Windows 7 32 or 64 on new Lenovo T400

[John L]

I am purchasing a new Lenovo T400 laptop. Lenovo offers the Home Premium Windows 7 OS in both 32 and 64-bit versions, at the same price, with the 32 bit version being the "standard" choice. What are the tradeoffs of having the 32 v. 64-bit version installed? I understand that 32-versions may eventually become obsolete, but I am more interested in immediate performance and utility. I also have a lot of memory on the comptuer.

John L

 

[ZeshanA]

I am purchasing a new Lenovo T400 laptop. Lenovo offers the Home Premium Windows 7 OS in both 32 and 64-bit versions, at the same price, with the 32 bit version being the "standard" choice. What are the tradeoffs of having the 32 v. 64-bit version installed? I understand that 32-versions may eventually become obsolete, but I am more interested in immediate performance and utility. I also have a lot of memory on the comptuer.

John L

Well John, It all depends on how much memory/RAM you have installed and the GHz of your CPU.
Looking at this: Lenovo - Laptop computers - ThinkPad T400 even the ultimate version only has 2GB, so 64-Bit Windows 7 will just about be able to run on it.You won't experience any better performance than if you were running 32-bit. A good minimum for any performance increases is 3GB of RAM.

That's my 2 cents :huh:

Thanks,
ZeshanA
If a user helps you, click the scales at the top right of their post and click I Approve.

 

[mushroomboy]

I am purchasing a new Lenovo T400 laptop. Lenovo offers the Home Premium Windows 7 OS in both 32 and 64-bit versions, at the same price, with the 32 bit version being the "standard" choice. What are the tradeoffs of having the 32 v. 64-bit version installed? I understand that 32-versions may eventually become obsolete, but I am more interested in immediate performance and utility. I also have a lot of memory on the comptuer.

John L

Well John, It all depends on how much memory/RAM you have installed and the GHz of your CPU.
Looking at this: Lenovo - Laptop computers - ThinkPad T400 even the ultimate version only has 2GB, so 64-Bit will just about be able to run on it. A good minimum for 64-bit is 4GB of RAM. You won't experience any better performance and your performance may even be worse than if you were running 32-bit.

That's my 2 cents :huh:

Thanks,
ZeshanA
If a user helps you, click the scales at the top right of their post and click I Approve.

That's some BS if I've ever herd BS being spout out. It's like saying you can't run Bioshock on a single core cpu. Most OS's will run 64bit on 1G of ram perfectly fine but you don't get much output over 32bit. Though I have seen benchmarks that say Vista 64bit outperforms Vista 32bit with 2G of ram. The 4G comes from the fact that 32bit can't use anything more than 4G (and that's with an extention, normally it's 3.5G) so they say you don't need 64bit unless you have 4G or more, but that's just bs. We have to change to 64bit eventually as 128bit is being talked about so you might as well change over sooner than later. People say all this crap "because it's what I've been told, it's what the 'real' benchmarks say". That's cause most people use google and end up reading the first couple search resaults that seem decent. I've been in the 64bit 3 months after AMD came out with the AMD64 Newcastle cores, and that was a while ago when 754 first came out. =( I should have gone 939 or w/e it was, but ahh well. I've been running 64bit with 1G ram for years and I've never looked back. I haven't ever had anny issues with 1G making 64bit slow. I've also never had driver issues either with the exception of them dropping support for SBL.

[edit] Even 64bit XP seemed better than the 32bit counterpart, though Vista came out and I was much happier.

 

[Frostmourne]

Max out the RAM in the laptop and futureproof it with 64-bit Windows.

 

[joel406]

mushroomboy is right.

Go 64 I have loaded it on 1gig systems and it runs great.

Windows 7 has a better memory management system then..well..anybody! And will run great on a single core 1gig setup. Provided you could find a single core x64 CPU. Some P4s were x64 but that was the old socket 478 days.

 

[mushroomboy]

mushroomboy is right.

Go 64 I have loaded it on 1gig systems and it runs great.

Windows 7 has a better memory management system then..well..anybody! And will run great on a single core 1gig setup. Provided you could find a single core x64 CPU. Some P4s were x64 but that was the old socket 478 days.

yeah and it wasn't nearly as good as AMD's 64 start, Intel went with HT tech and I don't think AMD has adopted it yet. I think they would just rather work on multiple cores, though they should adopt HT as well.

 

[ZeshanA]

I am purchasing a new Lenovo T400 laptop. Lenovo offers the Home Premium Windows 7 OS in both 32 and 64-bit versions, at the same price, with the 32 bit version being the "standard" choice. What are the tradeoffs of having the 32 v. 64-bit version installed? I understand that 32-versions may eventually become obsolete, but I am more interested in immediate performance and utility. I also have a lot of memory on the comptuer.

