Do I have 64 bit capability?

[jacatone]

I'm running Win7 HP x86 on my eMachine and ran the Intel CPU ID Utility and it gave me the attached result. Does this mean I can run a x64 bit version of Win7? Thanks.

 

[yowanvista]

Yes you can

 

[Brink]

Hello Jacatone,

As long as you have 64-bit versions of your device's drivers, then yes you can install a 64-bit Windows 7.

However, I would recommend that you have at least 4GB of RAM installed for the 64-bit Windows 7 to have good performance.

http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/86886-32-bit-vs-64-bit-comparison.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[cmd187]

7 on a Pentium 4? What about your other hardware specs?

 

[jacatone]

Actually, I only have 512MB of RAM but I attached a 4GB flash drive and used that Power Boost feature. It works really well.

 

[zigzag3143]

Actually, I only have 512MB of RAM but I attached a 4GB flash drive and used that Power Boost feature. It works really well.

The minimum ram required for 64 bit is twice that of 32 (4 gigs of ram) what ever USB sitck you are using does not count toward it so with the amount of ram you have stay away from 64 bit unless you are upgrading it.



edit. Macgyvr is correct. the numbers are ABSOLUTE MINIMUM 32BIT= 1 GIG, 64BIT= 2 GIGS. More if you want any sort of performance and aero to run.

 

[MacGyvr]

Actually, I only have 512MB of RAM but I attached a 4GB flash drive and used that Power Boost feature. It works really well.

The minimum ram required for 64 bit is twice that of 32 (4 gigs of ram) what ever USB sitck you are using does not count toward it so with the amount of ram you have stay away from 64 bit unless you are upgrading it.

This is incorrect. The requirements are 1GB for 32 bit and 2GB for 64 bit (from Microsoft's page here).

 

[zigzag3143]

Actually, I only have 512MB of RAM but I attached a 4GB flash drive and used that Power Boost feature. It works really well.

The minimum ram required for 64 bit is twice that of 32 (4 gigs of ram) what ever USB sitck you are using does not count toward it so with the amount of ram you have stay away from 64 bit unless you are upgrading it.

This is incorrect. The requirements are 1GB for 32 bit and 2GB for 64 bit (from Microsoft's page here).

thanks for the numerical correction of a well known fact.. The premise still valid.

 

[DeaconFrost]

It says right in your screen shot that your system is x64 compatible.

Actually, I only have 512MB of RAM but I attached a 4GB flash drive and used that Power Boost feature. It works really well.

ReadyBoost is meant to provide a little boot to system with under 1 GB of memory. However, it would never replace the performance of actual memory. 512 MB is WAAAAAY too low for modern OSes, and well below what's been "usable" for several years now. Do yourself a favor, and regardless of your OS choice, add more memory.

 

[beman36]

seriously! adding more ram has so many benefits and its not expensve at all! btw I ran windows 7 on my HP pent 4 and it worked perfectly! but I did install 4 gb of ram...

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
Hold your horses a little bit.

You certainly CAN run a 64 Bit OS like W7 x-64 but what you unfortunately WON'T be able to do is run a 64 Bit GUEST VIRTUAL MACHINE. -- You can run a 32 bit virtual machine with no probs on that system.

If you aren't interested in running Virtual machines then no prob.

Incidentally you *Might* be able to turn the INTEL Virtualisation feature on in the BIOS setup -- at boot time press the relevant key to get into the BIOS setup -- not sure what it is on your system -- it's often things like the DEL key or F2 or whatever.

Just add more RAM anyway --its cheap enough and even if you only have 1 memory slot single slot 4GB RAM modules are common and cheap now --- ensure you buy RAM with the same number of PINS -- if you go to a store take the module with you -- there are a few different types of RAM now with different numbers of pins so don't waste money by buying the wrong type.

A PENTIUM IV will FLY on W7 with 4GB RAM -- the main drawback is a Pentium IV is a power hungry hog and if it's a laptop your battery will probably only last around 30 mins if that !!!!.

That's one reason why Pentium IV's disappeared from laptops fairly quickly --was nothing to do with performance -- they just GOBBLED up power.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Nigsy]

Is there any benefit to installing 64bit windows if you're going to have 4gb ram?? - is that extra 1/2 gb usable over 32bit going to make any difference.

 

[zigzag3143]

Is there any benefit to installing 64bit windows if you're going to have 4gb ram?? - is that extra 1/2 gb usable over 32bit going to make any difference.

about 10%. nothing you will see or feel. Plus 32bit uses less resources than 64 so it may be a wash.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
unless you NEED 64 bit applications -- I'd stick with the 32 bit version on that particular machine.

