32 bit vs 64 bit

[andybeckett]

hope some of you techies out there can help and guide an old foggy on this, bought a vaio AR71ZU from dabs.com after doing about 3 weeks research. on the detailed technical spec the words "64 bit computing - yes" sprung out at me. not being so technical minded the limit of my concern was 64 bit has got to be better than 32 bit right?
when I bought the said machine and found out that is was only 32 bit I was a bit miffed at being misled and remonstrarted with dabs. after about 5 weeks of e-mail wrangling their final answer was, "the processor is capable of 64 bit computing, and as sony only put vista ultimate 32 bit on, it was up to the user to aquire and load vista 64 bit.
Is this true guys, is it as simple as that, and are there cons as well as pro's for doing this? and at the end of the day do I have to give in and let them away with misleading me (not difficult)
any comments, and even a bit of slagging if it is warranted would be welcome

[andybeckett]

Over 400 views and no responses from anyone??? surely you all can't be as thick as me and there must be some out there who have been conned the same way. This is the only outlet for these things as sony support just don't want to know, or else give non answers. My fault really, should have stuck with toshiba

[Blencogo]

Hi Andy,

My advice is to keep well away from 64-bit for a few years yet. It is still in its infancy and there are not drivers or utilities available for everything in 64-bit.

There is no doubt at all that the future is with 64-bit systems and if you were to be a computer whizz with two machines, I may recommend putting 64-bit on one of them for specific purposes. However, your AR Vaio would not run most of the programs on it. For example I don't think Blu-Ray is supported. Although the system will recognise the full 4GB of memory, the system itself uses almost double the memory to run as everything uses 64 bits instead of 32 bits.

Some may disagree, but I don't think 64-bit systems are practical unless you are an IT expert.

I don't think any manufacturer supports 64-bit yet.

Perhaps in two years time ...................................

[tonybeard]

In a CVE conference at the beginning of 2007 I asked the very same question as to the 64 bit operating system being 'spec'. The answer was it emulates 64 bit and is not a 'true' 64bit duel core chipset.It is Just powerful enough to run a 64 bit platform. I'm not with Blencogo on '64bit being a waste'. I beleive the 64 bit PC is the only chance PC has to compete with Quadcore powerbooks running longer battery life. I used Windows x64 for a year and installed the full 4 gig of RAM. It was strong steady speed that was way faster with 64 bit browsers but about the same speed as a 32 bit system with program load times much improved but on the down side many programs were liable to freeze like Adobe illustrator. If you want 64 bit use a non Vaio (no drivers) desktop and I beleive AMD Duel core X64 are very cheap now. You can have 16 Terabytes of RAM but flash player won't work