Vista OEM & 64 Bit - Questions

OEM is just a version for system builders, which means that you get no windows manual, and no free phone support either. Plus you normally have to buy it with some hardware. But its usually miles cheaper, which is nice.

Not sure about the 64 bit version.....

I do know that it supports more than the 4GB of memory that 32 bit versions support, and also that with XP 64 there were a lot of driver issues and some games didn't work, but I'd also like to know the answer to this question.

Right now I'm not finding substantial improvements running a 64 bit version of Vista. I found some problems too:

For starters, it uses more hard disk space since it has the 32 AND the 64 bits version of a lot of programs (IE, WMplayer, WinMail, etc). Worse yet, clicking on a mp3 for example will open the 32 bit version of WMPlayer. Same with clicking the IE icon on the desktop, a 32 bit version will open always.

I don't think going x64 right now is useful, but if you're going to buy a Vista version I'll get the 64 bit version, because it's the future. I don't wanna buy another copy down the road, when the switch to 64 bits may get some REAL advantages.

OEM is just tied closer to a single PC whose hardware isn't supposed to change much. This version will work unless if you make a lot of hardware changes to your rig.

The 64 bit issue is this: Pros - 64 bit is more stable and secure because the drivers are required to be more compliant to standards, the apps are more stable, secure and perform better because, again, they are required to be more compliant with 64 bit OS standards. Cons - running your 32 bit apps in a 64 bit environment does not gain you any performance or stability. They do not gain because they are not written for the 64 bit enhancements. In fact I have seen no improvement whatsoever during testing and MS has said not to expect gains, and even see a possible decrease in performance, because of the limited environment when they have to separate them from the stable 64 bit apps. Also, I have found several apps my company uses that won't work or are unstable at best and several people have complained that older games won't run on 64 OS.

So 64 bit readies you for the future, however with so few 64 bits apps to gain from the 64 bit OS, the future looks to be at least a year away unless if you currently have a need to run 64 bit apps.

OEM - what if I am going to change my graphics card (maybe add another in crossfire which my mobo allows) to an ATI direct x10 one when it comes out. Add some more ram later, maybe upgrade processor at some point - would that account as a lot of hardware changes? What would happen if I made "too many" hardware changes?

Is it worth buying the non OEM verison?

The only time thing I know that may cause a problem is upgrading the motherboard or CPU which required a phone in to MS. However, in both cases they didn't have an issue with the actual OEM license (at least on Dell). Maybe others know at what point a PC is identified as a totally different one.

Like others have said if your system will support a x64 OS and you can find x64 drivers for all your devices why not go x64? I think it is kind of worthless buying a 32 bit OS and then a year or so down the line paying for the same OS but paying for the 64 bit version.

If you buy the OEM version you still pay for the license, and can put it on whatever machine you want whenever you want, as long as it's only on ONE computer at any one time. There was talk of Microsoft only letting people upgrade their computers a bit before having to buy another copy, but they ditched this idea when everyone (quite rightly) went ape.