A few weeks back someone in the family decided to upgrade to a new quad-core desktop. That got me thinking about upgrading my primary computer, which is the Dell XPS m1530 notebook. I had waited a long time to upgrade to a 64-bit version of Windows in hopes of 64-bit drivers becoming more commonplace. Nowadays, most hardware has 64-bit drivers available, so I decided that I had waited long enough. I planned to put another 2gb of ram in my notebook and then upgrade it to Vista 64-bit.

First, I needed the 64-bit Vista disc. I went and checked Microsoft’s website since I knew that they offered “alternative media”. Basically, they are supposed to send you a Vista 64-bit disc that you can use your 32-bit key with. You can only have one copy of either installed at a time though, not both and the edition of Vista must be the same. This means if you have 32-bit Home Premium you are only entitled to use 32 or 64-bit Home Premium. Unfortunately, I found out that Microsoft only offers alternative media for Retail versions of Vista, and since I got mine from Dell it’s considered an OEM version. I called up Dell and after talking to a few people who didn’t know what I was talking about, I was finally able to get someone to ship me a 64-bit version of Vista.

After getting my new Vista x64 disc in the mail a few days later, I popped in the 4gb of Crucial ram I ordered from Newegg and started backing up my files. I went to Dell’s website and was able to get most of the x64 drivers I needed. I had to get wlan drivers from Intel’s site since I replaced the wlan card. After transferring my files over to my Home Server along with the drivers I obtained, I wiped the hard drive and installed Vista x64. Installation was quick and smooth. Afterwards, I copied the drivers over, installed them and finished setting up the computer. I also had to make sure to check out the software I use most frequently beforehand to make sure that it was x64 compatible. Because Vista x64 can run 32-bit applications as well, I had no issues. Everything from Photoshop to my WHS Connector software ran fine. However, be warned that some older software may not work properly. All-in-all the switch to x64 was a pretty simple process thanks in part to Dell having most of the drivers I needed. But how would I have fared if Dell didn’t have the drivers I needed?

After the success of upgrading my primary computer to a 64-bit edition of Vista, I decided to upgrade the rest of the computers in my possession. Before doing anything I made sure to check for 64-bit drivers for all of my hardware. This is very important because without the proper drivers for your hardware, your hardware won’t work. First, I checked the Dell Studio Desktop 540 download page and it had 64-bit drivers listed so the upgrade went off without a hitch following the same process as outlined above. The Inspiron 1525 is a different story though.

Dell’s Inspiron line of notebooks could be considered their “budget” line. As such they don’t get the same attention as their other notebooks. Even though the Inspiron 1525 had x64 capable hardware, Dell chose not to list the 64-bit drivers on the Inspiron 1525 download page. Fortunately, I had a decent knowledge of the parts in the Inspiron 1525. Even if you don’t know what parts are in your notebook, you could easily search google for the specifications and find out. You could also just use a program like CPU-Z. So off I went scavenging for drivers. I was able to snag the wlan, motherboard and video drivers from Intel’s website. Using Dell’s Inspiron 1525 page as a reference as to which drivers I needed, I was able to get 64-bit drivers for my remaining hardware. Another thing to keep in mind is that sometimes Windows Update will have some of the drivers you need, but I wouldn’t depend on it. It’s better if you can find the latest driver yourself before you decide to upgrade. So once again following the same procedure as outlined above, I backed up my Inspiron 1525, wiped it, installed Vista x64 and installed the drivers for it. Besides the inconvenience of having to find the drivers myself, this upgrade also was pretty straightforward.

The most important thing to remember about upgrading to 64-bit is to just do some simple research. Make sure your hardware is 64-bit capable and make sure there are 64-bit drivers for your hardware. You will also want to check for 64-bit versions of your programs and familiarize yourself with the benefits of 64-bit computing. The upgrade to 64-bit may not even be worth it to you at this point in time. But with the increasing amount of ram being used in computers today and with the increasing amount of 64-bit programs available today, you may want to consider taking the plunge yourself.