32 / 64bit Windows 7 Ultimate

Hectic Glenn

Hectic Glenn

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I'm pretty lucky that a friend of my family is able to get me windows 7 ultimate for next to nothing and he has asked me whether i would like 32 / 64 bit.

It makes no difference in price, i've just always used 32 bit OS since i was born. Is now the time for me to change? So i can use more than 3gb of RAM and take advantage of other 64bit perks?

What should i choose? What other perks will I see? How are the incompatability issues these days?
 
Well, I'm using Vista 64 bit right now, and I enjoy the fact that you can use 32bit software on it. It would surprise me if this wouldn't be the case on Win7.
 
I don't know everything about the differences, but I believe the major concern previously with 64bit operating systems was poor driver support. I'm running the windows 7 release candidate 64bit right now and I have zero issues, slowdowns or driver incompatibilities. So unless I'm missing something, I don't see the point in 32bit.
 
I have the 64-bit version of Windows 7 RC, and 32-bit programs run fine for the most part. The only problem I ran into was that I couldn't install some of the drivers that were originally bundled with my laptop (i.e. I can't install the driver for my touchpad, but I guess Windows 7 had a generic driver for touchpads so not much of a problem anyways).
 
I'm running Win 7 RC 64-bit as well. No problems.
 
I'm running 64 bit and haven't really had any issues.
 
It seems a lot more people are actually running 64bit than I would have thought. It is good to hear you guys haven't been experiencing any problems, but what have you gained from using 64bit? Why did you change in the first place? I guess I just don't know why I should change
 
I've never used 64 bit either, but there's never been a better time for Windows users than with Windows 7. I believe they are going to be pushing it as the default, so it could start receiving more support than 32 bit.

The only bad part about 64 bit is that it 'wastes' RAM because it uses larger blocks (larger than is necessary with 32 bit), but that's easily made up for with the sheer amount of RAM that can be utilized.

I've only vague knowledge but this will cover all the bases and even compare it to 32bit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/64bit
 
Hectic Glenn said:
It seems a lot more people are actually running 64bit than I would have thought. It is good to hear you guys haven't been experiencing any problems, but what have you gained from using 64bit? Why did you change in the first place? I guess I just don't know why I should change
Click to expand...

If you've got 4Gb or more, you should be using 64-bit. More importantly, since Vista 64 came out and supplanted the godawful 64-bit version of XP, there's now no reason not to use 64-bit. Well, unless you haven't got a 64-bit CPU.
 
Hectic Glenn said:
It seems a lot more people are actually running 64bit than I would have thought. It is good to hear you guys haven't been experiencing any problems, but what have you gained from using 64bit? Why did you change in the first place? I guess I just don't know why I should change
Click to expand...

64 bit programs... more memory utilization. I plan on adding another 4 gigs into my computer when I get the money for it.
 
Some complex numerical analysis algorithms are limited in their precision by the errors that can creep in because not all floating point numbers can be accurately represented with a small number of bits. Creeping inaccuracies can lead to incorrect results, often leading to attempts to divide by zero, or to not identify two quantities as being identical for practical purposes.
Click to expand...
'nuff said
 
Hectic Glenn said:
I'm pretty lucky that a friend of my family is able to get me windows 7 ultimate for next to nothing and he has asked me whether i would like 32 / 64 bit.
Click to expand...
What's the nature of the deal? EU versions of Windows 7 bundle both 32 and 64-bit versions in the same package.

As far as Windows Vista 64 has gone for me, I've yet to encounter any aging component that can't be strangled into working perfectly after a quick google-search. There's always some generic version of the hardware out there with 64-bit support. I couldn't tell you the specifics of how much a performance boost you get, because it just seemed logical to leap frog 32-bit vista when upgrading from a five year old PC.
 
The only minor drawback of Vista 64bit for me was the strict enforcement of Digital Driver Signing. While I understand that this safeguards system stability, it has meant that I've had trouble installing some utilities by smaller developers (ones who can't afford/be bothered to get their drivers WHQL-certified). I'm not sure how this works out for Windows 7.

(EDIT: goes without saying that the benefits of extra RAM capacity far outweigh this.)
 
Laivasse said:
The only minor drawback of Vista 64bit for me was the strict enforcement of Digital Driver Signing. While I understand that this safeguards system stability, it has meant that I've had trouble installing some utilities by smaller developers (ones who can't afford/be bothered to get their drivers WHQL-certified). I'm not sure how this works out for Windows 7.

