Hi all,

I don't know much about computers and I need help in selecting the best Vista upgrade for a laptop I want to buy.

I am interested in buying from Newegg the ASUS M50 Series M50Sa-AKO23C:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16834220306

From reading the comments on the newegg website, I get that the "Windows Vista Home Premium" it comes with is the 32 bit version.

The laptop comes with 4 gb of ram. I understand from reading the comments on the site that in order to "see" the 4 gb I would need to upgrade to SP1. I also understand that in order to actually "use" 4gb (and not only "see" it) I need to go to Vista 64 bits.

Here are my questions (and please keep in mind that I don't know a lot about computers, the info above comes from the comments at newegg!):

1) Should I upgrade to PS1?

2) I kind of get the feeling from the comments that Vista 64 bits isn't very reliable yet. Is that the case?

3) From the answers in the two previous points, precisely which upgrade should I buy? Would it be "Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit" (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116488) or something else?

Thanks in advance for your help!

I'm not going to do those questions in an order, but rather just give what I think about it.

Well, if you want the 4gb, it depends on what you want to use it for. The 64 bit is probably more trouble than its worth, especially for a labtop. Desktops, it's understandable why you want the RAM, because you're more likely to be running intensive programs. I'll probably go with a 64 bit version of an OS for my first build, because it'll be a desktop and I want power and to use the RAM for graphic manipulation programs. What it comes with will probably be perfect for a labtop. It looks pretty nice, by the way.

Thanks for the quick answer!
So I guess I would be better to avoid the 64 bit Vista since 4gb is not really crucial for what I intend to do (and since I am not too knowledgeable in computers!). Could you tell me how I would go about and upgrade to SP1? Is it something I can buy at newegg? Something I download from a MS website?

you download sp1 through windows update. or from microsoft's website. sp1 wont cost u anything

yeah, as the above user said, its a free service pack that you download for free from microsoft. Most computers should come with it now, although it might have a bit more lag time for the distributors to also add SP1 in with the original build.

What we really need to know is what you plan to use the computer for. There could be something that could require that much memory, but its unlikely.

Thanks!
I'm a chemist and need to use a few specialized programs that involve some 3D modeling but my friends say that they have no trouble running them with less than 3gb. I guess it would have been nice to use the full 4 gb but I'm quite ok with using a little less and having a little less problems also.

Thanks again for the help!

3d modeling programs will use a lot of RAM, but more important (IMO) is the video processing capability of the system. The system that you've picked has a good video card built into it, so you should be OK with that.