Going Vista 64-Bit...

[Merlin]

So I'm heading to college next year and I'm looking to buy an HP laptop. I'm getting the 2.4 or 2.5 core 2 duo and i can't decide if i should spend the extra money on 3 or even 4 gigs of ram and whether i should get the free upgrade to vista home premuim 64 or stick with the 32. I plan on using the laptop mostly for college stuff and playing a few MMORPG when i have the time. any advice?

As always, the more ram the better, but unless you are doing 3D rendering on the laptop, there's no need to get 64 bit Vista.
In fact, I would recomend Win XP for a college laptop.
There's not enough 64 bit programs out there as yet

:techgage::techgage: Merlin :techgage::techgage:

 

[Kougar]

XP is better for a latop.... however if you prefer Vista then I WOULD suggest the 64bit version over the 32bit version.

I've seen the tests where 3GBs is actually benificial for Vista, so I'd say 3GB is fine if you are running Vista. 2GB for XP. 4GB is okay, but you won't see any difference with it on a laptop, however with memory prices the way they are you can get 4GB as cheaply as 3GB if you are buying the RAM yourself.

 

[Rob Williams]

I agree with all points here. Windows XP will be the better choice for the ultimate in battery life. It won't make a huge difference, but it could easily add at least 10 minutes to it.

Vista can be good as well, but like Kougar said, getting 4GB might be the thing to do if it's feasible. It's so cheap now, and it might very-well come in handy to you in the future.