Which Operating System

[Craig Tucker]

Ordered a Dell workstation M90 about a month ago, anyway still not got it and Dell now say that it is being discontinued, thats the bad news.

The good news is that they will supply me a same spec M6300 for the same price. After pricing these myself on the dell website the M6300 was about £400 more, so good news there.

The question I have is which os I should go for. I believe the main difference between the M90 and the M6300 is that the latter is a 64bit machine. So should I specify a 64 bit os.

[Faustus]

Only if you plan on 4 gigs of RAM otherwise I wouldn't. Personally.

[Craig Tucker]

Here is the total spec, 2 gig of ram. What about 64bit xp ?

M6300 T7500 2.2Ghz 4Mb without finger print reader
17" WUXGA+ (1920x 1200) LCD Screen
UK - Ship Accessories UK Power Cord
M6300 Resource DVD - Vista & XP
2.0GB, 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM Memory (2 x 1024MB)
Hard Drive : 160GB (7200Rpm) SATA Hard Drive (Free fall sensor)
8X DVD +/- RW DRIVE
Power DVD
Roxio Creator 9.0 with Media
130W AC Adapter
9 Cell 80WHr LI-ION Primary Battery
No Carry Case
512MB NVIDIA Quadro FX 3600M Graphics Card
UK - 56.6k V.92 Capable Internal Modem & Adapter
For Intel Core 2 Duo processors - Wireless : Intel PROWireless 3945 802.11a/gDual-band) Mini-card EMEA
UK/Irish - Internal Keyboard
Software Drivers
English -Microsoft Windows XP Pro SP2 (No Media)
English - Win XP Pro SP2 - Backup Media
No Software Anti-Virus
Precision Order - United Kingdom
Base Warranty
3Yr Basic Warranty - Next Business Day
No Warranty Upgrade

[Faustus]

Def. NOT XP 64 bit. Awful

[stiltman]

I would only go 64bit if I researched to find out that ALL my apps and devices will work on it. Then I would make sure any devices i purchase in the future will support 64bit

I would also get the Vista downgrade option
You'll get the Vista DVD and license, but it will come preloaded with XP

[Craig Tucker]

This is a laptop so add in cards and to a certain extent peripheral compatibility do not matter too much. I am being swayed to 32bit xp, but are there any downsides to using this on a laptop designed to utilise 64bit.

[stiltman]

Nope, you just won't get the feature of a 64bit OS

With a laptop add-ons are just as important as with desktops if not more IMO

It really boils down to the main software and use for the computer. If this is an all around every day personal computer, go with 32bit. If this is going to be used for a specific purpose and all apps are for 64bit, I'd go 64bit and add more RAM

[Faustus]

I agree 100% with everything I've said in this thread.


oops i meant what stiltman said

[Craig Tucker]

Its going to be mainly used for writing software using flash/actionscript and zinc and modelling using solidworks and pro engineer. And then obviously web browsing general office software etc.

[stiltman]

ProE would benifit with more RAM and 64bit