64 bit

[billywight]

Does anyone here have experience with a 64 bit operating system and processor? I'm looking into getting a new laptop, particularly the Dell M65 and am wondering if 64 bit is the way to go or to hold off for a few years and just run 32. Mainly I'm looking for info about the advantages while running SolidWorks with fairly large assemblies and runing FEA and CFD. Thanks-

[billywight]

Does anyone here have experience with a 64 bit operating system and processor? I'm looking into getting a new laptop, particularly the Dell M65 and am wondering if 64 bit is the way to go or to hold off for a few years and just run 32. Mainly I'm looking for info about the advantages while running SolidWorks with fairly large assemblies and runing FEA and CFD. Thanks-

[ad]

Ive had a bit of experience on 64bit workstations (i.e. not laptops) and they are quite fast especially when coupled with 4+ gig of RAM. Does that laptop allow this?

Just remember on a 32bit system you can only use a maximum of 2gb RAM per cpu. But on the other hand alot of programs in particular CAD and FEA / CFD are more expensive for 64 bit machines, and some of your normal programs 'may' not be compatible, although most 32bit programs should be.

[absolutepressure]

Hey, I have a Compaq Presario 14.1in widescreen. I have a AMD Turion 64 bit processor (1.6 GHz). I'd really recommend it, or one even faster. If you don't know this already, with 64 bit processors the GHz may look really low to competitors 2.x or 3.x, but they are still faster. I believe the turion is the top level of AMD processors, but I don't have the best turion processor, so I don't have the best of the best, just a good one of the best.

I've never had any compatibility probs.

Get this, I was running Solidworks '03, and now '06 on 512MB ram! The only thing it didn't like was circles. It was really laggy when drawing circles for some reason. But I could rotate a whole solid model of an engine as fast as I wanted with no lag or jerkyness. Now I have 728MB becuase one of the 512's that I bought was shit, so I'll get up to a gig soon. Even with 728 Solidworks seems to fly. No probs with circles anymore, and I didn't really play around too much, but it seems faster overall. I can't wait to see what it'll do with a gig! ad, you were on a comp with 4Gigs?! Holy crap! I bet you could draw up your whole school as one part file in that beast and rotate and zoom in on a fly.

I'd say it's plenty fast. Go AMD. I see 64 bit as being the future.

[billywight]

The Dell M65 I was looking at would be a dual core processor (2.16GHz) with 4Gb of ram. I think the 4 gigs will be ok on both the 64 bit and 32 bit systems since it's a dual processor. I've just heard stories of compatability problems with 64bit systems, especially with drivers and wanted to know if the performance advantages of 64 bit outweighed the compatability advantages of 32 bit.

[Brian S]

I've got an Athlon 64 in my desktop, and as other people have said it is faster than a 32bit processor of the same speed. Just be sure to stick with the normal 32bit version of Windows. About a year ago I switched to XP 64 bit edition, and didn't even make it a day before switching back. Microsoft included no backwards compatibility, at least that I could find. It ran faster than the 32bit version, but the only programs that would run were notepad and the 64 bit version in Internet Explorer. I couldn't even get Office to work, and none of the drivers I had worked. Getting new drivers when you don't have working drivers for your network card or USB stick is a royal pain.

[BeaverGuy]

Where I work there are a few 64 bit machines, i.e. 64 bit Windows XP and apps, running around. The only complaints have been a lack of regular duty applications. 32 bit progams won't run under 64 bit XP. The only things the machines will run are CAD and FEA so everyone that has one also has a normal 32 bit system also. At this point in time a dual boot system might be the way to go or you could look into Vista. I don't believe that the FEA and CAD applications are currently Vista approved meaning that the software maker will probably not give you any support, but your 32 bit programs should run, as 64 bit Vista has a 32 bit compatability mode and XP doesn't.

With regards to being able to manipulate larger assemblies with 64bit processor on a 32 bit OS it really doesn't happen. Things will run a little bit faster but you won't be able to open any larger of an assembly because it is limited by the memory addressing capability of the OS.