Upgrading to Vista, 32bit vs 64bit, Help!

[Azaril000]

Hi all,

Felt like catching up with the times and put vista on my new hard drive. Just a bit confused on what bit version I should get to install, 64 bit or 32 bit?

My current spec of my pc is:

Intel Q9450 Quad
ATI Saphire 4870 512mb
Creative X-Fi sound card
720gb HDD
Cosair 4gb Ram

I understand even with my current OS (XP pro) and Vista 32bit 0.8gb of my ram is left unused (as Xp is only reading 32gb). Is this unread .8 ram used used in some internal system process or something or is my pc just running at 3.2gb ram despite it being read as 4gb on boot up?

I'm tempted by Vista 64 as I hear with sufficient memory its pretty fast. Im a bit fearful of there being a lack of driver and software support, but as i understand it, I can still use 32bit software right? Any insight on this?

Im using my pc mainly as a gaming rig, playing mmorpg's shooters etc, and then other basic stuff such as browsing the web, watching movies etc. I'll prob still keep my XP pro, and dual boot the vista.

I would much appreciate some expericnce/opinions on this, as I wanna get it up and running as soon as I can.

Thanks!

 

[IAmATeaf]

Stick the 64 bit version on, driver support is all there unless you have something very old in which case you'll probably have trouble finding drivers for the 32 bit version anyway.

32 bit apps also run fine.

 

[Kobrakai]

Huh? People still run 32Bit operating systems? Wtf ...get with the times!

Everything runs fine on 64Bit, oh and the reason your 4GB of ram shows up as 3.2GB is because you are on 32Bit.

 

[Burnsy2023]

Is this unread .8 ram used used in some internal system process or something or is my pc just running at 3.2gb ram despite it being read as 4gb on boot up?

It's wasted because the OS can't address it.

I'm tempted by Vista 64 as I hear with sufficient memory its pretty fast. Im a bit fearful of there being a lack of driver and software support, but as i understand it, I can still use 32bit software right? Any insight on this?

You can still use 32 bit software, just not 16bit (really old). Check and see if there are drivers for your hardware on the manufacturer's websites Vista 64 support is getting there, but there are still a few annoying OEMs.

Im using my pc mainly as a gaming rig, playing mmorpg's shooters etc, and then other basic stuff such as browsing the web, watching movies etc. I'll prob still keep my XP pro, and dual boot the vista.

Personally I wouldn't bother dual booting, I think you'll be surprised.

 

[vcl_X1]

Imo choice is as follow :--

32 bit processor - Vista x86
64 bit processor - Vista x64

Like the meerkat says, it's simple really.