Should I Jump?

Hi All!

I'm soon purchasing an HP NC8430 business laptop that comes standard w/ Windows XP.

I have a legal copy of Windows Vista Ultimate both 32 bit and 64 bit.

I plan to upgrade the RAM in the laptop to 4GB and install a 7200 rpm HD.

I have checked HP's support site for this laptop and they appear to have all of the drivers for Vista 64 bit.

I do not use any esoteric hardware so other drivers are not an issue.

I use recent commercially available software for the most part (or open source).

So my question is, is there any reason I should not install Vista 64 bit?

I plan to run a virtual XP box on the laptop for anything that will absolutely not run on Vista.

Just curious.

Majority of the so called "Problems" for Visa X64 are "Driver" related ( a few are software related,comparing Vista X86 with X64).

So in your case i would choose Vista X64 and since u are upgrading to 4GB ull have to use X64 to utilise full 4GB of RAM.

Hi jnailbell,

Welcome to the forum.

It looks like you have what you need on drivers to use the x64 Vista. I would go for it.

Enjoy,
Shawn

Sure, you can always dump it and go 32-bit if no good.

I am not so sure. Only officially supports Home Basic 32 and Business Vista. Looks like aero interface may be lacking so you are actually downgrading from xp which has mature hardware acceleration. And I hope you aren't concerned about battery life.

For the price of that 4GB upgrade ($1000 on the hp site) you could build a blazing vista desktop with directX 10 graphics etc.

I think 2008 will be the year of the vista laptop. But right now a desktop is the better way to go.

still, it sounds like an interesting experiment which you can always undo later. keep us informed.

Well, laptop has arrived, still waiting on extra 2GB module but able to install 3GB to get started.

Installed Seagate Momentus 160GB 7200 drive, no sweat.

Laptop posts without error and sees drive correctly.

Split drive into 3 partitions, OS, Data, Virtual Machines (I do alot of VM).

Installing OS now...

Good luck

So Far So Good.

OS is installed and running with no errors.

Several devices need drivers updated/installed but Aero in particular is running with the canned Vista ATI driver.

To be continued....

...Still looking good.

Two devices with no drivers, Mass Storage Controller and PCI Simple Communications Controller.

Neither seems to be impacting operation. I think the MSC refers to the included SD slot which I do not use.

Installed Office 2K7 without incident.

Ran into a jam with VMWare Server 1.0.3.

All of the VM drivers installed are not digitally signed and thus will not install. VMWare Server will run but not work.

Tried grabbing the drivers from Workstation 6 which appear to be digitally signed but turned into a kluge. Gave up and installed trial of Workstation 6. Looks like I'll have to pay for the $99 upgrade from 5.5.

MS Virtual PC would likely work as a free VM but I like to run *nix guests.

Performance seems to be faster than my previous XP box (HP NX9420) but could just be the clean install. Haven't benchmarked yet for definitive numbers.

Jnialbell,

If you are not using the Mass Storage Controller and PCI Simple Communucations Controller, then you can safely disable them in Device Manager. This way you will not be bothered by them wanting their drivers.

Shawn