kppowell

well i just realized im running a 32bit version of windows. should i spend the money to get the 64bit version or will the upgrade be next to worthless?
i have a 3800+ Dual core manchester 64 athlon

The_Jester

Yes, the speed boost is worth it; ONLY if you can bare with the following:

1) Drivers are a impossible to get a hold of for alot of things
2) The Speed boost is only with 64bit programs and windows its self

__________________
"Trance had become a dirty word. Thanks to Ian Van Dahl, Lasgo, Flip 'N' Fill and DJ Sammy, a generation of kids has grown up thinking trance is the ****tiest music since country and western." - Paul Van Dyk

ENTERPRISE

Well IMO its not worth the money right now as you will only find its faster whn runnig 64bit apps and games as such and as seeing the computing world is still full of 32bit apps than 64 it may not be worth it.

__________________

firefox is awesome

I think that you should just wait untill Windows releases Vista, if drivers are hard to find for 64 bit

Urufu_Shinjiro

Only upgrade on two conditions, 1) you can get it cheap (like free or something, don't spend money you don't have to), and 2) you're an ubergeek that likes mucking around with new/wierd stuff. There's no real reason to run x64, lets face it, most of us who do is only because it's uber-1337!

dragosmp

I'm using it since the first alpha because I'm an uber geek and I was bored with the usual XP. Now I have the RC2 (release candidate 2) wich was free to download from microsoft and I'm very satisfied with it.
UP-sides:
- windows is faster, faster response time when I open explorer or stuff like that.
- 64 bit apps have the same boost: they respond faster than the 32bit ones on the 32bit XP
- I found all the drivers I needed. There are even a bunch of DVD emulators that were missing at launch
DOWN-sides:
- It eats almost double the ram when using 32 bit apps. For eg you have a game that under Win x32 takes 600Mb, under X64 it can take up to 1GB - 1.2GB. If the software is native 64 bit this will not happen. The reason is quite preety straight foward: 32 bit apps are seen by the CPU like 64bit apps just that the last 32 bits are filled with zeros; if the app is native 64 bit it will use all the 64bits and thus reduces the number of memory pages being used.

It has advantages, but also disadvantages. If you're a gamer don't buy it as most of the games are 32 bit only and you'll end up having more of a performance lost because of the massive ram it needs. Take a bera for free, you should be able to find somewhere and play around with it until Vista shows up. My advice is to take it only if you can find it for free.

__________________

My log:
100W Mini server build log

Nice guide:
How to: Silence any HDD with 1$

ENTERPRISE

As said for gaming it wont be the thing for you right now in terms of 32bit gaming. Imo i would just wait for VISTA 64.

__________________

Just1ce

wait for Vista will be better with DirectX 10

__________________

OhMagic

Yup, vista should be the 32 -> 64 turning point. I would also wait the extra few months for vista 64.