32 / vs 64 bit performance is not easy to compare on these types of machines -- a 32 bit application runs in a WOW (Windows on Windows) system -- overhead here on a 64 bit enabled CPU. 32 Bit applications will take at least TWO Internal instructions lengths compared with a native 64 bit piece of machine code -- but again it's not so simple -- your older DISKS and other hardware will be so much slower than the overhead of the CPU translating / mapping 32 bit code to the 64 bit CPU architecture that you really won't see any difference.

The value lies in 64 bit code when you run a true 64 bit application like Photoshop - then you WILL see a difference even with only 4GB RAM -- always assuming your disks aren't really slow.

For your older machine I'd stick with the 32 bit version.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[OldMX]

Get some more ram, its very cheap these days, like 4GB for 40 bucks or something. Once you go 64bit under the proper conditions, I bet you wont go back to 32bit.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there

DEFINITELY get more RAM -- I even "Upped" a tiny ACER ASPIRE ONE Netbook to 4GB -- cost me 32 EUR for a single 4GB memory module. Works brilliantly -- I can even run TWO VM's on this tiny netbook as well I generally have an XP VM and a Virtual W2K3 SERVER !!!! although for this I do use an external monitor.

It even runs Photoshop CS5 passably too -- although you have to have an external monitor for most functions since the screen resolution is too small for the minimum photoshop requitrments with the netbooks own screen. - WWorks fine with external monitor.

BTW the humble Netbook with a decent SSD and the 4GB RAM makes a lot of "conventional" Laptops and even some desktops look really SLOW -- and it has decent Video including a proper HDMI full 1080p HD video out -- but to make full use of this you really need to add more RAM like I've done by chucking out the 1GB module and replacing it with the 4GB module -- there's only a single memory slot on these.

Don't be put off by the sales specifications -- sometimes the specs say 1GB RAM max -- but that was because at the time the specs were written when 4GB or even 2GB single memory modules were either hard to obtain or prohibitively expensive.

Any machine however old that is capabable of running a 32 BIT OS CAN have up to 4GB memory installed AND WORKING providing you can find the appropriate memory module.

I'm often amazed at how many errors you see in the system specifications for some machines.


Cheers
jimbo

 

[cmd187]

Hi there

DEFINITELY get more RAM -- I even "Upped" a tiny ACER ASPIRE ONE Netbook to 4GB -- cost me 32 EUR for a single 4GB memory module. Works brilliantly -- I can even run TWO VM's on this tiny netbook as well I generally have an XP VM and a Virtual W2K3 SERVER !!!! although for this I do use an external monitor.

It even runs Photoshop CS5 passably too -- although you have to have an external monitor for most functions since the screen resolution is too small for the minimum photoshop requitrments with the netbooks own screen. - WWorks fine with external monitor.

BTW the humble Netbook with a decent SSD and the 4GB RAM makes a lot of "conventional" Laptops and even some desktops look really SLOW -- and it has decent Video including a proper HDMI full 1080p HD video out -- but to make full use of this you really need to add more RAM like I've done by chucking out the 1GB module and replacing it with the 4GB module -- there's only a single memory slot on these.

Don't be put off by the sales specifications -- sometimes the specs say 1GB RAM max -- but that was because at the time the specs were written when 4GB or even 2GB single memory modules were either hard to obtain or prohibitively expensive.

Any machine however old that is capabable of running a 32 BIT OS CAN have up to 4GB memory installed AND WORKING providing you can find the appropriate memory module.

I'm often amazed at how many errors you see in the system specifications for some machines.


Cheers
jimbo

VM's on a netbook? 1080p? The poor thing would die under the strain. It isn't possible.

 

[fANAT1C]

It says right in your screen shot that your system is x64 compatible.

Actually, I only have 512MB of RAM but I attached a 4GB flash drive and used that Power Boost feature. It works really well.

ReadyBoost is meant to provide a little boot to system with under 1 GB of memory. However, it would never replace the performance of actual memory. 512 MB is WAAAAAY too low for modern OSes, and well below what's been "usable" for several years now. Do yourself a favor, and regardless of your OS choice, add more memory.

Windows 7 runs better than Windows XP (both 32-bit) on pentium 4 computers imo, even with only 512 megs of RAM. Windows XP has alot of bugs that were never solved like when u kill a process with task manager the whole XP system was kinda frozen and reacted very slow until the process was finally killed. In 7 you can actually choose if you want to wait for the process to be killed, you can also just choose to close the program.

I've had very good experience with Windows 7 on pentium 4 computers with only 512 MB RAM (professional, ultimate and home premium 32-bit). The only notificant "problem" is that Aero won't work on systems with such low specifications (you need atleast 1 GB of RAM to run Aero I believe and maybe also a graphics card that is able to run Aero).

EDIT: it's always better to add more RAM (I don't mean adding 8 GB of RAM to a pentium 4 makes sense, if even possible) but to run Windows 7 and do things like MS Office or browse the internet you don't need 4 gigabytes of RAM. Although I would recommend you to buy atleast 2 gigabytes for a better performance.