64 Bit Vista VS 64 Bit XP

John Blynas · #1 3rd May 2009, 07:52

Hello,

I just recently purchased a laptop - HP HDX X16-1000EN, the specifications are preatty much the same in all models, only few things differ(speed, hard drive capacity).

here are the main specifications:

I had a stationary PC before, with windows xp. That PC was really messed up and buggy.

I enjoy the performance of my new computer, BUT! The vista is driving me NUTS! It is really laggy, buggy, and,well, it's just much slower than XP.

I have searched the web and this forum, but i was'nt able to find the answer to this : Is there a big difference between XP 64 and Vista 64?

Dual core and 64 bit is a new thing for me, i have never had a computer with such proportions.

As i understand 64 bit operating system is there to utilize all the ram and all other things to run the computer at its full. So i was told , if i were to switch to xp , my ram would 'downgrade' and i would not be using my laptop 'pc' at its full potential, and i dont really want that, i need all the power i can get!

So if i were to switch from vista 64 bit to xp 64 would my laptop 'pc' downgrade? and would not be at its full potential?

I really dislike all the glow and glamor on vista, im the kind of person that turns off all the visuals and everything, till its simply black and white, to improve the performance, but i've heard that with 64 bit computer it will actually make it worse?!

i would really like to switch back to xp, while using my laptop 'pc's full potential!

Thank you,

John Blynas

**mctw** · #2 3rd May 2009, 13:47

i agree with you, whats the point in all the flashy gimicks on Vista?!
anyway, if you must stick to a 64bit O/S, im sad to recomend vista, as XP 64bit is a pain for drivers, and a fair bit of software isnt compatible with it! grrr.
however if you were to switch to XP 32bit, you would notice a performance increase, as it is not so fancy, it takes less resources to run, the only gripe would be that you could not use your full 4gb of ram, it will be limited to about 3gb, varies from system to system. however, i very much doubt you will ever need even 3gb, so this shouldnt be a issue!

to answer your orginal question, yes XP 64bit would not limit your system PROVIDING that drivers are available for your laptop for XP 64bit, which they often are not. i'd look into this first.

as i said above, i would personally just use xp 32bit, as the only noticable limit will be the loss in ram, but i very much doubt that will be a issue.

EDIT, sorry that wasnt very clear, ask if your unsure about what ive put!! (i ramble :-( )

**SocialWarfare** · #3 3rd May 2009, 13:47

X64 is rubbish really, Vista is a good OS just turn all the eye candy off
This is what mine looks like on my laptop

I would say the main reason your new laptop is slow is because of all the bloatware it was bundled with

**Bubba** · #4 3rd May 2009, 14:08

XP is DEAD stick a fork in it. Vista is soon to be dead when Win7 comes out. Having said THAT, Vista blows the doors off of XP. Yeah, there's a little learning curve, but it's not steep. Hell, I'm old, I've been through MsDos based systems to Win 3.11, Win 98, XP and now Vista. Life is change. Change with it or crawl under a rock lol.

BTW I use Vista64 and love it. I have 8GB's of Ram so I needed the 64.

**4D(Fordy(Ford) Ollie** · #5 4th May 2009, 02:25

I'm with Bubba, Vista's worth it.

I'm more the one to upgrade hardware so I can run Vista comfortably, I don't see the point of having something (in ths case Vista) and not utilising it to the full (in this case having al the eye candy turned on)

Go through remove programs and clear out all the crap they sell you with it.

There's no way it should be slower than your old Single core x86 PC...

And drivers are a huuge issue for XP64. I'm running it on this PC at the moment, until tommorrow when Win7 RC is released for download..

And I have to say 95% of my programs are installed in the WoW64 section, a built in emulator that allows you to use x86 based applications and drivers.

Hardly anything is available for XP on x64.. without unpackaging it yourself and doing a load of tedious things with it all, I bothered with iTunes, but believe me it IS NOT worth doing it with every single program you want to use in x64.

**Carbon** · #6 4th May 2009, 04:15

Your laptop is better than my desktop. There's nothing laggy or buggy about it. If you want a fresh start wipe it and install x64 7.

John Blynas · #7 4th May 2009, 14:22

Thanks for all the replys! They have really helped me to decide. I think i'll stick to vista for a bit, atleast until the final windows 7 version comes out

Quote:

I would say the main reason your new laptop is slow is because of all the bloatware it was bundled with

Quote:

Go through remove programs and clear out all the crap they sell you with it.

I this might be the case, i have loads of HP apps installed, i thought they are necessary for my romy laptop pc, but i guess ill remove all of em, and replace them with ones like nero.

Again, thanks for all the feedback!

John

**mctw** · #8 5th May 2009, 12:49

most of the stuff that HP installs you'll never use, just make sure you dont remove any drivers! almost all of the stuff like cd burning for example, you can get free software off the net that does the job twice as well and doesnt slow your machine down!
running stuff like ccleaner and asuslogics disk defrag also help if your worried about the speed, but ive got slightly of topic here!