Vista Ultimate 64 Bit and New Laptop

[Sonnie]

Anyone running Vista Ultimate 64 Bit successfully?

I have been looking for a new laptop for a while now. Been through two Dell laptops to no avail. The first one had issues with the software that I could never bet fixed. The second one had issues with the LCD that after 3 new replacement laptops and 2 screen swaps, could not be resolved. Now I am back to square one.

I am now considering an HP HDX18t for about $700 less than the last Dell that went back. It appears to be a much better built system too, but they do not offer XP Pro downgrade as an option. My choices are Vista Home 32 or 64 Bit ... or Ultimate 64 Bit. Currently this is what I have configured...

# – Vista Ultimate with Service Pack 1 (64-bit)
# – Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor T9550 (2.66 GHz)
# – 4GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
# – 500GB 7200RPM SATA Dual Hard Drive (250GB x 2) with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
# – 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
# – 18.4" diagonal High Definition HP Ultra BrightView Infinity Display (1920x1080p)
# – Lightscribe Blu-Ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD+/-R/RW Double Layer
# – Webcam + Fingerprint Reader with HP Imprint Finish (Fluid)
# – Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card with Bluetooth
# – Full Size Backlit Keyboard
# – 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
# – System Recovery DVD with Vista Ultimate (64-bit)

$1868

For $200 more I can get a Q9000 Core 2 Quad processor, DDR3 memory and 1GB video card. I opted out of this because I do not play games and did not think it would be worth the extra cost.

I like the 18" screen and the fact it weighs about 2lbs less than my current 17" laptop, but I am very concerned about the Vista 64 Bit having issues of some kind or another. Therefore I am curious if others are running Vista 64 Bit successfully.

Thanks!

[wbassett]

I have Vista Home Premium 64 bit running on my new system. So far no major issues except it doesn't want to connect to my shared printer. My wife has Vista on her PC but it's 32bit and it connected to the printer just fine, so I think it's a driver issue.

Other than that... I'm happy.

[Sonnie]

Thanks Bill!

I use a shared printer being I have a laptop. I probably need to check that.

I am running Vista Upgrade Advisor at the moment to see what it tells me. Basically all the programs I run on this laptop will be on the new one.

[Hunter844]

I just got a Toshiba a few weeks back...it's very nice and running very smooth with VHP 64-bit SP1 although it's a cheaper and slightly less performing than the one you are gunning for Sonnie.



Toshiba Satellite A355-S6935 16.0-Inch Laptop

• Portable multimedia laptop with 16-inch screen for true 16:9 aspect ratio and native 720p high-def resolution
• 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 processor, 400 GB hard drive, 4 GB RAM (max), Labelflash dual-layer DVD drive
• Draft-N Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n), Fast Ethernet, ATI Radeon HD 3650 graphics (up to 2301 MB total available memory)
• Connectivity: 4 USB (with 1 shared eSATA), 1 FireWire, 1 HDMI, 1 VGA, ExpressCard 54/34, 5-in-1 memory card reader
• Pre-installed with Windows Vista Home Premium with SP1 (64-bit version); Fusion finish with Horizon pattern

It's done went down $100 bucks since I got mine a few weeks ago. .

[Sonnie]

That is a nice computer. It appears to be similar to the HP HDX16t (the 16" version of what I ordered).

I think I will be pretty much okay with the 64-bit Vista. I am going to give it a try anyway. I have 21 days to evaluate.

[Hunter844]

I just got done building a desktop for my office (AMD Phenom X4 2.5ghz, Asus M3A78-EM mobo, 4ghz DDR2 800, and all the trimmins) the other day and had to use my laptop temporarily and it ran all the devices I needed to run without any problems...I didn't even have to go look for drivers it actually found them. That's a first for me in any Windows version for it actually find drivers without any sort of added drama. Anyway I liked it so much I went ahead and got Vista Ultimate 64-bit for the desktop and it's running like a top.

[Sonnie]

I am in the process of looking for a pair of desktops for our office, but we have to use XP due to our finance software not being ready for Vista just yet. I do plan to look into a pair of 10K RPM hard drives... or maybe a couple of solid state drives.

[Hunter844]

Sonnie wrote:

I am in the process of looking for a pair of desktops for our office, but we have to use XP due to our finance software not being ready for Vista just yet. I do plan to look into a pair of 10K RPM hard drives... or maybe a couple of solid state drives.

I had a one year old Seagate 300gig 7200rpm 16mb cache IDE drive so that's what I'm running right now otherwise I probably would have opted for a 10k rpm drive. I also have a eSATA 1tb drive to go along with everything.

I think I'll give SSD's about 5 or 10 years before I'll jump on board with them. I was thinking I read where there were reliability problems with them. Are they supposed to be really fast or something?

[Sonnie]

I have mostly heard good things about them and yes, fast indeed.