Pinklet .. good points there .. MS does actually have a 64bit version available and linux has 64 bit available. As always the key are the drivers. You must have drivers for all your hardware and software. 64 bit is more than memory allocation it is also pipeline/bandwidth and when tied into a properly running cpu it is quite a pleasant surprise.

Hardware and software drive each other. You can put two, dual core amd64 cpus' into a system but what software will take advantge of 4 cores. Little to none. Most cad programs use only a single thread. Rendering and 3d software will do a better job, but I would bet that as of now, they are not able to take advantage of 4 cores. Such as it is.

I have always been one of those that stays on the bleeding edge of technology. This laptop will one day soon be replaced by a dual optron system. This is a hardware path for me you see. For me the hardware encourages the OS and the drivers, and then the OS and drivers encourages the applications. I will venture a guess that MS will really push their 64bit os (WinXP 64) in the Christmas season and by mid 2006 Vista will be knocking on our doors for that back to school push.