Got a call from a friend who needs help selecting a laptop for school. He has $1k to spend on it. I'm browsing around noticed that many are now offered with Vista Premium 64 bit.
He's in law school, will be using it primarily for school work. I'm not sure what types of software he may be using other than Office.
Should I steer him toward a 32 bit system to avoid possible conflicts, or not worry about it?
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Is he going to get a Laptop with more than 2 GB of RAM? If so, then he has to get a 64-Bit OS if he wants to access anything past 2 GB. This of course all hinges upon him getting a Windows based OS.
It is approximately 4 GB Ram ( may be somewhat less if video shares RAM). Also, there are legacy programs and devices that won't work on 64 bit Vista and not a heck of a lot of programs available to take advantage of 64 bit Vista. If he has any older programs or devices that he needs to use, I would check out compatibility before moving to 64. If he wants to be safe, I would stick with 32. I, as well, can't see a law student having any significant need for 64.
skibum43 said:It is approximately 4 GB Ram ( may be somewhat less if video shares RAM). Also, there are legacy programs and devices that won't work on 64 bit Vista and not a heck of a lot of programs available to take advantage of 64 bit Vista. If he has any older programs or devices that he needs to use, I would check out compatibility before moving to 64. If he wants to be safe, I would stick with 32. I, as well, can't see a law student having any significant need for 64.
This is spot on. I had a friend who I helped buy a computer last summer. It came stock with Vista 64. This was his first computer so I just did some basic install stuff (openoffice, antivirus, antispyware). Some programs would not load because of 64. It is becoming less of an issue. If he will have more than GIGs of ram installed, go 64. Less than that 32 is fine.
Plus he will qualify for a Windows 7 upgrade, and I believe he can again choose then whether to run with 32 or 64.
Thanks for confirming my initial thoughts. We're about to flip a coin between a Dell Latitude E5500 from the campus bookstore and the Fujitsu A6230 at Fry's. It's a toss-up, as the Dell has the 'if it breaks 2yrs-11mos. from now you get a new one'; and Fujitsu's higher overall system build. Personally, if I was spending the $$$'s I'd go with the Fujitsu. From what I've been reading, they're pretty tough. I really like the bump resistant HDD.
Personally, I have both types of OS and I have not had many of the legacy issues with the 64 that others have. It might be more important for your friend to get a computer from a place with a great warranty and good service. For example, I once spent hours on the phone and emailed service over 50 times to get my computer fixed and returned from Gateway. My computers (all 4) are now from Best Buy, who fixes them or sends them in for free. I realize that many don't like Best Buy, but it has worked for me. The point is to find somewhere that you two trust and that will take care of your friend so he can focus on his work and not the computer and it's issues.
I got a new laptop with Win 7 Home Premium installed. It runs on a Intel Celeron T3000 with 3G Ram. How can I tell whether this is a 32-bit or 64-bit machine? The spec on the T3000 says this is a 64-bit but my PC shows 32-bit. Which is correct and how can I test to see what I have?
shallot said:I got a new laptop with Win 7 Home Premium installed. It runs on a Intel Celeron T3000 with 3G Ram. How can I tell whether this is a 32-bit or 64-bit machine? The spec on the T3000 says this is a 64-bit but my PC shows 32-bit. Which is correct and how can I test to see what I have? Most current Intel and AMD chips are x64 architecture, which mean that they can run both 32-bit and 64-bit Operating Systems and Applications natively. Intel and AMD started shipping mostly x64 chips before Windows started shifting to 64-bit.
So your machine is likely a 64-bit PC. However, with 3G of RAM, you're likely running 32-bit Windows 7.
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