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Notebook Vendors Giving 32-Bit Vista the Boot in Favor of 64-Bit

Posted 10/28/08 at 10:31:26 AM |  by Paul Lilly

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The decision to go with a 64-bit version of Vista over its 32-bit counterpart remains a dubious one, but not so as far as netbook vendors are concerned. Most new laptops are now shipping with a 64-bit OS. Take Best Buy's newest shipment of HP laptops, for example, who shows 11 models listed as "new arrivals." All but three come with Vista 64-bit, with the remaining models sporting Windows Vista Business downgraded to XP Pro, also in 64-bit form.

Falling memory prices could be one reason for the sudden push into 64-bit territory. Of the 9 laptops outfitted with Vista, all of them come spec'd with 4GB of RAM. But is a 64-bit OS truly necessary to take advantage of 4GB or more?

"The 64-bit versions of Windows can utilize more memory than 32-bit versions of Windows," Microsofts writes in its FAQ. "This helps minimize the time spent swapping processes in and out of memory by storing more of those processes in Random access memory (RAM) rather than on the hard disk. This, in turn, can increase overall program performance."

Running 4GB of RAM on a 32-bit OS isn't a complete waste, but because most systems will only show around 3.25GB as being installed, it's easy to see why notebook vendors would opt for a 64-bit OS to avoid customer confusion. Throw into the mix that hardware and peripheral support in Vista 64-bit is very good and it becomes a low risk option.

Hit the jump and tell us what flavor of Vista you'd prefer to have on your notebook: 32-bit or 64-bit?

COMMENTS:
8
TAGS: 
vista, operating system, Software, mobile, notebook, laptop, OS, 32-bit, 64-bit
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COMMENTS
avatarFinally 64bit computing is

Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Wed, 2008-10-29 02:39

Finally 64bit computing is starting to become mainstream. It's about time. 

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avatar64 bit experiences

Submitted by praetor_alpha on Tue, 2008-10-28 16:57

I have been running 64 bit for a little over a year, not a bsod yet on my laptop. However, my college laptop has Vista 32, for compatibility reasons, but that's only because we occasionally use some remote, experimental software.

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avatarNow that Photoshop CS4

Submitted by whitneymr on Tue, 2008-10-28 11:54

Now that Photoshop CS4 supports 64 bit you may finally have the app to kick things off. It makes me finally look at Vista.

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avatarWhat's the problem again?

Submitted by Sovereign on Tue, 2008-10-28 11:25

Even last year I saw a notebook on the shelf at a Sam's Club with 4GB RAM and Home Premium x64.  If you have 4GB RAM I see no reason to NOT use x64.  However, personally since my laptop only has 2GB RAM (and an x86-only CPU) I'm not rushing for a CPU/RAM/OS upgrade any time soon.  With laptop sales surpsssing desktops and laptops becoming ever more powerful, it makes sense to push x64 operating systems.

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avatarDubious?

Submitted by nedwards on Tue, 2008-10-28 10:38

What's so dubious about 64-bit Vista? I have had very few problems with it, and it's quite stable and works well on my system.

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avatarQuestionable Benefits

Submitted by One4yu2c on Tue, 2008-10-28 11:00

The decision of whether or not to go with 64-bit Vista is dubious, or of questionable value, and not the OS itself. I've been running Vista Ultimate 64-bit on my main system (and secondary systems) for a long while now and my experience mirrors yours for the most part, though the trade-off is that I'll encounter an incompatible program every now and then. I can live with that, but it's tough to call it a slum-dunk decision when the performance benefits over the 32-bit version are arguable, at least in terms of the majority of mainstream apps.

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avatarAwesome

Submitted by maniacm0nk3y on Tue, 2008-10-28 09:13

It's stupid to buy a notebook without 2GB ram, now that it's 4 with an OS to match it's the perfect thing to do. They are slow without the speed of RAM............

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avatarthis is welcome news

Submitted by Gailim on Tue, 2008-10-28 08:59

the only "issue" with 64 bit OS's was support. now that the big OEMs are shipping 64 bit systems nobody can ignore them anymore. let 32 bit die, its had a good run.

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