So I'm going install Vista 64 before the end of the week

[Bateluer]

I'm running an E6600 with an Abit IN9-32X MAX mobo, a Radeon 2900XT, and 2GB of RAM.

I've been debating whether or not to buy another 2GB of DDR2 while its cheap, but I'm not sure yet. Depends on my experiences over next week or two.

I've got the Vista64 versions of Catalyst 7.9, plus the NV chipset drivers, plus the current Realtek Vista drivers for the integrated sound, the latest Air Pace WiFi drivers from Abit, etc.

I think I've covered all the bases with hardware, and the Vista Upgrade Advisor only points me to hardware that I know works with Vista.

I'll probably start the install on 2 Oct, go to school, then set any manual options, go to bed, get up in the morning and finish the rest. Then I should be able to start the Windows Update as well as my content delivery clients and EQ2 updates . . . which will likely still be running when I get home from work 10 hours later, but it should make a dent in the time.

Is there anything else I should be aware of? I've been following a lot of users with the memory question, but most seem to agree that 2GB performs fine. There's always a people who claim that 4GB is needed to get decent performance though.

 

[n7]

You've waited too long.
The time for Vista was at least half a year ago


Seriously though, sounds like you'll be fine.

While 4 GB is by no means necessary (it ran quite nicely for me w/ 2GB), i suspect you'd appreciate 4 GB.

Vista isn't really like traditional OSes in the way it manages memory, which is why most find it runs better the more RAM you have (even huge amounts).

Myself, i have no interest in going back to running only 2 GB...Vista x64 truely does start spreading its wings w/ more RAM.

Right now, sitting here w/ my normal appz open it's consuming a nice ~ 1.92 GB
Now you have to understand that on a system w/ only 1 GB, it'll use a quarter of that likely, & half of that on a system w/ 2 GB.
But as i mentioned, the more it has available, the more it scales (& the smoother/faster things tend to run)

 

[bigi]

Yes, you should be aware to use the search feature.
This isn't a big deal anymore and you are like 10-th guy asking the same question lately.

 

[Noema]

I ran Vista 64 with 2GB for about a month before I got 2 more Gigs and it ran great, but when gaming (Company of Heroes in particular) I started to hit swap when things got a bit hairy.

Like n7 said, 4GB is not necessary but it's really nice, specially because you'll have a huge superfetch cache which make it super smooth and fast.

 

[Ryland]

Check out whether your hardware has issues with 4GB+ of memory. I went upto 4GB last week and am still working through hardware issues with my PVR150 which is probably going to force me back down to 3GB.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: Ryland
Check out whether your hardware has issues with 4GB+ of memory. I went upto 4GB last week and am still working through hardware issues with my PVR150 which is probably going to force me back down to 3GB.

Shame Hauppauge have not sorted it out yet,anyway installing Vista x64 was straight forward in my case(even with 4GB),I checked what drivers were available(this was back in Jan) and to my surprise Vista x64 had native support for about 95% of my hardware,installation was fast.

I would also check what software you'll be using , most software should work fine unless you use any specialized software.

Personally Vista x64 has been solid in both gaming and general use, I've just installed another game to my list (Jade Empire).

Anti-virus wise you have plenty of support now,

Freebies now that work with Vista x64 include Avast,AVG,Anti-vir
As to paid versions the usual Kaspersky,NOD32,Bitdefender etc to name a few.

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: n7
You've waited too long.
The time for Vista was at least half a year ago


Seriously though, sounds like you'll be fine.

While 4 GB is by no means necessary (it ran quite nicely for me w/ 2GB), i suspect you'd appreciate 4 GB.

Vista isn't really like traditional OSes in the way it manages memory, which is why most find it runs better the more RAM you have (even huge amounts).

Myself, i have no interest in going back to running only 2 GB...Vista x64 truely does start spreading its wings w/ more RAM.

Right now, sitting here w/ my normal appz open it's consuming a nice ~ 1.92 GB
Now you have to understand that on a system w/ only 1 GB, it'll use a quarter of that likely, & half of that on a system w/ 2 GB.
But as i mentioned, the more it has available, the more it scales (& the smoother/faster things tend to run)

2nded with enthusiasm. Vista w/2GB stutters with BF2 on high detail, but XP w/2GB is silky. 3GB+ is necessary for optimal Vista gaming.

