Thinkpads Forum

Hello!

I want to buy a Lenovo W500 NRB2JGE Notebook
http://geizhals.at/a357181.html
http://www5.pc.ibm.com/de/products.nsf/ ... enDocument

Is it possible to select whether to install Vista Business 32 or 64Bit like it is possible on HP notebooks? Is it licensed for both?

Is there already an upgrade statement of Lenovo available when I currently buy a W500 with Vista? Do I get Windows7 for free?

Currently I own a T43p ...

Thnx

Wiesl

It very much depends on where you are going to buy your W500 from. Some sellers allow OS selection (between x86 and x64 for the same edition) at no costs, others don´t. However, no matter what OS your W500 will be shipped with, you can legally "upgrade" to x86 or x64 using the same Vista license (you can find on this forum instructions how to do that). You will only need a corresponding installation media (but you don´t have to pay for another license). I believe there is no upgrade statement from Lenovo regarding Win 7 upgrades as of yet, but I don´t think that it will be possible to get Win 7 for free from Lenovo. Yet, if you want to test Win 7 beta, you may download it directly from the servers of M$ with a free license by April or so. Please note that this is not the final version and installing Win 7 beta doesn´t give you a free license for the final version.

Hope this helps

Marin

At least move into Vista Business 64-bit. It seems to me the future is 64-bit, and it will be worth your effort and money to go through all the upgrades (in my opinion) because:
1. 64-bit supports more memory than 32-bit
2. 64-bit is faster than 32-bit.
3. Mixed with a 7200-rpm hard drive, the combination is even better.
4. When Windows 7 64-bit comes along you will be ready.

I followed this advice myself, gutted the aero interface, and have a nice fast Vista machine that looks and feels just like XP Classic. .... JDH

jdhurst wrote:At least move into Vista Business 64-bit. It seems to me the future is 64-bit, and it will be worth your effort and money to go through all the upgrades (in my opinion) because:
1. 64-bit supports more memory than 32-bit
2. 64-bit is faster than 32-bit.
3. Mixed with a 7200-rpm hard drive, the combination is even better.
4. When Windows 7 64-bit comes along you will be ready.

I followed this advice myself, gutted the aero interface, and have a nice fast Vista machine that looks and feels just like XP Classic.

I second that! However, M$ and the software companies will have to go quite a long path to make full advantage of the 64bit platform. Firstly, the OS itself should be fast enough in order not to "push back" the x64 arch speed advantages, and secondly the software companies will have write their products in native x64. Pure x86 applications can´t enjoy the advantages of x64, in rare cases that is even of disadvantage for them. As of now, in my opinion Vista in general has too many flaws to be able to utilize x64 that well, but even if it´s able to do so, these advantages are eaten up by Vista software design flaws. As of now, advantages of the x64 can be seen only with "specialized" software like Matlab, Mathematica, 3dsMax, Maya, Autocad and similar (note, they all have native x64 support). Unfortunately, most consumer software is not available in x64 as of yet. It´s only a matter of time for x64 to become a standard.

Vista x64 undoubtedly supports more memory, but if you plan to install Vista x64, you will also need more memory. Not that it doesn´t run fine with 2 GB, but it will run better with more Also try to get a bigger hard for Vista x64

Cheers

Marin

I'm typing this on a W500 that has arrived with 2GB RAM and Vista 32-bit...a couple of quick observations:

a) These machine is powerful enough to run anything. Go for 64-bit Vista, 4GB RAM and 7200rpm HDD, whether you buy it like that, or have to upgrade certain aspects.

b) Vista, as bloated as it feels "out of the box" actually runs quite well even with 2GB, but this machine has Turbo Memory as well.

c) Agreed completely that once win 7 64-bit come out, you'll be amazed how well it will feel on your new ThinkPad...

My $0.02 only...