Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

Ok, so I've very reluctantly decided I'm going to have upgrade the OS on my ageing XP pc, due to updates stopping.

Its not going to be Vista, use that at work and its a nightmare, or Windows 8 -have had that on a laptop for 6 months and it's just not for me. So Windows 7 it is, can get an OEM DVD for about £70.

The pc is a Dell 5150, I've gradually upgraded the RAM to 2.5GB over the years. It would take 4GB but I'm not planning on upgrading it further. Was half thinking about a new pc, but it works fine and is quick and quiet, and a new pc is expensive.

I've done the MS upgrade adviser and it says it will take either 32 or 64bit Windows 7. Most advice seems to say 64 is better, but I'm coming to the conclusion I should go for 32 bit. That's what i've got at the moment with XP, and 64bit seems to only be an advantage if you've got 4GB or more. Is 32 bit the right choice ?

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

You need to check if your machine is 64 bit which I doubt due to its age bit if it is, load 64 bit windows

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

32 bit as you have less than 3 gig of ram

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

What tiz says because you don't have much ram.

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

Having 3GB ram isn't a reason to use 32bit, probably not the case with the OP's PC as it only takes 4GB max but installing the 64bit version means you don't have to reformat in the future if you upgrade RAM. The only reason not to use it IMO is when you don't have a 64bit CPU.

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

I believe the Dell 5150 will run Windows 7 x64. my advice would be to use it over a 32bit OS. If you have questions, look here;

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/w...#1TC=windows-7
http://lifehacker.com/5431284/the-li...rating-systems

a good way to test if the machine will run x64 platforms will be to download an x64 linux live disk and see if it runs.

try this... http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2489 < scroll to the bottom of the page and you will see a list of servers hosting the 64bit version. select one from the uk and burn it to a DVD. then turn off your PC, pop the disc in and boot from it (usually the DVD drive is set above the HDD for boot priority, so it should automatically run the disc).

NOTE: this disc will NOT install on the hard drive or overwrite the hard drives unless you specify it to do so. it will run linux as a live environment from the DVD. you will not lose any data on your hard drive by running it, however the disc will give you access to the hard drive files. just don't delete anything!!

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

Well the MS upgrade adviser says it will run 64 bit so guess they are right, however it would take up more of my precious RAM. Think I'll play safe and go for 32 bit as I know that works at the moment, and I'm not planning on installing any more RAM. Also all I know my software will run on 32 bit.

Ta for the info.

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

If you look at the requirements of 64 bit windows 7 it says 2 gig and 32 bit windows 7 needs 1 gig. This in itself shows you 64 bit uses more ram than 32 bit just to run and seeing as you only have 2.5 gig you could have as little as half a gig left to run apps specially after an AV is installed

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/w...m-requirements

The correct advice in your instance is to run 32 bit

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

might I ask why you don't want to install more RAM?

the 5150 board can take 4Gb in all across 4 DIMM slots. a 4Gb kit will only cost you around £60, 2Gb kit for around £30 that, depending on your current config, you can add to 2Gb of your existing RAM or an extra 1Gb for £20. if you're already committed to buying the OS at around £70, I would suggest it's worth putting another few pounds that you might spend on a take-away in one night to better the performance of an aging machine.

don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you should or you must, just that it's recommended. this is just to give you a idea that it's actually not expensive to make a noticeable difference. :)

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

Because he might not be actually buying windows 7 ;)

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

mea culpa. guess i got the wrong impression.



---------- Post added at 14:21 ---------- Previous post was at 14:18 ----------

@Mr K,

bear in mind that when you buy an OEM DVD, you generally need to buy it with some hardware. good opportunity to buy the RAM at the same time, perhaps?

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

You might not it is just my lack of morality when it comes to M$ lol

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

that said, Mr K could just install linux. that's totally free and generally a lot kinder on resources!

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

but not on the brain lol

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

if the machine is just going to be used to surf the web and write documents/emails, it absolutely fine. anything more than that and you've got some learning to do beyond MS Windows. with the age and spec of the machine in question, I don't think it will be doing much more than surfing and letters/emails.

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

Just bite the bullet and buy a new PC! It's not worth the hassle - have you thought about driver compatibility for external devices??

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

That's all very well for you to say Lord Sainsbury but you have loads of money ;)

Let me see a new pc for £350, or a windows 7 oem DVD for £49 on a pc that is fine....

Drivers - the windows upgrade checker should have checked that - as i'm going form 32 bit to 32 bit hopefully there shouldn't be many problems, but will doubtless be something.

Very sad to lose XP - it boots faster to the desktop than any other pc I've tried that runs windows 7, vista or 8, all of those machines have more memory too...

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

Lord Sainsbury - lol!!

How about a Intel Core i3-3240 Processor (3.4 GHz, 3 MB cache)
4 GB DDR3 RAM, 500GB HDD and you supply the OS for £273?

