Solved! Looking for ways to tweak a laptop

[Anraleth]

Hello all,

My second computer is a laptop, and i've been digging through articles, trying to sort fact from fiction about actual ways to increase it's performance.

I've disabled aero ( I think ) and am using the basic old windows theme.

It has 4 gigs of RAM installed but i'm only running a 32 bit OS, i'm wondering if its worth the plunge to upgrade to a 64 bit OS.


Also..... it's running Vista. The Dell website says my laptop ( M1730 ) does not support windows 7 - is that true or does it mean DELL support for my laptop model using Windows 7 is not available?

I've run the official windows analysis tool to try and figure that out, but it comes back as 64 bit Windows 7 ready.

I went to the performance and tools window and got this information:

Manufacturer Dell Inc.
Model MXG071
Total amount of system memory 4.00 GB RAM
System type 32-bit operating system
Number of processor cores 2
64-bit capable Yes

Storage
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Total size of hard disk(s) 286 GB
Disk partition (C 81 GB Free (286 GB Total)
Media drive (D CD/DVD

Graphics
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Display adapter type NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT
Total available graphics memory 1535 MB
Dedicated graphics memory 256 MB
Dedicated system memory 0 MB
Shared system memory 1279 MB
Display adapter driver version 8.17.12.5896
Primary monitor resolution 1280x800
DirectX version DirectX 10

Network
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Network Adapter Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet
Network Adapter Dell Wireless 1395 WLAN Mini-Card
Network Adapter Microsoft Tun Miniport Adapter

The laptop's native resolution is 1920x1200, but I thought scaling down the resolution would free up some resources but I really haven't noticed a change at all.

So my questions basically are:

Can I and should I get Win 7 64 bit for the laptop?

Are there any changes I can make with the supplied information about increasing its performance? Doesn't 30% of my system memory being used for graphics hurt its performance in games/applications?

Thank you for all the help ! = )

 

[hang-the-9]

If you don't have official Windows 7 driver support, its a hit or miss if Vista and built-in drivers in 7 will work. If you want to mess with that, get a new hard drive, SSD if you have the money, and install Win 7 on it. If it does not work, pop in your other drive and you're set.

Before you go messing with 64bit, see what the max RAM for your system is. You should not feel the need for more than 4 gig of RAM for a few years I'm thinking. By that time the CPU and video card will seem much slower than any lack of RAM anyway.

 

[Anraleth]

Max supported by the mobo is 4 gigs - so it would only be a 1 gig bonus, but sometimes my computer really slugs along on stuff even at minimal settings.