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K, I bought my lappy and it came with Vista Home Premium:
http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/5853/systembd3.jpg
Now I was just wondering how I can harness the power of my 64 bit processor seeing that my OS is only 32 bit something just doesn't seem kosher. Or if its even worth it? :ermm:
Even a 64bit Windows can only accomplish a noticeable increase in performance with a limited number of purposes. Most applications (and benchmarks) run both on 32bit as on 64bit Vista at the same speed, differences of -1 to +3 per cent don't matter much.
64bit for example gets about 5 % more speed of 7-zip because of its multi-threaded contruction. Cinebench raises the bar to 10-12 % performance growth. The Moldyn benchmark for example can use the additional bandwidth best and gets a huge 60 % performance jump. Then again, Moldyn is a molecular dynamics benchmark that simulates the thermodynamic behavior of materials. Mathematical stuff, therefore.
For your normal working environment you won't need or benefit from a Vista 64bit copy. And if worst comes to play, you might just acquire additional problems to keep you awake at night ;)
64bit is supposed to be REALLY good for AES encryption and WILL run apps designed for x64 faster than x86. HOWEVER, performance on an x64 OS will degrade (most likely nominally) when running an x86 app w/ no x64 support. Also, there is a chance that some x86 programs will not work period (such as autocad x86). And of course, vista x64 does not allow the use of unsigned drivers (like my realtek HD audio drivers).