Windows 7: Windows 7 x86 or x64?

As I begin to understand my laptop, a dell inspiron 1720, supports 32-bit and 64-bit computing. (correct me please if I am wrong).

See my system specs.

Using Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor, the report states that I can upgrade to Windows 7, only the grapichs card, a Nvidia Geforce 8600M GT needs a manual download and installation.

I executed Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor using Windows Vista Home Premium x86.

Should I install Windows 7 x86 or Windows 7 x64?

If the best option is to install Windows 7 x64, will I have problems during and after the installation with finding and installing drivers?

Thanks a lot in advance for helping me.

zx81

Dell (support.dell.com) lists no Windows 7 drivers for the machine, either X86 or X64. There are Vista drivers, but 32 bit only.

I doubt that you'd have any trouble, though.

I'm pretty sure that your CPU is X64, but I believe that there is no such thing as a model number 1720 from Intel. The freeware CPU-Z should tell you if it supports EMT64 (64 bit) instructions.

For example: I recently went to Windows 7 on a cheap HP/Compaq CQ50-105NR. I did a clean install. Most of the drivers needed were installed by Windows 7, out of the box. (The wireless network drivers were the important ones.) Most of the rest were provided by Windows Update, including the 8200M graphics. The only thing I needed to download were the nVidia chipset drivers, which weren't needed for basic functions but cleared up a missing entry in Device Manager. As your 1720 has an Intel chipset with supported drivers at Windows Update (both 32 and 64 bit), you may not have to download anything at all from Dell.

X64 would be nice with your 4GB of RAM, but the practical difference from X86 (available RAM) would be modest.

Make sure that you have a backup (image) of your Vista installation, in the event that this free advice turns out to be poor.

bobkn,

Nice to meet you!

Thank you for your answer.

It is good to know that Windows 7 has a lot of device drivers onboard.

In a few days I will do a clean install. (waiting for my order).

I dayly run image backups and file and folder backups, in case a dissaster happens.

Have a nice day

zx81

I switched to 64bit the other day
I think my PC is faster =)
u should go 64bit too

Hello JuicyFruitSweeT.

Thank you for your advice, I first will try Windows 7 Home Premium x86, and when I am more experienced with Windows 7, and more x64 drivers are available for my configuration, I will try to install x64 Windows 7.

Have a nice day!

zx81

Hello zx81 .. Welcome to the fourms...

To find out if your processor is truly 64bit download securable from Gibson Research Center -=> Here

Thank you Tews,

Very interesting link to GRC

Have a nice day!

zx81

Windows 7 x64

I finally installed Windows 7 Home Premium x64 on my system.

As far as I can see it works brilliant!

Thank you all for guiding me the right direction!

zx81