I have to buy a dell, but need advice on which add-ons are worth the price

[MooseMan1]

Yes, you can just get ram off of newegg, but I have done further research on the memory limitation I mentioned above, and that may be incorrect. I am looking for a second opinion on what I said.

 

[UNR.grad]

Yes, you can just get ram off of newegg, but I have done further research on the memory limitation I mentioned above, and that may be incorrect. I am looking for a second opinion on what I said.

I think you may be right about the 64bit version of vista actually. One of the other students talked to Dell and they made him upgrade to the 64 because he went with 4GB of RAM. Any companies to watch out for when buying RAM?

 

[MooseMan1]

Yes. I talked to some of my fiends over the weekend and they told me my first answer was right. You must have 64-bit version to utilize 4GB+ RAM.

 

[UNR.grad]

Thanks Moose! You've been a huge help, I'll post once I get the comp too!

Thanks!

Tim

 

[MooseMan1]

No problem, glad to help

I'll be looking forward to hearing how the comp is.

 

[UNR.grad]

There is a slight problem, I guess the school's network is not compatible with the 64 version of vista. The IT guy says he is running 4GB on his non-64 vista but I'd rather not. Would a 2GB stick and a 1GB still be ok, or do they have to be matching?

 

[MooseMan1]

2GB and 1GB sticks are fine, but I have no idea why they say the network is not compatible...Vista 64's networking is the same as the 32-bit version...The only thing I could tell you is to ask him what makes it not compatible.

 

[UNR.grad]

From the IT guy:

"A 64-bit operating system requires programs to be re-written/compiled to work in a 64-bit environment. A lot of 32-bit programs will not work in 64-bit environments. Our dental program is one such program."

I think I'll go with 3GB

 

[FlightSimBoy]

From the IT guy:

"A 64-bit operating system requires programs to be re-written/compiled to work in a 64-bit environment. A lot of 32-bit programs will not work in 64-bit environments. Our dental program is one such program."

I think I'll go with 3GB

64-Bit is supposed to be backwards compatible with 32-Bit programs. I have never had any problems running 32-Bit games and software on a 64-Bit OS.

I would go with what the IT guy says, though, because there are some
programs that won't work, and he has probably worked with it before, so therefore knows whats best. Stick with 3 gigs for now, but in the future, I would consider getting another gig.

Your IT guy was wrong about one thing. He said a lot of programs won't work. That definitely is not true. There are few 32-Bit programs I have seen that won't work on 64-Bit. Personally, the only one that I have seen that won't is PeerGuardian 2, but I'm sure there are more floating around out there.

 

[MooseMan1]

^
Agreed. Stick with 3GB if the IT guy said he knows one of their programs will not work. Although, I also agree that I've hardly ever run into problems with it.