Vista - Slow Laptop

I got a Toshiba Satellite P305-S8825, brand new I wanna get it rockin :-)

specz
c2d T5550
ati hd 3470 256mb dedicated card
3gb ddr2
vista home prem

In games I get poor performance, espically when theres multiple "things" like in this game live for speed when theres multiple cars it lags, haven't tried more games yet

1) I was thinking of switching to vista x64, good idea?

2) Why is my cpu usage in task manager always high (above 20%) when nothings running? Just loading a page in firefox kicks up alot of cpu usage yet firefox.exe is only using 16%.

I expected a performance gain from my desktop a amd x2 4800 2gb ram nvidia 8500GT

Any ideas?

Also if anyone knows I know you can use a pirated copy of windows with your own key (at your own risk of it being infected) but is there anyway to get legit x64 version without ordering it?

thx guys

first off Laptops are not meant for gaming and your laptop is no exception to that rule.... there are only a few on the market that are designed for gaming and still suffer from lag and slowdown

@ 1 64 bit can be good if the laptop has been designed for 64 bit and you can get all the drivers and software updates that you will need... do lots of research 1st

@ 2 everything you mention there sounds normal.... take a look at the tutorials section you might find something that can help bring down the usage when idling ect.... some thing like turning the side bar off and not using aero will help performance ect ect

you can use a pirated version windows and a legitimate key but just bare in mind that a pirate copy of windows could contain added extras such as key loggers and other little nasties that have been used to get round authentication and window genuine advantage tool

ur laptop can handle games but not on high settings. i know when i got my vista with amd dual core 2gb and nvida intergrated gpu 7150 i tried playn quake3 arena and it didnt have very good fps so i read somewhere that you needed to turn of aero and set it to vista basic or visat standard. so i did and now games play very smooth,so id suggest turning aero off and set to vista basic or standard and see wot happens. plus im sure ur laptop came with alot of bloatware so you should maybe do a complete reinstall and this time not install all the bloatware.

if you go to notebookreview.com they have the forums dedicated to laptop computers and have a section for graphics and ur brand of computer,id head there.

thanks guys hopefully I can figure it out.

I see theres norton anti vi, doesnt look fully installed but its got a tray icon... maybe thats whats eating all the cpu cuz this laptop was running faster than my desktop the first hour then my cpu was being eaten elsewhere.