Windows 7 32bit or 64bit?

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ZollyMonsta

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#43003 14-Oct-2009 23:23

I'm going to go and purchase Windows 7 for my HTPC. The big question, should I get 64bit or 32bit?

My CPU is a Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 2.66 GHz, 1333MHz FSB, Socket 775. Running with 2gb of RAM.

Would I notice any benefit in running 64bit? Any trouble with drivers and running 32bit programs on a 64bit version on Windows 7?

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#263992 14-Oct-2009 23:27

64 bit. It's faster and now days there are no issues with finding drivers for it or 32 bit software running on it.

Do whatever you want to do man.

ZollyMonsta

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#263993 14-Oct-2009 23:31

No issues with running it with 2gb ram to start with? I read somewhere minimum is 4gb?

boby55

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#263994 14-Oct-2009 23:33

Nope, You can happily run a 64bit OS on only 2gb of ram, you just don't have the limitations of 4GB ram like 32bit.

I run Windows 7 Pro 64Bit and have no issue

heavenlywild

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#263997 14-Oct-2009 23:53

64 bit for sure. It's the way of the future and with Windows 7 it can potentially support up to 16GB of ram!

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#263998 14-Oct-2009 23:54

ZollyMonsta: No issues with running it with 2gb ram to start with? I read somewhere minimum is 4gb?

i think what you read was you should use min 4g ram full stop. not related to 64 bit.
both is fine. but some ancient (and i mean really really dinosaur ancient) programs wont work in 64 bit. some programs (very few) work better in 64 bit. so there's nothing wrong with 64 bit then. so use 64 bit ...

hmm ... clear as mud huh

davidcole

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#264012 15-Oct-2009 07:53

HTPC's don't need a huge amount of ram, if it's a dedicated box. I'm running 2gb on XP Pro, and have the swap file turned off.

If I want to add some services (iis etc) then I need to turn it back on. Or put more in.

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ZollyMonsta

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#264016 15-Oct-2009 08:09

Some helpful info... one last question... Does hardware required 64bit drivers, or can 32bit drivers work on a 64bit system?

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#264017 15-Oct-2009 08:10

I can't remember the exact details, but I do remember reading somewhere that MS is only branding computers as Win7 ready if they are running the 64bit version, which is usually a good sign that it's your best option. Could be wrong though, it was one of those feeds that I just sorta skimmed over in google reader.

64 bit is definately the best option though, and will work fine with everything. Gonna be interested to see what happens with Win8 being 128bit...

Adamal

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#264018 15-Oct-2009 08:11

You'll need 64bit drivers, but we're at a time now where 64 bit drivers are no longer scarce and hardware makers have been pumping them out.

If you're worried about that, check that drivers are available first.

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#264022 15-Oct-2009 08:32

Unless you have some ancient hardware you will find anything about two or three years old or newer will have a 64 bit driver.The most important things for HTPC are video cards and TV decoders and theser certainly have since you wll for sure be getting the latest ones, right?

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ZollyMonsta

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#264024 15-Oct-2009 08:36

Yep, all the hardware (apart from sat card) is brand new... and win7 RC loaded drivers automagically for all apart from the sat card.. so worse case no sat card driver.

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#264086 15-Oct-2009 14:51

I am running Win 7 ultimate 32bit on a 4 year dell laptop Core Duo 1.76gHz, 1GB RAM and 80GB SATA HDD with onboard Intel 939 GPU.

Works great!

Do whatever you want to do man.

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#265908 22-Oct-2009 06:50

64 bit is the best option
im on 32bit and itll only read 3 out of my 4gb ram

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#266021 22-Oct-2009 11:47

64bit can still create issues for video and audio codecs, in the past MKV was an issue. Seeing as this was to be an HTPC that might give you some grief.

I'm running Win7 32bit on an Athlon 3500+ with 1.5GB Ram, dual DVB-S cards and an nVidia 8400GS GPU. Runs well enough for what I need.

I'm not sure how you would use 4GB of memory (let alone 16GB) on an HTPC... i typically have about 512MB free...

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#266083 22-Oct-2009 13:28

If you have or think you will have more then 3GB of ram go 64. less stick with 32. I run 3GB on my MC and it has 32 installed but my main PC I run 64 or as it has 4GB of ram.
If you are running a small amount of ram then 32 has lower memory requirements.

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