64 Bit OS's

Who has installed XP or Vista 64 bit on your notebooks? Did you have any luck, and how does your notebook run?

 

I installed Vista 64 on mine...doubles my benchmarks on 64 bit benchmarks. Also increases my gaming FPS one a few things like Halo 2, Oblivion, and World of Warcraft. Also, WoW has better internet performance...lag drops waaaay down for me. Basically, it acts like a Mac does. I have to use the generic Microsoft sound drivers, which blows, but works. Also, since I have a sony, the Fn keys don't work except for the sound and screen switch. No dimming Finally, 64 bit vista has random memory setups so virus infections are at the level of Macs as well.

 

unless you're pushing more than 3 gigs of RAM, the 64-bit version of Vista isn't really necessary. you might also have a somewhat harder time getting device drivers that support the OS.

 

I'm GOING to when I get my 1420, very anxious, but we'll see!

 

I've tried XP x64, Vista 64, and Ubuntu 64 on my m1210. I wouldn't recommend XP, because driver support is somewhat limited. As I recall, I couldn't get my firewire, bluetooth, or memory card reader to work. Vista is better as far as support, as it's the newest OS, but then you have to run Vista. I currently run Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty) 64-bit, and I love it. It's fast as hell (32 bit is way faster than Windows, 64 bit is crazy!), and the community support can't be beat. If you want to run games, I wouldn't recommend it, as Wine still has some problems, but otherwise it's great.

In the end, you need to figure out what you want to do with the machine. 64 bit is way faster, and eventually it will be the standard, but it isn't yet. If you absolutely need all your components and peripherals to run, you may want to stick with 32 for now.

 

I think I might try 64-bit with my m1330 ... might.

 

wait, having installed 64bit over 32bit helps your gaming performance?

 

theoretically...

it should...

with 64-bit games... i'm not a gaming person... so I dunno if those even exists!

 

I think you just misspoke there, but just in case for clarification you can't install x64 OVER x86...you need to do a full reformat

 

hmm sounds like its worth it, whats the down sides?

 

Drivers need to be signed, and not all of them are...because they require special drivers. That's the real only downside, you gotta do your driver research prior to installing ; )

 

I'd be more comfortable with it if I got it from Dell directly because that would tell me that everything inside the system will work with the 64 bit OS. Adding it on myself second hand, I'd be highly worried about errors popping up due to drivers/compatbility issues.

It will become mainstream in 2 or 3 years I think. Almost everyone has a 64 bit processor now already.

I don't think there are many applications designed to take advantage of 64 bit OS yet. I imagine the cost of doing so outweights the benefit since very few people actually run a 64bit OS.

 

Dell does not manufacture anything...they assemble components. Intel Chipsets, nVidia GPU drivers, Sigmatel drivers, etc etc...

Check out all the components on your laptop...then check out all the manufacturer sites for drivers (if Vista does not have them...its pretty good at having at least early if not the latest versions) I don't think you need to wait for Dell if you really want it. Just means more homework...

 

So does anybody know if there will be a full suite of 64-bit drivers for Vista for everything on the m1330... or is it too early?

 

There is a Vista 64-bit driver section for the m1330 on the Dell support site.

 

That sounds like good news

 

No, the correct statement would be most new computers have a x64 processor - not even close to "almost everyone has a x64 processor" you said. Dell will never make Vista x64 available, however it's more than likely that Vienna will be x64 only and force manufacturers to get the ball rolling...

 

I sure hope Microsoft gets Vienna right, or I am leaving Windows forever I swear. I'm already in a double boot with Ubuntu on my laptop and love it. When does Vienna come out anyway?

 

Currently, 2009.

 

I don't think 64 bit really gets that much of a performance boost - if you're going to be using 4 gigs of ram, then you might consider it, but otherwise I don't think the marginal performance gain is worth the hassle of getting drivers and programs to work.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1857479,00.asp
(go to the next few pages in the link for benchmarks)

 

Whistle is correct. 64 bits is largely useful for memory, as stated, but also for FLOPs. It might be beneficial if you run SETI@home, but in terms of general performance gain, its' minimal and sometimes backwards.

programs that can utilize 64 bit programs are few and far between. All 64 bit really means is that it can easily pass really big numbers. Applications like word processors really don't pass through really large numbers, and thus, there will be no difference.

The FLOP power of a GPU is so vastly beyond that of a CPU, that the gain in games will be minimal as well.

RAM is Godly, though, so...

 

Well I just meant that for example, AMD 64 processors, single core, have been out a long time. There are a lot of systems with 64 processors even if they don't have necessarily dual core processors.

 

Multicore processors have nothing to do with x64, it's just "many people" do not have x64 capable processors...my estimation would be 8% or below of all computers...

 

I just ordered an m1330. With the audigy HD software upgrade. I plan to reinstall everything with vista 64 bit once I get it. Does anyone know if I can get a 64 bit version of the audigy stuff as well? and from where?