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

Add an SSD for 50 quid and you'll never need to worry about boot times again. That is assuming the system has SATA ports and not just IDE.

---------- Post added at 21:33 ---------- Previous post was at 21:29 ----------

Indeed, it's been mind humping me all month with an Ubuntu server version.

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

For some old devices (like my scanner) there are 32 bit Windows 7 drivers available but not 64 bit.

One other issue with 32 / 64, other than physical RAM support, is virtual space. Some things suffer from the 2GB private / 2GB system virtual split, and large address aware 32 bit software can use a full 4GB private virtual space while running on 64 bit Windows - in 32 bit, you can shift the boundaries (a bit like the old /3GB switch), but there are limits to how far you can slice down the system space.

The virtual space limit can hit system running as low as 2GB physical RAM - maybe less, but the performance would be dragging due to excessive swapping before the limit hit.

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

If you don't need any windows specific apps on it, just install ubuntu

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

I find linux no more difficult than widows now i have used it for a while on my server. :)

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

I'm not keen on the way Ubuntu has gone over the last few years with side-bars and stuff. have you tried Linux Mint? feels much cleaner in my opinion.

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

In case anyone's interested:

I've just completed an evaluation installation of Win 8 (let's not get into a Win 7/8 argument ;) ) on a 2006 Dell GX620 with 2GB of RAM, formerly running 32 bit Win XP SP3. Took a while to work out whether the machine had 64 bit hardware - it did. The sticker on the box said it had a Pentium D CPU, but the boot screen and diagnostics said the CPU was a Pentium 4 - turned out not to be an issue. The Win 8 upgrade advisor wouldn't run, but the Win 7 advisor said the machine was OK for both 32 and 64 bit.

The biggest problem for me was that the evaluation was a complete fresh install with no further upgrade possible and the cheapest non-OEM Win 8 Pro software was an upgrade, so I needed a (free) way to get back to XP. In the end I found AOMEI backupper, which created a full backup on an external USB disk drive and a boot/restore CD. Most other programs wanted to charge for this functionality.

I went for the 32 bit version of Win 8, partly to conserve RAM and partly guessing that 32 bit drivers for old devices would be more readily available. Much to my surprise, in the end everything worked perfectly (sometimes only after several reboots). The Win 8 Skype didn't recognise the Microsoft USB web cam, so I followed advice and installed the desktop version, which cured the problem (and I much prefer the desktop programs to the Metro ones, anyway!)

The Win 8 upgrade disks (both 32 bit and 64 bit) are now on their way. So a Win 8 PC for £65. :)

To add to the paranoia over keeping XP: One comment I've seen talks about the black hat crowd looking at the next set of patches for other versions of Windows to find vulnerabilities that also exist in XP, then exploiting them. I know a good AV and firewall and keeping away from dodgy web sites are always good ideas, but if I can avoid the worry and have some techie fun for very little money, then I'm happy.

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

If you really need Windows then you also need to weigh up if all new versions of software are available in 32 bit. One of our vendors now only has 64 bit in Windows and is looking that way in other O/S's too.

I'd also speak up for Linux if you don't need Windows tools and most people don't. Personally I use OpenSuse but use Mint on some old second hand laptops for the family and that works fine too. You can try Linux as live versions, booting from CD/DVD without installing to see if you like/can use them.

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

Problem with that line of thinking is that XP is still used on over 20% of PCs. It is also no where near as secure by default as Vista, 7, 8, Linux or OSX. So, it is very likely to continue to be ripped apart by hackers who will now be safe in the knowledge that MS will have abandoned it.

You will also have to consider that with vendor support ending, 3rd parties are also likely to stop updating their software on XP. I don't know what the support policies of Flash or Java are, but they're the biggest source of exploits at the moment, and if they stop providing XP compatible versions then you'd be stuck with even more old software that will have known security holes.

Having said all that, simply not running as an administrator account will prevent almost all hacks from being exploited.

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

memory RAM is cheap nowadays.

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

most definitley 64 it's the way to go

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

not when the OS will use a good portion of the available ram leading to more paging


People saying run 64 bit Win 7 with 2.5 gig of ram are the sort of person run Vista on 1 gig and then said it was slow

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

Five updates to Win XP last night (the last ?) Somebody, somewhere still cares for it....

I might just keep it anyway and disconnect it from the InterWeb, which is much overated ;) If you've got Solitaire and minesweeper what else do you need ?

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

April 8th will see the last patches for Windows XP and Office 2003.

Re: Windows 7 - 32 or 64 bit ?
 

Windows 7 (32 bit) installed, all looks very pretty but I'm missing XP already...

PC seems as quick as ever but that's probably also due to being a clean install - At least its an opportunity to make sure that sure nothing with the word Adobe on it ever comes near it again, that should free up half the things that constantly run in the background.

Just have to wait for 162 updates to install , don't think my pc will be going to sleep tonight........ :tired::tired: