Like it or not we are entering the age of Vista and with it comes the inevidable 64bit age. I’ve discussed this in some detail perviously but nearly every processor you can get on the market is 64bit. The only current downside is the driver support for peripherals. For example: HP’s most popular consumer HP Color Laser line for two years running has no 64bit drivers and no intention of coming out either. Unsupported.

But what are computer manufacturers considering to be the biggest upgrade driver with Vista? They are betting on graphics and storage. For example, as little as a year ago the predominant feature on the coming motherboards were still generic audio chipsets, 2 SATA + 2 IDE ports and if you’re lucky 1 PCI-E port.

Today and going forward? Take a look. 6 channel audio. 6 SATA-2 ports with RAID5 support. 3 PCI-E ports, one at 16x. It is clear that the bet being made in the Vista age will be on the media. Big on fast graphics, big on audio and very big on storage.

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