Originally posted by: HopJokey
What version of Win7 do you guys think I should install for a machine with 2GB of RAM, the x64 version or the x86 version? I've heard the x64 kernel is more "secure" and I believe I shouldn't run into any program/driver issues with the x64 version thus I am leaning towards using x64. BTW the processor is an E8400.
Thanks in advance.
Given that you are using a E8400 processor, I'm assuming you're on a desktop and you can expand you RAM in the future. In that case, I would go with x64. I haven't encountered any real issues running an x64 OS in terms of drivers, but I've had fairly new hardware. If you have an old printer or scanner, be sure to check if a 64 bit driver is available.
My understanding is that the performance of x64 is not as good as it can be on a 2 GB system due to some overhead in the VMM. Apparently the breakeven point is somewhere around 3 GB, but the performance hit will be almost negligible.
My old laptop had a 2 GB limit on RAM, so for that system, I stuck with x86. My new laptop caps at 4 GB (which I have now installed) and I am running X64.
PhreePhly