Vista 64 or no?

12th Jul 2008 09:53 #1

contrarian

I've only been running the 32-bit version for a month now and I've hit a wall with the memory limit. When I built this new rig I had only planned on it taking over my old workstation's DCC and video work and so I had to use the more compatible flavor of Vista so the Adobe suite wouldn't complain. I mean one error that corrupts a massive Photoshop or Illustrator file could ruin hours of work (since they get backed up daily to one of the file servers). For that sort of work the 3.xGB of memory was plenty.

Unfortunately my new project involves virtual machines and can eat up as much memory as each VM can handle. Mostly I'm running 32-bit VMs right now but there are a few 64-bit Linux builds I'd like to play with. Aside from buying another Vista license so soon I'd have to populate the last 4 DIMM slots with more 1GB FB-DIMM for 8GB total. That should be enough to handle the amount of VMs I want to run simultaneously. My biggest concern is having 8 FB-DIMMs crammed in next to each other without much airflow. Right now they have an empty slot between each so the case airflow is enough. I'd have to somehow fit this extra "chipset fan" that came with my case to blow over the DIMMs.

How are Vista 64 users finding their compatibility these days? I think I've found all of my drivers in 64-bit variants. Software support still has to run Media Center, Adobe, and probably a host of games as well since I do still use my main for gaming (especially being the only PCI-E workstation I own).

FB-DIMM are the real cause of global warming

Quote

12th Jul 2008 10:42 #2

edDV

Member

Maybe you could do a dual boot 32+64bit keeping the 32bit for the Adobe Suite.

Recommends: Kiva.org - Loans that change lives.
http://www.kiva.org/about

Quote

12th Jul 2008 12:17 #3

SanderMan

Member

Or you could use a VM to run adobe from.

Quote

12th Jul 2008 14:28 #4

rallynavvie

contrarian

No dual-booting and no running a VM just for Adobe

I have the old workstation still running XP Pro so I can always use that as backup for workstation apps since it does still have two fast processors. I was more interested in the gaming compatibility of Vista 64 since that machine has the fastest video card for it.