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Upgrading to Win7 x64 or x32?

Charlie98

Diamond Member
Since my new build has W7 x64 for the OS, I'm thinking about upgrading my other 3 computers to W7 from XP (2 laptops and the old desktop.)

For the desktop (an older Dell Pentium D system) in the BIOS is says it is 64-bit capable... does that mean it can handle W7 x64? ...or am I asking for trouble and should just go with x32?
 
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So you will actually have to buy 2 win 7 licenses? IMHO not worth it. Calling for trouble especially the laptops. Drivers available for those laptops for win 7 and 64-bit? and so forth. calling for trouble even with 32-bit version.

BTW:
x32 does not exist. it's called x86.
 
I think it's worth a try to go x64 but it also depends on the amount of ram, etc as to if it will run decently or not.
 
If it were me, I would probably just keep a Pentium D system on XP. If for some reason you really want to run Win 7 on it, stick with the 32-bit version unless you intend to install more than 3 GB of RAM.
 
I would go with 64bit. You can always install it and choose not to activate it for a few test days and try the 32bit if it doesn't work. If at all possible, I recommend making an image of all your boot drives so you can easily reinstall your previous OS, on top of backing everything up. The Windows upgrade adviser should be able to tell you if you can go with 64bit. IMHO, 3GB is plenty. I have an older notebook with only 1.5GB and it isn't bad, although this one I could only use the 32bit version.
 
Any serious downside to 32bit vs 64?

If I put Win7 in, it would be on a new, bare drive... I think Win7 would pretty much smoke my current laptop's 40GB HHD... (but that's a topic for another thread...) and probably fill my old desktop's already-full 80GB HHD.

Maybe I'll just stick with XP...
 
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XP is way too vulnerable to problems, including viruses. It gets messed up way more easy than Windows 7. I just don't understand this wanting to stay with a ten year old operating system. If you are going to upgrade, now is a golden time to upgrade your hard drives. Today's modern drives, not just SSD, smoke drives from a few years ago.
 
XP is way too vulnerable to problems, including viruses. It gets messed up way more easy than Windows 7. I just don't understand this wanting to stay with a ten year old operating system. If you are going to upgrade, now is a golden time to upgrade your hard drives. Today's modern drives, not just SSD, smoke drives from a few years ago.

Am I missing something, or does his laptop and desktop have 256mb, and 512mb respectively? If that's the case, I think Puppy Linux, or SliTaz would be better choices.
 
Am I missing something, or does his laptop and desktop have 256mb, and 512mb respectively? If that's the case, I think Puppy Linux, or SliTaz would be better choices.

Are you talking RAM? The old desktop (OP for this discussion) has 1.5G RAM, and that's fixing to increase. The laptop has 512G RAM, and that's fixing to go up, too, probably 2x 1G.

What I need is interchangeability of data (backups for my main business computer) between my new build and the Dell 6000 laptop and my programs.
 
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