I have 6 gigs on mine, it runs very fast, but still having a couple of issues with programs which I am sure I will figure out.
I am a technophile, but I have always took basic equipment and upgrade it myself using what I could find. This is a monster compared what I previously owned.

Helice, I have no idea if they were telling the truth or not, my reaction to what they said was based upon my experience with Norton. Also, I was unsure if a reliable and free 64 bit compatible virus program exists. I have been very busy so I have not had as much time as I wanted to explore the computer. Usually within the first hour of getting a PC home, I have the case opened and I am looking inside, but have not had the chance to do so yet. I don't like being tied to renewing expensive anti-virus subscriptions etc, but I wanted good protection on this new PC, and wanted it right now, so I was too quick in agreeing to their suggestion I guess.

So far Vista is looking pretty sweet, so the devil might win me over yet.

and


Let me broaden this subject a bit.

I just got a Phenom quad-core based system with 4 gigs. I only got a 32-bit Vista OS, however, as I wanted to wait until there was a significant base of software that could use a 64-bit OS before upgrading.

My question is, "What 64-bit software is available, or even on the near horizon, that common folk might use productively?" I can see the need for 64-bit software in the banking world, etc., but the advantages to the home/small business user seem are less clear.

Also, do all 32-bit XP applications run on the 64-bit Vista? Do they run better?

P.S. Should we rename this thread?

I know there is some form of emulation available for 32 bit programs, but I am also sure that performance would suffer.

Yes this needs a new thread.

From what I've read, Vista 64 has a built in emulator that should run most 32 bit programs with little to no problems.

That would probably be most 32-bit Vista compatible programs. Vista 32 seems to only like pre-Vista Microsoft programs, even in compatibility mode. But I've whined about that already.

With the 64 bit OS, it might be risky running an anti-virus program on a 32-bit emulator though, since you want security software to be able to see file accesses etc without having to work through an extra layer in the OS.

I think, in the up and up, that you have a far lesser chance of getting nailed with a serious bug with a 64 bit system than you would with a 32 bit system. With my short stint at Timberland we got hit with a nasty, nasty bug. It was some malware thing that ran the processes of the machine up to near 100%. This explains why you don't give users local admin rights...

There were a handful of 64 bit machines on the network being used by designers and they weren't hit at all due to the fact that they were a 64 bit system.