x86 or x64 for Laptop

[Isura]

My wife's laptop is a dell with Core 2 Quo T7700, 2GB RAM. She uses about 25 tabs in firefox, and does a bit of photo editing with Gimp. Not exactly a power user. Any benefit to installing 64-bit Windows 7 Professional?

 

[Lordbob75]

There is, but you would need a little more RAM to truly make it worthwhile.

If you are willing to, add 2 gigs of RAM. x64 likes more RAM.

~Lordbob

 

[zigzag3143]

My wife's laptop is a dell with Core 2 Quo T7700, 2GB RAM. She uses about 25 tabs in firefox, and does a bit of photo editing with Gimp. Not exactly a power user. Any benefit to installing 64-bit Windows 7 Professional?

Isura

Hi and welcome to seven forums

First could you fill in your system specs (lower left corner) so that we know what hardware you have.

There are pro's and con's to both.

32 is a tad slower, but its more stabile and getting drivers for it are easier. PLus it runs xp legacy things smoother.

64 bit-Is faster can utilize more ram and is the future. It also runs hotter and takes up more resources and disk space.

Your call. Since it doesn't apper that your wife needs bleeding edge fast i would say stay with the installed 32bit. If there is enough disk space you can even dual boot them to see what the differnce is, then when you decide remove the other.

KEn

 

[Subsonic]

Sounds like mine. Turion 64 but only 2 gb of ram. I run 32 bit on it and I run 64 bit on my I7 at home (6gb of ram). My laptop performs fine and I'm afraid it would be slower using 64bit OS with only 2gb of ram. I also run Firefox and my largest resource hog is Photoshop CS4 which runs OK for the work I do.

 

[Isura]

My wife's laptop is a dell with Core 2 Quo T7700, 2GB RAM. She uses about 25 tabs in firefox, and does a bit of photo editing with Gimp. Not exactly a power user. Any benefit to installing 64-bit Windows 7 Professional?

Isura

Hi and welcome to seven forums

First could you fill in your system specs (lower left corner) so that we know what hardware you have.

There are pro's and con's to both.

32 is a tad slower, but its more stabile and getting drivers for it are easier. PLus it runs xp legacy things smoother.

64 bit-Is faster can utilize more ram and is the future. It also runs hotter and takes up more resources and disk space.

Your call. Since it doesn't apper that your wife needs bleeding edge fast i would say stay with the installed 32bit. If there is enough disk space you can even dual boot them to see what the differnce is, then when you decide remove the other.

KEn

Thanks for the info. The inspiron 1720 runs pretty hot. This laptop only has 2 ram slots, so I'm looking at another $80 for a 4GB pack. Given that, 32-bit Win 7 looks the most attractive.

 

[DeaconFrost]

There's no difference in speed or operating temperature between the two OSes, especially not for the work she is doing. The x64 version only shows a speed advantage in some x64 native apps. I don't know where some people get their info, but as someone who's running both platforms, I can tell you, especially for basic tasks, there's no performance difference, or noticeable resource difference. Either one is a viable option on that laptop.

It all boils down to a simple decision. Will you be leaving it at 2 GB of memory, or do you have any plans to upgrade it, given the cheap prices. If you plan to leave it at 2 GB, you'll be fine with the x86 version. If you have any plans or thoughts of upgrading the memory, go with the x64 version, knowing that when you do buy more memory, it will be fully addressable without reinstalling the OS.