I'm almost ready to purchase a new laptop and I'm trying to decide whether I should go 64-bit windows or stick with 32-bit. My only concern with going 64-bit is whether my 32-bit applications will run properly. I have too much money tied up in applications to upgrade them at the same time. Additionally, I like to play the odd game and I don't want to be stuck not being able to play them. Any advice on this would be welcome. John

What applications? In general, software is absolutely fine - it's getting drivers that can sometimes cause issues (Although it's much less of an issue now than it used to be).

I'm mainly concerned with the following:

- Adobe Creative Suite CS2
- Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended
- MS Office 2007
- Visual Studio 2008 (I'm sure this works fine)
- Shade 9E
- Poser 7
- Quickbooks Multicurrency Edition
- Citrix Client


If it's easy enough to setup a dual boot to run 32-bit Windows for problematic games I wouldn't have a problem with that either.

John

I've got set up for XP and Vista x64 at work, dual booting. It was pretty easy to set up and seems to work just fine. Only disadvantage I have found is not having as much hard drive space because of two partitions, which would definitely be more of an issue on a laptop.

Personally, I'd go with just one partition with 64 on it. That list you posted seems like some reasonably new software. It's the old, crusty, bespoke stuff that you really have to worry about.

I had to go through upgrading my old crusty software when I upgraded to Vista when it came out. Suprisingly at the time the only thing I needed to upgrade was Adobe Acrobat (I had version 6) and Quickbooks (I had the 2004 version).

Now on to picking my system. I see Dell now sells Alienware. When did that happen? The system I just priced out was over $5,000 though. It sure was pretty.

It's much harder for me to buy expensive equipment anymore since my wife took over bookkeeping for our business. She's questioning everything now. If she asks why I need a $5000 laptop vs. a $2500 one, I may be having a hard time justifying it. She doesn't like the "Because I want it" line.

John

The only thing is that Vista x64 can't run 16-bit apps, so no more trips down memory lane looking at my QBasic programs of yester-year. Otherwise I haven't had any problems with it.

Dell have been behind Alienware for a while now but have only recently begun showcasing them on their main website.

When I moved to Vista 64, I only had problems with two programs with 64-bit compatability and one of those was a program that I wrote. Both programs had the same problem: they were .NET programs with the target platform of "Any CPU" but P/Invoked a 32-bit DLL. When run on a 64-bit platform this caused the programs to die in strange ways. When they were rebuilt targeting specifically the x86 platform the problems went away.

You are ready to pay $5000 for a Dell laptop?!?!?! You can get the same thing for something like $2000 and maybe better.
I don't want to make any publicity, but for a gamer laptop I've saw a name coming back a lot, Sager. Look there :
http://www.sagernotebook.com/default.php

You can get a better resolution / SLI GTX280 / Core i7 / 12GB Triple Channel DDR3 memory / Multiple HD in raid... well everything one level above the maximum Dell offers, and for a lower price.

As for the 64bits, with this money your processor is sure to handle 64bits anyway. Choosing the OS doesn't quite matter, you can always change it later. I'm running on a 64bit Vista since it's release and never encountered any problem due to this. Never had any major advantage neither though..

Edit: You are from Canada, so use this retailer instead there:
http://www.pctorque.com/

[Edited by - Dunge on June 30, 2009 7:52:06 PM]

Assuming Vista x64:

- Adobe Creative Suite CS2
Has known installation errors with workarounds but otherwise reported to run just fine. I suggest you move to the current version which is supported on x64.

- Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended
Just fine.

- MS Office 2007
Fine.

- Visual Studio 2008 (I'm sure this works fine)
Fine.

- Shade 9E
Fine.

- Poser 7
Poser pro works, I assume the non-pro version works too.

- Quickbooks Multicurrency Edition
Just fine.

- Citrix Client
Current versions work just fine, older editions reported to have problems.

= dual boot to run 32-bit Windows for problematic games

The vast majority of games run just fine on Vista x64. Some older games may complain at install and others will need administrator privileges, but nearly every professional game has resolved those issues over the past few years.

Unless your buying a dual 260m one then I wouldn't be spending over 2500.

Here:
Malibal - Nine Series
or
One of the Sager ones

Also the asus laptop. Asus W90

I saw these 3 laptops before and it seemed like they were pretty hardcore. Also you can buy 2 if you're planning to spend 5K :P (Don't spend 5K though unless you want to waste money for some dual 260m with the best i7 quad or something crazy).

I'm not really a computer person though.