 

[Bateluer]

Well, I installed Vista64 Business this morning. I had to leave for work before I had a chance to really play with it though.

I'm in the process of reinstalling my apps and restoring from backups, which will take another few days at least. Must be getting old, I can't remember everything I had on my computer anymore.

One thing I noticed though, which kinda irritates me, is that there seem to be some issues with restarting. I'll tell the system to restart and it will go into standby, and then has issues coming out. Never used standby much, but restarting is something done fairly regularly, and not just for negative reasons.

I turned off UAC within 20 mins of actual computer use. That got annoying really fast. Honestly, its like using Linux except Vista doesn't ask for a password, so what they heck is the dang point of telling the user they may be running something they shouldn't?

I'm still debating whether or not to buy another 2GB of RAM. The money is available, however, I'd have to tap my psuedo-emergency fund.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: Bateluer


One thing I noticed though, which kinda irritates me, is that there seem to be some issues with restarting. I'll tell the system to restart and it will go into standby, and then has issues coming out. Never used standby much, but restarting is something done fairly regularly, and not just for negative reasons.



I'm still debating whether or not to buy another 2GB of RAM. The money is available, however, I'd have to tap my psuedo-emergency fund.

I think I may have had some issues like that with my laptop, I'm not completely sure though. I assumed I fat fingered the button, but that's not something I usually do. Since you had a similar issue, I'm thinking it really is Vista. I've never had that happen with my desktop though

If you're going to keep this setup awhile, I think an extra 2gb will be a nice improvement for you. It's not essential, but ram's pretty cheap now, and the little speedup makes computing more enjoyable.

 

[Noema]

Originally posted by: Bateluer


I turned off UAC within 20 mins of actual computer use. That got annoying really fast. Honestly, its like using Linux except Vista doesn't ask for a password, so what they heck is the dang point of telling the user they may be running something they shouldn't?

The point is that you as a user are not empowered with admin privileges all the time, but merely with admin tokens. Yes, you can use those 'tokens' at any time, but you do so at your discretion, with full knowledge of the fact that a process required admin privileges to run, not at the discretion of a malicious process that would do so without your knowing about it because you'd be an admin all the time as it is the case with XP.

 

[Bateluer]

Well, I managed to blue screen Vista64 twice with my Garmin Forerunner 305. It was resolved by installing the USB drivers that Garmin provides, now that device works perfectly.

iTunes still acts strange. I use an iPod Nano for my daily runs, but every time I install iTunes, latest version of 7.4.3, Vista tells me that the installation didn't complete succesfully and that there will be issues with importing and burning audio CDs. iTunes also failed to import my iTunes music collection after pointing it to the folder I store all my music in. That was resolved by manually telling iTunes to import from folder. However, now, it will not play any of those songs because it says I'm not authorized. Simple enough, I had forgotten to log in to iTunes. When I try that though, I get a network error and iTunes tells me to check to make sure my network settings are working currently. However, I can access the music store without any problems. And I did this whole thing will surfing the web, so I know my internet connection is fully functional.

Vista doesn't exactly give out a lot of information on its error messages, does it?

 

[Noema]

Originally posted by: Bateluer


iTunes still acts strange. I use an iPod Nano for my daily runs, but every time I install iTunes, latest version of 7.4.3, Vista tells me that the installation didn't complete succesfully and that there will be issues with importing and burning audio CDs.

This is a widely reported issue with iTunes and 64-bit Windows. Unfortunately there's nothing we can do until Apple decides to fix it. Which is probably not soon.

 

[cineb313]

Apple iTunes apparently only supports 32-bit Vista, but there is an easy fix for 64-bit Vista users. You need to use the Command prompt and mklink -- linking c:\Programs Files to Program Files (x86) -- see

http://coderjournal.com/2007/0...-windows-vista-64-bit/

iTunes 743 does not update from older version, but just download a new version from the Apple iTunes site after you make the mklink adjustment. I also linked the iTunes directory in addition to QuickTime and iTunes works perfectly -- burning, etc. My old version of iTunes on 64-bit Vista Home Premium did not burn, and did give errors from time to time -- but this mklink fix works perfectly. (Seems like Apple programmers could have done that!)

Good Luck,
PTB

 

[Noema]

Thanks cineb313! I'll try it out tomorrow when I get back home!

I sure hate having to boot back to XP to import CDs into lossless AAC :|

 

[Noema]

Meh. Unfortunately the fix didn't work.