32 bit or 64 bit, Which is Best for Me?
Posted on 10. Dec, 2008 by Mike Halsey in pc support
You might have heard about 64 bit and 32 bit versions of Windows, then again this might be news to you. What does this mean? Simply put it refers to how many characters long a number can be, 32 or 64 characters. A 64 character number will be able to be considerably bigger than a 32 character number. So what difference does this make to you?
If you’re running WIndows Vista or Windows 7, then unless you’ve bought a proper gaming PC then you’ll probably have a 32 bit operating system. You can check by typing System into the search box in the Start Menu and running the System program that appears. In the, could you guess, ‘System’ section you’ll find your System Type. This will either be 32-bit or 64-bit. If you’re running Windows XP then you’ll certainly have a 32 bit operating system. The 64 bit version of XP had rubbish hardware support and was discontinued by Microsoft some time ago.
Do those numbers mean anything to you then? There are two things.
Memory
I’ve written before that the cheapest and quickest way to upgrade your PC and boost its performance is to add more memory. If you’re just doing casual web browsing and editing the odd Word document you won’t get as much benefit from this as you would if you’re doing something intensive like gaming, but upgrading to 3Gb can still have its benefits.
In its simplest terms, because of that maximum 32 character number, 32 bit operating systems can only see up to 4Gb of memory. This includes the memory on your motherboard and the memory on your graphics card. This means that if you have 4Gb of memory on four 1Gb cards and 256Mb of memory on your graphics card, Windows will only see three of those installed 3Gb cards. This is a bit of a waste.
64 bit operating systems can see considerably more than 4Gb, so if you think you’d benefit from additional memory (at the time of writing the usual is a minimum of 1Gb and more usually 2Gb) then upgrading to a 64 bit version of Windows could be of a real benefit.
The best part of this upgrade is that your existing product key will work fine. You can usually get a 64 bit install DVD from the company that supplied your PC, though they may levy a charge for it. You might be lucky in that you have one already. If you have a friend with one, so long as it’s not one tied to their own computer it should work fine with your product key. Versions that are tied to your specific computer usually have the company logo on the DVD and aren’t the holographic Microsoft disc.
Security
There also some security benefits to 64 bit versions of Windows. There are additional features not in the 32 bit versions of Windows to stop nasties from taking over your PC and doing damage. Let’s face it, any additional security has got to be a good thing.
So can I install it then?
If your PC contains a processor made after 2006, an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, i7 or an AMB AthlonX2 or later, then you’ll have no problems. Older processors such as the ordinary Athlon or Pentium 4 and Celeron won’t support 64 bit operating systems, and the Windows installer will refuse to install if this is the case. If you have an older processor though then I’d suggest looking at upgrading your PC anyway.
You can’t do an upgrade over your current version of Windows. This will be a clean install requiring a format of your main drive. I’ve written about this too.
Should you decide you want 4Gb of installed memory or more, or if your PC came supplied with that much but you can’t see it, then this is definitely a good course of action. If not, there’s no reason to reinstall Windows just for the additional security benefits alone, as it’s a lot of bother.
it with others, or 
