There are several hundred, if not thousands of posts at SF that address your question. I tried to big picture it for you. One is an older technology, one is comparitively new - but by no means new.
Both versions do the same thing. In real world everyday tasking, almost all users will experience little difference. Processor and memory intensive applications will benefit exponentially. If you had such an application, you would know the proposed benefits.
Google might work faster.
There is actually quite a difference... but it's a lot to type... just go to wikipedia and type '64-bit' in the search bar... that get you plenty to start off with...
Having the same laptop as you I'd recommend having 64-bit rather than 32-bit. For a start you can view all your RAM and you can use virtualisation software. (Trust me I've tried both 32-bit and 64-bit)
Hope this helps!
I have run both 32bit and 64bit windows 7 on the same laptop, and I have not noticed much difference to be honest. If anything 64bit is a bit annoying because there are some apps (like 2) that I have tried to use and haven't allowed for 64bitness.
But in saying that, I have not obviously compared the 2 in terms of game FPS and rendering times etc, but I'm using 64bit now and everything (besides those couple apps) works a treat!
[I'll just add that I use my laptop (Asus M50SV) for both work and personal, and it cranks pretty much 12 hours a day heavy use with zero performance issues.]
If you've got 4GB in your Inspiron you'll be annoyed if you go 32-bit - if you're like me those few hundred MB that 32bit won't be able to address will gall you every time you look at system properties.
I have found when I use programs that are 32 bit it takes longer in 64 bit os. Something to do with running in emulation mode in 64 bit (right or wrong I'm not sure).
As all the programs I use are 32 bit I will stick with the 32 bit os.
(I also had problems with jumping and skipping sound when I burned music onto cd in 64 bit os, maybe fixed now but caused me problems that I haven't forgotten.)
I do believe 64 bit is the future, just not right now for me. I'll wait until the programs I use have 64 bit versions.
good luck
If my laptop was capable of 64bit I'd utilise it to it's full potential. My next hardware upgrade, be it a notebook or desktop, will be x64 capable.
if you just run 32bit apps, even with a x64 processor OS x86 runs faster then when you use 32b apps with OS x64 (especially on AMD's).
So if you have just max 4gb, you run 32b only, there's no valid reason to use x64 OS.
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