64Bit Computing

There is a lot of talk about Windows Vista both online and in my store at the moment as well as a considerable amount of paranoia that is preventing users from taking the leap onto Microsoft's latest Operating System. It surprises me how many people I know who are willing to deliberately pay more for a computer that comes with Windows XP installed just because of some tale they hear d from a friend of a friend of a friend.

If I can just clarify to my readership that Windows Vista is a good Operating System and in terms of bugs and security vulnerabilities it's light years ahead of how Windows XP was this far into its distribution cycle. I'm not saying that you should rush out and buy it tomorrow if you're happy with XP, but all I am saying is that if buying a new machine and you're given the choice then definitely go the Vista route.

Other than which edition you're going to get (Home Basic, Home Premium, Business or Ultimate) there is an equally important consideration in whether you're going to go for the 64 bit or 32 bit version of Windows and unfortunately this is a consideration that's often overlooked.

Ultimately your choice may have already been made for you by the system manufacturer; if your system only has a 32-bit processor then you can only use the 32-bit version of Windows. Those lucky enough to be buying a 64-bit processor will have the choice of going for either the 64 or 32-bit version of Windows and as such this article will be focusing on these users. If you're not sure what on earth I'm talking about here I should probably explain a little more about what a processor is and how it works.

A processor is quite possibly the most important part of your computer and performs billions of calculations each and every time you sit down at your computer. There are many different measures of processor power but the most popular is the maximum amount of bits of data it can cope with at any moment. For example my old C64 could take 8bit of data at once, the majority of standard processors can currently handle 32bit and the most recent, powerful beauties can run up to 64bit.

I feel that this oversimplification could be misleading as there are of course a million other factors that play a part in the performance of the processor; another important consideration for example is how many thousands of times a second the processor can move these bits of information around. Suffice to say, a 64 bit processor should perform better than a 32-bit processor of similar specification as long as it's using software written to take advantage of the additional data handling capability.

As these processors are backwards compatible, you can install a 32-bit version of Windows on your 64-bit processor but as a result your machine will not be able to take advantage of this additional data bandwidth and you will be essentially handicapping your new processor; this is where the 64-bit version of Vista comes in to play. Whilst it is true that Microsoft did release a 64-bit version of Windows XP it unfortunately never gained any real support and as such was never developed in to a viable platform.

Now 64bit processors are fast becoming a standard, with massive support for them and even more potent Vista revisions about, it seems 64bit computing has officially arrived and as such we need to make some serious decisions. I have covered the obvious speed difference however there are other advantages of when making the change over and as you may have guessed some disadvantages.