32 bit or 64 bit for my laptop?

hyunho · 27 Oct 2009

I have a Acer Aspire Timeline 3810T-6415. It has 4gb of ram and therefore came with Vista 64bit Home Premium.

My friend clean installed the Windows 7 RC 64bit right after I got my laptop, and it's amazing. At first he wanted to install 32bit, but because the free Windows 7 upgrade that comes with my laptop is 64bit, I didn't want to have to re-install everything when switching from 32bit to 64bit.

But now I'm planning on clean installing Windows 7 anyways. So now I don't know whether to get Windows 7 Professional 32bit or 64bit (my college has an alliance with MSDN so I can download either for free).

I've read a lot about the whole 32bit vs 64bit debate. The main thing people say for why to get 64bit is that RAM can be upgraded and that not all 4GB of RAM can be used. But I'm never going to upgrade the RAM in my laptop. Also, my laptop isn't built to do very intense tasks. On Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit RC, regardless of what I'm doing, my memory usage never goes above 1.5 GB, so I don't know if it matters that only 2.7-3.5 GB of my RAM can be used.

So my point is, can anyone tell me a reason why I should get 64bit? I heard programs may be 64bit only in the future but how soon/likely is that? I believe my laptop has only one stick of 4GB RAM. If i'm using 1.5GB of memory out of a total of 3ish GB, is it slower than if I'm using 1.5GB out of a total of 4GB?

If anyone could help, thanks!

bobtran · 27 Oct 2009

hyunho said:

I have a Acer Aspire Timeline 3810T-6415. It has 4gb of ram and therefore came with Vista 64bit Home Premium.

My friend clean installed the Windows 7 RC 64bit right after I got my laptop, and it's amazing. At first he wanted to install 32bit, but because the free Windows 7 upgrade that comes with my laptop is 64bit, I didn't want to have to re-install everything when switching from 32bit to 64bit.

But now I'm planning on clean installing Windows 7 anyways. So now I don't know whether to get Windows 7 Professional 32bit or 64bit (my college has an alliance with MSDN so I can download either for free).

I've read a lot about the whole 32bit vs 64bit debate. The main thing people say for why to get 64bit is that RAM can be upgraded and that not all 4GB of RAM can be used. But I'm never going to upgrade the RAM in my laptop. Also, my laptop isn't built to do very intense tasks. On Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit RC, regardless of what I'm doing, my memory usage never goes above 1.5 GB, so I don't know if it matters that only 2.7-3.5 GB of my RAM can be used.

So my point is, can anyone tell me a reason why I should get 64bit? I heard programs may be 64bit only in the future but how soon/likely is that? I believe my laptop has only one stick of 4GB RAM. If i'm using 1.5GB of memory out of a total of 3ish GB, is it slower than if I'm using 1.5GB out of a total of 4GB?

If anyone could help, thanks!

Microsoft office will be coming in 64-bit version soon. Some articles I read say that the 64-bit system is more secure (I suspect it is but can't prove it). Haven't had any software I use not work on 64-bit.

If you should decide to do any video or audio editing in the future you definitely WILL want to run the 64-bit so as to be able to use more ram.

You don't need 64-bit for what you do, but it doesn't hurt to run it either. 32-bit only see's 3-3.25 gb of your current 4 gb memory. 64-bit will see it all. If you have 1 stick at 4gb you probably have an open slot for memory and could add another 4gb (but only if you run 64-bit) but suspect you actually have 2 sticks at 2gb each.

You can run 32-bit applications on the 64-bit OS but you can NOT run 64-bit apps on the 32-bit OS. Personally I don't know why you would want to step back but it is up to you.

Remember....you may not intend to make changes now but if you do later it would be a shame to have to purchase a new OS just because you decided to run the 32-bit. There really isn't any down side to running the 64-bit and there could be a downside to running the 32-bit later.

hyunho · 28 Oct 2009

Well the reason I've been thinking about 32bit is that I have run into programs that don't work on 64bit and I've either had to look up work arounds or I've had to find complete replacements.

And my laptop can't handle video or or audio editing, nor can it play intense games. I have a low power processor Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 (1.4 GHz) and an Intel GMA 4500 MHD, which allows my laptop to have approximately 8 hours of battery life in exchange for being unable to do intense tasks, which I don't do. And I really don't plan on upgrading my RAM seeing as I never use over 1.5 GB of my 4 GB.

I really don't know which to get haha. I'd get 64 bit if I didn't have to deal with a program here and there that ends up not working. That's the biggest downside of 64 bit for me.

hyunho · 28 Oct 2009

bump? =/

Dark Nova Gamer · 28 Oct 2009

Personally, if I were you.. I would stay with 32-bit. Mainly because of the low-end CPU.

:S

hyunho · 28 Oct 2009

That's the kind of thing I wanted to know about. All over the internet people say that 64bit theoretically has better performance than 32bit but I want to know how true that is. If my laptop would run better in 64bit, even if theoretically, then I'll just go with 64 bit. But if my weak laptop would run better in 32bit, then I'll obviously go 32bit.

hyunho · 29 Oct 2009

anybody?

hyunho · 29 Oct 2009

bumpp

ineedsomehelpy · 29 Oct 2009

i heard from a computer friendly friend that he doesn't like 64 bit and i agreed not knowing what i was talking about : )

MattMJB0188 · 29 Oct 2009

IMO I'd go with 64-bit as its becoming more and more popular. Especially among computer vendors. You rarely see 32-bit nowadays. Besides, the more people using 64-bit the more drivers manufacturers can make to run smoothly on 64-bit. You'll probably notice no noticeable change but I'd go for it.