Yes, it’s official. I installed the x64 version of the Windows Vista Beta about a month or so ago, and I’ve been playing around with it. I built a new system specifically for this purpose, as my old laptop just wasn’t going to cut it. (Mobile Athlon 2400+, 512MB of RAM, w/ 128 shared to video)

I wanted to build a cheap machine that would be nice nonetheless. After all was said and done, I had an Athlon 64 3200+ (San Diego), 1GB of PC3200 RAM, and an EVGA 7600GS card with 256MB of DDR2 Ram. I also threw in a DVD burner and 19″ LCD monitor, and used an old 80GB hard drive I had laying around. I took a dremel to an old Gateway 2000 case my wife had, and viola, brand new “old” computer. I figure that all the parts cost me around $560 (yes, with the 8ms monitor).

I installed Vista x64 without any problems and noticed right away that it was hogging 650MB of RAM. Holy freaking cow. The monitor, motherboard, and ram I bought dropped in price at TigerDirect.com (where I bought most of the stuff), so I called them up and they agreed to credit me the differences as store credit. I happily agreed, and ordered another GB of ram a few days later. (LONG story on the TD credit–their CS is pretty crappy and helpless, and if their management can’t fix the mess they made, you’ll read about it here)

So I pop in my second gig of ram a few days later, and I boot up Vista again. Now it’s using 995MB! Holy crap! You need an entire GB of RAM just to run your OS?!?! Who does Microsoft think they are? And this, after all the talk about using your GFX card for visual effects to spare the rest of the system. I sure hope they’re not using 995MB plus my 256MB card…

So I guess the bottom line is this: if they tell you that you can run the x86 version on 512MB, they’re probably referring to “running” quite loosely. Like molasses on a January day loosely. When they require 1GB for x64, they certainly aren’t kidding. Looks like your best bet is to just buy a friggin Mac. Or install the 4GB of RAM you never thought that you’d ever use in your wildest dreams. Or just keep running XP Pro. (My commit charge w/ the same system in XP Pro? 176MB)