64 bit or 32 bit ?????

leopardforest

leopardforest

New Member
I am going to be building a new computer (my first) and I am unsure whether to use 64 bit or 32 bit (Vista)?

I plan to use my computer for:
CAD sofware such as ProE, Solidworks
Matlab
Photoshop and other adobe products
Games

And your everyday tasks.

I have read articles and reviews about how people have soo many problems with hardware not being recognized, software not working, etc. Now most of these articles are from 2006-07, some from early last year. Is this still true?

I would like to install 64 bit to get the maximum out of the CAD and photo programs, but not if I am going to be having a lot of problems.
 
if your running a 64-bit CPU then use a 64-bit OS, there aint no point in using a 32-bit OS in a 64-bit CPU.

put it this way, i have never had a single problem with using a 64-bit OS so you dont need to worry about it and if you do just dual boot with XP
 
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it also depends how much RAM you chose to put into your system if you get more then 3.5gb it would be better to go for the 64 Bit OS
 
You'd probably be happy with either. Myself, and I think most here, haven't found a need for more than 4GB of RAM. I have recently changed to 64 bit and haven't noticed much difference. ALL my 32 bit software runs just like it did before. You'll just have to pay attention to drivers and there seems to be excellent support for everything except really outdated hardware. For instance HP didn't write a driver to support my 6 year old DeskJet printer, but Microsoft did and it's included in Vista. I did have to throw out an old HP scanner that HP or Microsoft no longer supports, but the new one costs half as much for twice the resolution. Microsoft has a utility that scans your present system and determines if any hardware or software might be incompatible with Vista. I believe it also checks for incompatibles with 64 bit Vista. Try it, you'll like it fine.
 
If a person has no problems with a 64bit O/S, that means the applications and devices he uses don't have a problem with a 64 bit O/S. I can assure you there are all kinds of applications and devices that won't work with a 64 bit O/S. You need to do a little research to make sure they are compatible. It is a mess if they aren't.
 
leopardforest said:
I plan to use my computer for:
CAD sofware such as ProE, Solidworks
Photoshop and other adobe products
Click to expand...

I know that SolidWorks 2008 and 2009 work on XP 64-bit, as does Photoshop CS3. We use them at work. I'm guessing that they should work on Vista. If other bits don't you can always dual boot as previously suggested. Hope that helps, Doug.

EDIT: Also I know that AutoCAD didn't work on the 64-bit XP, can't remember what version it was though.
 
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