(EDIT: goes without saying that the benefits of extra RAM capacity far outweigh this.)
Click to expand...

Peerguardian? :)

If so, you can use Peerblock instead. Or so I've heard.
 
I have W7 64 RC on my laptop. Needed it for the 4 gigs. The Lenovo site had all of my model's drivers for Vista 64, and they work fine. No fiddling needed.
 
I've using Vista 64 without any issues for a while now. And I loooooove my 8GB ram :D
 
VirusType2 said:
'nuff said
Click to expand...
If you have floating point problems like this then you fail at programming. Like the people who worked on that one space rocket or whatever that all computer science teachers reference.
 
MuToiD_MaN said:
If you have floating point problems like this then you fail at programming. Like the people who worked on that one space rocket or whatever that all computer science teachers reference.
Click to expand...
It's for scientific math equations, but I just wanted to post divide by zero for some reason.
 
There is no reason to use 32 bit software anymore unless you still have a 32 bit processor. Early adopters had problems, as early adopters always do. But everything is sorted now, and theres no real downside anymore.
 
I am also running 64-bit, and it runs flawlessly.

There's added benefits in the fact that Windows is actually more secure under 64-bit. It has hardware-based DEP support (as opposed to software-based in 32-bit) which is used to prevent buffer overflows. It also has Patch Guard which protects the kernel from malware modifying kernel hooks.

I am running it on a 2GB machine, so RAM is not the reason I switched, though it is probably the biggest reason and incentive to switch. However, with a lot more driver support out there now for 64-bit, you shouldn't really have a problem at all.
 
The Brick,

Thank you for evaluating Windows 7 and it's great to hear that you are enjoying your experience so much! If you are planning on purchasing Windows 7 when it is released it may be helpful to know you don't have to wait until October to reserve your copy of Win 7! You can pre-order your copy of Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 7 Professional today. For more information, see the Windows 7 Pre-Order offer page here: http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/buy/offers/pre-order-ended.aspx

Jessica
Microsoft Windows Client Team
 
I was going to pre-order Windows 7 Pro for my PC and laptop back when the 50% off promotion was running. Except that it didn't apply for meatbags outside of the UK, Germany and France. So no. No pre-order for me.
 
Jessica,

I'm filled with admiration for your dedication and diligence in promoting the Windows 7 release candidate. You seem to be a woman of real substance, possessed of a passion and attention to detail which are rare nowadays. Call me crazy, but I see us together. Make me whole, Jessica, by getting in contact with me - let's get to know eachother. I know your response will contain all the characteristic elegance you've displayed in responding to people's concerns over Windows 7 driver support,

Yours
Laivasse
HL2.net Sexy Team
 
And thus, the veil slipped, and the borg in the room was revealed.
 
I was running x64 bit, but went back to Vista because there was no support for my wireless belkin adapter. But wasn't sure if it was a problem with x64 or Win7 in general. Belkin's technical support was useless and provided no more technical information than what I already knew.
 
I don't mean to hijack the thread, but I just got a new computer and I already have a lot of programs installed on it...My question is, is it worth it to do the clean install to get the 64-bit and have to install about 100 GBs worth of programs and such that I already have accumulated on my 32bit install. I am talking about Vista.

Here are my specs if they will help:

Intel 2 Core Quad Q8200 OC @ 2.8 Ghz
4GB DDR2 PC6400
ATI HD4850
 
If you think the speed boost will be worth it. I think occasionally reformatting is a good thing, you find out how much space you really are using and how much of the stuff you had was just accumulated filler. Of course over time the same thing happens again (to me anyways :p). My change from 32 XP to 64 Vista was a significant and large speed boost (knowing my speed after a fresh XP install too). My change from 64 Vista to 64 W7 however was less dramatic. Also your avatar is my current msn pic :)
 
Are you planning on upgrading to Windows 7? If you are you might as well wait. However if your not then I'd say do it, esp if you envisage wanting to upgrade your ram sometime down the road past 4GB.
 
Good question on the Windows 7....I dont have any plans right now...so I suppose it shall be a weekend project....I hate having to get all my steam games back up to speed though lol.
 
I'd say no. The difference for the average task is pretty much non-existent. It's just a good decision to pick 64bit when you do have to reinstall for some other reason.
 
Recently about the only thing I've run into with software/drivers 64bit vs 32bit is a single plugin for a compiler needed the 32bit java runtime instead of the 64bit runtime that was installed in 64bit windows. But it was easy to install the 32bit in a 64bit OS.
 
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