Advantages to 64bit on XPS M1530?

I'm thinking about getting a Dell XPS M1530. As far as I know, it only ships with the 32bit version of Vista. With 4GB of memory, would there be any advantages to reinstalled the OS with the 64 version? OTher than office work, I plan to use apps such as Photoshop.

 

I wouldn't jump to 64-bit just to take advantage of 4GB RAM, although I'm not to say that as I'm only saying this out of observation.

As far as I know, the only real advantage to 64-bit is that it's t3h future. Eventually, we'll all be using 64-bit and even though not everything is 64-bit compatible yet, it won't stay that way for long.

 

I have 64 bit on my desktop as 32 bit only sees 2.75Gb/4Gb RAM. I had no problems getting all the drivers as it's all new hardware but it's a bit flakey....

At the moment having problems with the nvidia driver (using latest) crashing when playing games with a "display driver stopped responding" message. General desktop stuff it's not too bad though.

Can't see the 256Mb GPU in the M1530 eating much of your 4Gb anyway so you should be fine with 32 bit.

 

no point unless you want 4gb ram

 

If plan to use the 1530 for Photoshop, video editing, etc. So with the 32bit version adding the 4th GB wouldn't benefit me much, right?

 

There are plenty of reasons to go to 64Bit and they are seen through countless threads on the site.

Much of these, however, seem to be dictated in your computer interest and understanding of how 64Bit runs.

A quick summary is that, yes, your system will run with all of the ram you can throw at it (see below) and that it is more stable and many people believe that it runs not only 64Bit programs better, but also 32Bit as well. Further, compatability is not as fearsome as most state and, well, quite frankly, it just feels better.

From the people who don't run 64 Bit, you will hear all the reasons not to but, for those of us who have it running smoothly, you will be very hard pressed to find even one of us who will go back to 32 Bit. I can say that I have yet to experience even one crash since installing 64Bit and my system is more stable than its ever been, this coming from someone who used to crash his system in XP 3-4 times a day because of all the testing I do.

Now for the other side of things....

Success will be determined by the reading and following of threads here which are supported by some great people, all of who will jump to help at a moments notice. You need to dig up all the drivers beforehand and get them downloaded to a CD for present and future use. This will save alot of frustration when you find out your network card or wifi doesnt work until you install wireless drivers.

Next, you will need to be patient. Putting together a perfect 64Bit OS is kind of like doing a puzzle and requires alot of patience. Myself, I have Vista Ultimate and just kept making OS Disk copies as I went along until I got everything set up just right.

You will get frustrated and just need to know why something is not working as it should. Many times, it is nothing more than our own mistakes.

If your going to go forward with this, download a free program such as Acronis 15 Day Disk Image and make a bootable copy of your entire system as it is now. The created disks have no restriction and can be used to return your system to as you see it now whenever you want.

Finally, your end result will be alot of pride knowing that you have taken Dells OS and made it yours. It becomes a very personal thing.

Good luck!

 

Thanks for the great answer, flamenko. I assume that you are running 64 bit Vista on a Dell XPS M1330. Was that an available option when you purchased the system? I'm looking at a 1530, but can only get it in 32.

 

No... and I, as everyone else I know, built our own after the fact. 64Bit is not available through Dell that I know of...is it?

 

Not on notebooks... It is for Workstations... but that's another subject altogether.

I think I'll shy away from 64 at this point. I am getting a 1530 to be more productive and I don't have the time at present to make 64 work.

 

It's been available since I started researching in ~Oct 2007 ... you just have to know where to look. I found it in the Large Business portal but could not find it elsewhere.

 

Dell doesn't offer Vista64 on the XPS M1530. I followed a guide I found here in order to get Vista64 working on my laptop. It works great. Most of the 32bit drivers work in place of the 64bit drivers. The main ones that do not work are the fingerprint reader, video card, touch pad and wifi catcher. After all was said and done, I never got my fingerprint reader, wifi catcher button, and bitlocker to work. The finger print reader and wifi catcher button are not a big deal. The only thing I am disappointed in is that the bitlocker option on Vista Ultimate does not work. If I remember it is a bios issue that disables the option.

Regardless of those three issues, Vista 64 works great. I have not had any problems since setting it up. I should note that when I did my first shutdown after receiving the laptop with Vista 32 installed, the computer crashed. The computer has not crashed since I have installed Vista 64.

As Les stated above, 64bit operating systems (including XP64) seem to be more stable than their 32bit counterpart. 32bit programs installed on a 64bit operating system also do run slightly faster (at least in my experience). I run Vista 64 on my laptop and XP64 on my workstation. Both are used as test machines for debugging.

 

I am actually thinking of installing vista 64 bits...
I wonder if all the programs work under Vista 64 Bits ?
Games ?
Antivirus if needed ?
Did someone got the fingerprint reader to work ?
Thank you !

 

I played around a bit, and it turns out I was wrong. The wifi catcher button does work.

I did manage to get the fingerprint reader working for logging into Vista. I went to Lenovo and did a search on the msi file for the UPEK fingerprint reader software and installed it. It works great.

 

32bit programs will install the same on 64bit machines as they do for 32bit machines except that installation will be in the Program Files (x86) folder instead of the Program Files folder. dlls also get installed into a different windows system folder, System32 for 64bit programs versus SysWOW64 for 32bit programs. I have heard of occasional programs that have problems installing on Vista64. Most are related to 16bit installers or because setup was not run under elevated access. In most cases you can search google for help tips.

Antivirus works fine on Vista64. I use Norton. If you are using XP64, you need to use the corporate edition that supports x64 systems.

I was able to get the fingerprint reader to work.
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-66948
The above is the link for the proper msi file.