The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Should I go for 32bit or 64 bit

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by demente182, May 9, 2009.

  1. demente182

    demente182 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    19
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
  2. X2P

    X2P COOLING | NBR Super Mod

    Reputations:
    3,179
    Messages:
    5,361
    Likes Received:
    4
    Trophy Points:
    206
    I have deleted your other thread, cross posting is against forum rules
     
  3. crash

    crash NBR Assassin

    Reputations:
    2,221
    Messages:
    5,540
    Likes Received:
    13
    Trophy Points:
    206
    If you have a copy of 64-bit Vista lying around, you might as well install. You'd be able to use all 4 GB of your RAM that way. If not, upgrading to 64-bit won't be a huge increase in performance.

    I'd check MSI's site to see if they have 64-bit drivers for that laptop before installing 64-bit Vista.
     
  4. kanehi

    kanehi Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    146
    Messages:
    1,943
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    I disagree. 32bit OS (Vista/XP) is able to use up to 4gb RAM... but reporting less than there is.
     
  5. Lomaster

    Lomaster Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    98
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    32-bit Vista recognizes and fully utilises all 4GB of RAM. Tested on Dell XPS 1330. Don't know where you get that 32 bit only recognizes 3GB.
     
  6. syko21

    syko21 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    5
    Messages:
    23
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    32bit OS ADDRESSES up to 4GB of RAM but everything uses a little bit of those addresses including video cards and motherboard bits and pieces. In plain english you have 4GB of addressable space. X amount of space is random hardware and you have 4GB of RAM. 32bit will address the X amount first and then address the ram giving you access to however much RAM is 4GB - X.

    Corsair document on the subject
    http://www.ibuypower.com/images/4GBInfo.pdf
     
  7. Full-English

    Full-English Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    1,227
    Messages:
    1,512
    Likes Received:
    8
    Trophy Points:
    56
    Put a 32 bit OS on a machine with say 6 or 8gb or RAM and you will have a whole load of wasted RAM.

    Also use the search function, and find the countless threads on the forum of people wondering why people can't see or utilize all 4gb of RAM.

    Do a little research and you will quite clearly see it's physically impossible for the OS to use more than 3-3.5gb of RAM.
     
  8. DetlevCM

    DetlevCM Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    4,843
    Messages:
    8,389
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    205
    Ever heard of search - see my signature - read my post then ask a more informed question.

    Thank you.
     
  9. demente182

    demente182 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    19
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    I checked on MSI's website, and apparently they do not have drivers for 64-bit OS, so I guess I will stay with windows 32 bit for a while now. Thanks to everyone.
     
  10. DetlevCM

    DetlevCM Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    4,843
    Messages:
    8,389
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    205
    Unless there is some proprietary software/library - example, Sony's shared librarires - you can get the drivers from the manufacturer directly.
     
  11. Bog

    Bog Losing it...

    Reputations:
    4,018
    Messages:
    6,046
    Likes Received:
    7
    Trophy Points:
    206
    These posts are misleading. 32-bit Vista will recognize the amount of physical RAM, shown in System Properties; however, as one can see in Task Manager, only ~3.5GB are usable for the OS and its programs.
     
  12. Matrix_XII

    Matrix_XII Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    16
    Messages:
    169
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    No much different. if you are not going to run any programm that required 64bit OS. most of time ( say 90%) 4gb ram only had 3gb maximum in used.