[bduck]

I am upgrading from XP PRO X64 to vista would it be betterto go with the 32 bit or the 64 bit?

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64-bit Vista won't have any advantage over 32-bit until 64-bit applications start to appear for it. When they do, they'll run faster than 32-bit applications on the same system. Worth noting also is the fact that 32-bit Windows can't address more than 2Gb of RAM, so if you have (or intend to have) more than 2Gb, you need to buy the 64-bit version to make full use of it.

Needless to say you need a 64-bit CPU to run a 64-bit OS, regardless of any RAM considerations.

[pip22]

64-bit Vista won't have any advantage over 32-bit until 64-bit applications start to appear for it. When they do, they'll run faster than 32-bit applications on the same system. Worth noting also is the fact that 32-bit Windows can't address more than 2Gb of RAM, so if you have (or intend to have) more than 2Gb, you need to buy the 64-bit version to make full use of it.

Needless to say you need a 64-bit CPU to run a 64-bit OS, regardless of any RAM considerations.

[ZacharyE]

I use Vista Ultimate x64, and it runs like a charm. I only have 1GB RAM, but it's 64-bit dual-channel ram, and I have an AMD64 processor. It's well worth the $$. Only problem I really had is drivers.

[bduck]

I am running a AMD 4800 X2 prcessor with an Asus 8n Preeuim mother board with 2 gig of ram but cam hold up to 4 gig. the hadware I have will run with 64bit and so will the sound and video cards most of the software I am running does have the 64 bit drivers some I know is just using the 32bit, but XP Pro 64 is not that stable so I am hoping that the Vista 64 bit is a lot less of a problem, every time I put a patch on the X64 I would lose programs and I would lose my restore. I built the computer for 64 bit so I would like to run a 64 bit operating system just don't want all the problems I had with X64

[pip22]

Unfortunately Windows Vista, whether it be 32 or 64-bit, comes with it's own problems as you'll see if you read any Vista forums. But they are mostly to do with the fact that Vista is still relatively new -- it needs some time yet to fully mature and for hardware and driver suppliers to fully adapt to it's quirks.

One other consideration is that many older applications compatible with XP won't work on Vista or won't work properly. One example is Microsoft Office -- Office 2000 for example is fine for everything except Outlook which won't run on Vista without some extensive and complicated procedures to make it run. Some other XP software and drivers may need a patch to make it vista compatible -- assuming a patch or update is available, which is not always the case.