Vista & 64 Bit, My Impressions Options

[Andrew Cockburn]

Well on the back of creating my monster, I have everything setup as I like it and since there were so many differing opinions on Vista & 64 bit, I will now confuse the issue further by telling you what I think having been through it!

So, my initial impressions of Vista are good - I'm a sucker for flashy graphics and love the new Aero theme. Since I am working on a way more powerful machine I don't notice any performance impact - in fact, this is the best way to move to Vista IMO - buy a new more powerful machine, and don't bother upgrading your older machines.

The install was fairly routine - I'm glad to see Vista is a bit cleverer than XP was about getting SATA drivers of an actual CD instead of forcing you to make floppy image (especially as I have no floppy drive!)

So, on to the software, this was the make or break. I had previously verified that my 2 most important devices not only had vista drivers but also 64 bit versions of those drivers - my EMU1212m soundcard and my PodXT Live. Both installed without a hitch and work perfectly. This is a key factpr in upgrading though - make sure all of your devices have support or you willneed to throw them away.

I spent some time installing my many VSTs and various pieces of software, and I am gratified to report that with one single exception, everything worked! That exception is Bournemark Broomstick Bass which actually installs and runs ok but crashes whenever you try and open the interface. Sadly, Bournemark have no plans to produce a Vista copy. In all other cases, I found updated Vista compatible versions of my programs, and in one solitary case I needed to pay an upgrade fee of $10. I managed to install a couple of non Vista aware programs ok by running the install and registration as administrator - necessary for some registry writing rights that would otherwise fail.

So, in terms of software coverage, I have all I had before with that single exception - a lot better than I thought!

Now, I have to say that 64 bit version of programs are still few and far between. Although I can get a 64 bit reaper, it won;t work with 32 bit VSTs as previously reported on this forum, so I have to use the 32 bit version of Reaper. 64 bit support is still very spotty elsewhere as well - I have just a handful of 64 bit apps installed, including surprisingly iTunes - make sense I suppose since OSX is 64 bit by now I guess. However the good news is that 32 bit programs run just fine on 64 bit Vista so going to 64 bit hasn't actually hurt me, I am just not necessarily using the full 64 bit potential of my machine, which for now is fine. I think it will be another couple of years at least before the move to 64 bit gains headway.

Also, there were various opinions on having 8 cores instead of 4 or 2. People were right in that software mostly doesn't make use of all cores, but some of my key software does, particularly reaper. Sony Vegas does for rendering but dissapointingly doesn't seem to for previewing projects with effects on. This will get better over time as well though, and I think somewhat quicker than the 64 bit situation so we will see.

All in all, I am very pleased with my decisions and now have a much faster machine than I did before!

Final Conclusion:

Vista - Yes! The time is Now!
8 Cores - sure why not
64 bit - still a couple of years away but won't do any harm to start now.

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