hey guys, sorry, not sure if this is the right section to post such a question, so mods please feel free to move it to the appropriate section. anywho, can someone help me with this whole 32bit and 64bit versions of software. from what i've already read, it has something to do with the bit of your processor, and if you have a 64 bit processor then you should use the 64bit OS? however, whats the difference between the two? is 64bit supposed to be faster and what not? also just out of curiosity..why is the 64bit leaked win7 about 1gb more then the 32bit? ...and finally, does anyone know if its possible or dangerous to have the 64bit version installed on a 32bit processor (running an e6750, planning to upgrade to an i7 shortly)? cheers
1. If you have a 64-bit CPU, you should just use a 64-bit operating system, it's a waste otherwise. (There's a small argument of loss of DOS/Win3.1 compatibility, but DOSBox works fine for those purposes on 64-bit anyhow) 2. All versions of Vista and Win7 64-bit have been larger than the 32-bit ones... this is normal. The binaries are just slightly bigger, is all. 3. Yes, 64-bit is able to address more memory, use more CPU registers; it is faster than a 32-bit OS. 4. It is not possible to install a 64-bit OS on a 32-bit only processor. 5. The E6750 is, in fact, a 64-bit processor
hi campbell, thanks for your reply. wow i never knew the 6750 was a 64bit, thanks for that ok so from what i can see, the only real problem in running a 64bit OS is if your trying to run 16bit code? otherwise you should be fine right? so i assume you would also recommend i go with the 64bit version of 7? cheers
Yeah, you should go 64-bit... Well, the one caveat is that I'd recommend 1GB or more of RAM for 64-bit OSes, but it shouldn't be much of an issue these days
64 bit versions are larger because they also contain all the 32bit libs and stuff. Also when running 32bit applications within a 64bit OS it will run slightly slower than on a 32bit OS. This is due to emulation. It is barely noticeable. My advice, if you have less than 4GB of RAM, run 32bit, if you have 4GB or more run 64bit.
awesome, thanks guys. like i say, im planning on doing a very decent upgrade some time very soon, so looks like i'll just go for the 64bit and see how it goes. thanks again