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[chevil]

I got my hands on a laptop that runs on vista and I am planning to upgrade to windows 7 but this machine only has 2GB of ram. Should I get a 64 bit operating system or stick with good old 32?

[miauw62]

This should be in Life Advice, you can move it yourself. Search for a "Move Topic" button.

[10ebbor10]

Anyway, best just take the 64 bit version. Most 32 bit programs run on 64 just fine, but 64 bit programs seldom work on 32 bit systems. And as time passes, 32 bit is going to be phased out. ((Though well, 64 bit doesn't run 16 bit programs*))

Edit: 64 bit also leaves room for RAM expansion, which you might need soonish.

*Not that the 32 bit version will run them, but anyway. Emulators exist for a reason.

[Aptus]

64, no question.

[foil]

Take the 32 bit version as the 64 bit is only useful for accessing more than 4GB ram.

64 bit Windows is quite a bit bigger on disk and while running using some 3-400MB more ram, if you only have 2GB and an older machine 64 bit will hog too much ram and run a bit clunky.

All 32 bit apps are emulated on 64 bit too so if have a slower/older pc it will run much worse than 32 bit since 99% of app are still 32 bit only..

[aenri]

Yeah, 64bit is not really worth it for anything else than when you need to access more than 4GB RAM. Also yeah it will run slower than 32b on 2GB machines.

[nenjin]

Yeah, 64bit is not really worth it for anything else than when you need to access more than 4GB RAM.

I.e. anyone that wants to play modern games at not shit frame rates.

Get the 64-bit.

[Ameablable]

sixty4

[Scelly9]

Yeah, 64bit is not really worth it for anything else than when you need to access more than 4GB RAM.

I.e. anyone that wants to play modern games at not shit frame rates.

Get the 64-bit.

But he only has 2gb of ram, so he wont be playing modern games anyway.

[jaass]

Take the 32 bit version as the 64 bit is only useful for accessing more than 4GB ram.

64 bit Windows is quite a bit bigger on disk and while running using some 3-400MB more ram, if you only have 2GB and an older machine 64 bit will hog too much ram and run a bit clunky.

All 32 bit apps are emulated on 64 bit too so if have a slower/older pc it will run much worse than 32 bit since 99% of app are still 32 bit only..

Less bullshit, when it comes to Windows

It just streamlines and get rid useless program and features that come installed with Windows it should also reduce hard disk space. But it won't reduce much memory usage.

Linux

If all else fails you should install Linux, if it just for personal use.

Most popular and First-Time User choice
First-Time User choice, comes with everything pretty much installed
A person with a little more experience with Linux

Lightweight Distros

This should solve your problem with RAM and CPU usage

All you need is 128MBs of RAM and a CPU equivalent to a Pentium II which came out in 1999
______

If none of the above satisfy you just use Windows XP, it is not like your going to be doing much gaming on this system with 2GBs of RAM