Upgrade to 64 bit Processor before Vista?

Good Question

Being able handle more memory isn't a requirement for you. Do you have applications that will take advantage of a 64 bit processor?

If not then why bother, go 64 bit with your next machine. The OS and non 64 bit apps don't run any faster.

at the moment i dont think there are many 64 bit drivers out there so that might be an issue, best is to see how much you really want 64 bit computing and whether you need it for any of your compting work. most people dont need it, however over time obviosuly more and more will shift to 64 bit
right now there isnt too much drivers so that has to be weighed up against how much benefit you would get out of your current work you do on your computer for it to be in 64 bit.

do you have any specific apps that would make use of 64bit?

as more and more 3rd party apps support 64 bit and more drivers are released, you will probably see a benefit....but i dont see that happening really really quickly, so unless you have some specific reason to get 64 bit i would say that you wouldnt gain too much benefit in the near forseeable future (being 6-12 months)

going from Core Duo to Core 2 Duo in general will be an inprovement...

but as has been said, unless you have 64 bit specific applications, you wont benefit at all from going to Vista 64-bit. If anything, 64-bit will use more memory and possibly run a little slower as it has extra services etc running to be able to cope with 32 bit and 64 bit...

I have run 64bit and I would have to say IT ROCKS!! As long as you can get proper drivers. It took me a bit to find a good set for my lappy but after I did, I installed HL2 (source) games and they have a special 64 bit mode... OMG!!! So does FarCry and a few others. It boosts the graphics up to a level you dont get in 32bit.

And.... every 64 bit piece of software I ran absolutely flys!!!

Now the problem.... It takes way more HD space and RAM to run. Prepare for that.

Dell has release 64 bit drivers for the E1705 and M1710 and other laptops, so that is not an issue.

The real issue is the non-dell stuff you have connected to your Laptop that doesn't have 64 bit drivers. Older stuff like printers, scanners, your cell phone, USB Sound peripherals, all that stuff. Some of that stuff may not have 64bit drivers soon if ever. Your best bet is to check out all your peripherals and make sure you can get them to work with the 64bit version. That being said I STILL don't beleive 64bit is doing a darned thing for anybody at this point, its not that I don't beleive MajorMadcow, its that I beleive in the placebo effect even more. Those sugar-pills are mighty tasty.

I'd be more concerned about this stuff having vista drivers ever. Not 64 bit. Vista requires new drivers, not much harder to produce 64 bit version at the same time.

dont kid yourself,

Dell has only released a few drivers for xp 64 and they are insufficient to run your system.
you need to get them from all other sorts and then you still dont get all of them.

m1710 didnt come with xp pro 64 so dell dont support it with drivers!!!!!!!!

What's XP 64 have to do with it? We are talking Vista here, I have yet to find a vista 32 bit driver that didn't have a 64 counterpart.

M1710 didn't become 64 bit capable until Core 2 came out. 6 months ago. Was there a point worrying about 64 bit XP when Vista was just around the corner?

True, there's quite a bit of stuff that NEVER got drivers for XP. BUT, sometimes there are workarounds. My old Visioneer scanner was touted by Visioneer as Windows 98 Only, but eventually they released a fix so you could use it with XP. However, I don't think Windows Vista will be NEAR the problem Windows 2000 was. Alot of vendors wouldn't release a Windows 2000 driver because they claimed "Only enterprise uses that OS" They did however later on release XP Drivers.

Sorry my fault.

but i have upgraded from T2600 to T7400

this is well worth it as the the processor is great!!

good performance increase especialy in anything that requires alot of number crunching

Super PI 2m 67 sec 2.1 6T2600 57sec 2.16 T7400!!!

have heavealy benchmarked the systems using xp pro 64 compared to xp pro! and found next to no difference.

hope vista 64 is better

vista has support for many devices right out of the box. my printer, router,cell phone, mp3 player so far have all worked fine with vista recognising them and then using its own drivers. i'm not saying that they are the best drivers in the world, i cant tell if they are or arent cause my devices work. and my printer is like 4 years old. my digital camera was instantly recognised and i had no problems. so vista is compatible with many devices, more than some people think. but its always best to double check with the manufacturer of the device you think may or may not work with vista just to be on the safe side. as yet i havent had to download any drivers for any of my devices (apart from my nvidia card which it automatically found and downloaded from windows update which is a standard nvidia 6800 go driver and probably not optimised yet) i doubt 64bit drivers will become as abundant as 32bit within the next 6-12 months so it always pays to make sure before buying vista by checking the manufacturers site or asking if anyone has the same device and is using vista. this is all on a 32bit edition of the OS, i am not sure about the 64bit edition of vista though. i would be interested to know myself though just for reference.

I really don't think that's 32bit versus 64bit drivers is going to be an issue like XP. The drivers need to be rewritten for Vista anyway, so most HW vendors will write both at the same time knowing that allot more people are moving to Vista 64 right off the bat. And the numbers will only increase as time passes and more software gets written to utilize 64 bit processing. In fact I can see 64 bit only drivers starting to show up for hardware eventually, probably not this year but I'd say starting next year. Of course the hardware would be very specialized. I'm going to bet that upper 90 percentile of hw that get's vista drivers will get both 32 and 64 bit drivers right off the bat. .02

I have the "kitchen sink" configuration with dock, x-fi, etc.... Vista is NOT ready for my config yet as it glitches out after 1-2 undocks. Mainly the sound card. I dont know if it is having problems recognizing the PCI slot or if there is a conflict between the internal/external sound hardware, or if Creative just doesnt have their Sh!t together.