Should I stay with 64 bit or install 32 bit instead on 2GB?

Hello guys! I badly need your inputs on this. I just bought a new laptop with Windows 8.1 installed on it. It sometimes feel sluggish and at times I notice that my RAM usage goes up to more than 60% even if I only have one tab of Chrome opened (no running processes on system tray except for the AV and audio, of course).

I am now about to do a fresh install of Windows 7 on it because I think that would somehow make my machine a bit faster. I plan to buy additional RAM in the future to make it 4 GB. The question I have is to whether install a Win 32 bit or 64 bit on it (considering that I will upgrade the RAM to 4 GB sometime this month, or maybe next month).

I will be posting screenshots of my specs below for reference. I'd appreciate your advice on this one. Thank you all in advance.

Thanks for the prompt reply, Doc! :) on a side note, do you think the problem really is the mismatch of OS with RAM?

DocBrown said:

It says 2gb Single Channel memory. Is that just one 2gb module in a single slot in the motherboard ?

Honestly, I have no idea. I haven't actually opened the bottom of it yet since it's still under warranty. I would think so, though.

strollin said:

If you're not going to upgrade the RAM beyond 4G, I don't see much benefit to going with 64-bit. I'd stay with 32-bit UNLESS you think you'll up the RAM to more than 4G at a later date.

Win 8.1 is generally considered to have faster performance than Win 7 so switching OSes may not be the fix you're looking for.

I will definitely upgrade the RAM to a total of 4GB soon. Now, I'm kind of confused if I should still downgrade the OS to Win7 since you mentioned that "Win 8.1 is generally considered to have faster performance than Win 7" (though not from what I am experiencing for the past 2 days or so). edit: I also have a desktop with Win7 Ultimate installed on it, 4GB of RAM.

60% RAM usage and performance problems is not unusual on a 64 bit OS with 2 GB RAM. 2 GB is the minimum supported RAM for a 64 bit OS. You need 4 GB or more for optimum performance. A 64 bit OS is able to put more memory to good use than is possible with a 32 bit OS.

LMiller7 said:

60% RAM usage and performance problems is not unusual on a 64 bit OS with 2 GB RAM. 2 GB is the minimum supported RAM for a 64 bit OS. You need 4 GB or more for optimum performance. A 64 bit OS is able to put more memory to good use than is possible with a 32 bit OS.

Thanks, LMiller! :) I would love to retain Win8.1 that is on my laptop because I want to familiarize myself with it as well, but with the lag that I am experiencing (with only one tab of Chrome), I don't think it's worth it.

DocBrown said:

I just did a search on the Acer Aspire ES-521. It says it comes with 4gb upgradable to 8gb (2 slots on MB).

Could one of your 2gb sticks NOT be working as to why it shows 2gb single channel ?

Download Freeware CPU-Z and run it to see what it says about your memory slots, etc.

EDIT: Download CPU-Z - MajorGeeks

I am looking into the details of the receipt now. Gonna use CPU-Z 1.71.0 as well. Thank you so much for looking into this. I hope that's not the case (that it's bundled with 4GB of RAM indeed).

edit: I just noticed. It says "2 GB DDR3 L Memory" on the laptop itself (just beside the touchpad)