John L

Well John, It all depends on how much memory/RAM you have installed and the GHz of your CPU.
Looking at this: Lenovo - Laptop computers - ThinkPad T400 even the ultimate version only has 2GB, so 64-Bit will just about be able to run on it. A good minimum for 64-bit is 4GB of RAM. You won't experience any better performance and your performance may even be worse than if you were running 32-bit.

That's my 2 cents :huh:

Thanks,
ZeshanA
If a user helps you, click the scales at the top right of their post and click I Approve.

That's some BS if I've ever herd BS being spout out. It's like saying you can't run Bioshock on a single core cpu. Most OS's will run 64bit on 1G of ram perfectly fine but you don't get much output over 32bit. Though I have seen benchmarks that say Vista 64bit outperforms Vista 32bit with 2G of ram. The 4G comes from the fact that 32bit can't use anything more than 4G (and that's with an extention, normally it's 3.5G) so they say you don't need 64bit unless you have 4G or more, but that's just bs. We have to change to 64bit eventually as 128bit is being talked about so you might as well change over sooner than later. People say all this crap "because it's what I've been told, it's what the 'real' benchmarks say". That's cause most people use google and end up reading the first couple search resaults that seem decent. I've been in the 64bit 3 months after AMD came out with the AMD64 Newcastle cores, and that was a while ago when 754 first came out. =( I should have gone 939 or w/e it was, but ahh well. I've been running 64bit with 1G ram for years and I've never looked back. I haven't ever had anny issues with 1G making 64bit slow. I've also never had driver issues either with the exception of them dropping support for SBL.

[edit] Even 64bit XP seemed better than the 32bit counterpart, though Vista came out and I was much happier.

Oh, BS is it? Check the Windows 7 System Requirements before you say posts are BS.

Thanks,
ZeshanA

 

[Barman58]

Please keep things civil people - not need for a discussion to lead to arguments

memory is not the only reason to go 64 bit. the following is vVista related but gives a fuller grounding on the advantages of 64 bit ...

64-bit: More than just the RAM - Vista Forums

It's a personal choice what anyone tries on their machine

 

[mushroomboy]

No it is BS, did you ever hear about the scam Microsoft was doing for WinXP latptops? Making certain requirements so that in order to get regular OEM discount they had to keep the specs under a certain amount so they could keep the laptop market under wraps? MS has done a lot of BS with system requirements for a LONG LONG LONG time. They set minimum spec's so people buy better computers. Basically if you run Win7 on X laptop we will set the standards higher so those laptops you sold last year will be "no good". Really it's marketing, and real good at that.

 

[John L]

Thanks to all for all the advice, and particularly the thread posted by Barman 58 as to the advantages of 64-bit. Since I have 3 G of RAM, and I want to keep abreast of developments on computers, I have decided to order the 64-bit OS. It is very helpful for a relative novice like myself to be able to access such knowledgeable advice.

 

[mushroomboy]

In my earlier post, when I mean control the laptops it's not only specs. What laptop sells with linux in most stores? Infact what computers sell with linux in stores? Or how about sold without an OS? Most computers come "pre-loaded" And MS has put "new system specs" so you buy a new computer that comes pre-loaded with the new windows all because MS wants to keep things pre-loaded.

 

[ZeshanA]

No it is BS, did you ever hear about the scam Microsoft was doing for WinXP latptops? Making certain requirements so that in order to get regular OEM discount they had to keep the specs under a certain amount so they could keep the laptop market under wraps? MS has done a lot of BS with system requirements for a LONG LONG LONG time. They set minimum spec's so people buy better computers. Basically if you run Win7 on X laptop we will set the standards higher so those laptops you sold last year will be "no good". Really it's marketing, and real good at that.

Yeah, I guess so......... Sorry about earlier.

ZeshanA

 

[mushroomboy]

Well if you want to sell laptops and MS says in order to have it's OS installed they have to be X speeds and you say "but it runs on lower and I could sell it cheaper" what is MS going to do? Tell you "no, it has to be this", so of course you need those specs. Now the main companies can make laptops cheaper and they like this. Well since a person is going to think they need that new computer to run Windows 7, then of course they are going to buy a new one. Which helps both MS and manufacturers and promote whatever manufacturer has MS windows on it. See how that just works out so nice? MS has the power, because they know what can really run their system, but they won't tell you the real bare minimum specs. That would be bad and then people are going to want to sell laptops with Windows 7 on it at lower specs and MS won't have that hold over the market.