32 bit OS.

I'm using both 32 bit and 64 bit software,the fact is I can use both so its a bonus ,I have tried Firefox 64 bit,using 64 bit Thunderbird,64 bit defrag software to name a few.Price is the same for 32 bit or 64 bit OS so pricing is not an issue.You think we are going to stay on 32 bit forever?

Personally I'm very impressed with Vista(in my case Vista x64) and how well it handles what I throw at it.My next upgrade next year I'm going to 8GB so you know what that means 😉 64 bit all the way.
















 
Does vista 32 bit support 4gb ram. Is there any reason to buy vista 32bit or might as well get vista 64 ultimate?

Right now I'm using Win XP pro, but i'm upgrading my system and it obviously does not support 4gb of ram.
 
Originally posted by: techgamer
Does vista 32 bit support 4gb ram. Is there any reason to buy vista 32bit or might as well get vista 64 ultimate?

Right now I'm using Win XP pro, but i'm upgrading my system and it obviously does not support 4gb of ram.

as much as xp does.
 
Originally posted by: jonmcc33


It doesn't matter because the 32-bit applications will never take advantage of that additional memory.

Of course they can. The fact that a single 32-bit process can't use more than 2GB doesn't mean having 4GB total is useless.

Having 4GB means I can have many, many more 32-bit apps running without hitting pagefile, even if none of them can use more than 4GB.

And like someone else said: more RAM, more superfetch, more stuff on cache=snappier OS.


 
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