for 3 GB RAM windows 7 - 64 bit or 32 bit

Hello,

I bought an new DELL Inspiron with 64 bit windows home premium and Intel core duo T4300 processor.

I do not want to upgrade RAM which is 3 GB.

Considering this; will I be getting more bang for 3 GB RAM using the 32 bit windows 7 home premium?

I do not play any games and use computer only for office applications and video format conversion.

One more help. The laptop has 250 GB HDD, is it an good idea to make an partition so as to keep only os on C: and applications and data on D:? What shall be size of C:?

Thanks

Hi mrphirke - Welcome to w7forums

We are currently in a transition between 32-Bit and 64-Bit. Most software titles are still 32-Bit and will run just fine on 64-Bit. Both 32-Bit and 64-Bit will run these applications equally as far as speed. For benefits of speed true 64-Bit applications will be needed. The day is coming that the software titles will require a 64-Bit OS. But for now you still have the choice of which bit version you want to use. My only question is why someone would hold back progression for so little performance gain?

The only thing I know to tell you is I have all my things installed on a 25GB partition with 10GB of that free. My data drive is 400GB in size. You can shrink and expand partition anytime with Disk Management within Windows 7.

hello clifford_cooley, thanks for reply;

my concern is that RAM will be hogged by 64 bit applications. I am thinking that same application that needs say 100 MB RAM in 32 bit OS will need ~ 200 MB RAM in 64 bit.

This will lead to more RAM usage in 64 bit compared to 32 bit and that in turn will lead to making my 3 GB RAM laptop slow.

I have no doubt that 64 bit OS with 6 GB RAM is faster than 32 bit OS with 3 GB RAM; but what if I have only 3GB RAM?

I searched but could not get an benchmark or test done which compares same RAM (less than or equal to what 32 bit OS can support) and processor for any application.

Do you mean to say that with less than 4GB RAM 64 bit OS with 64 bit optimized application will be faster than that of 32 bit ones?

I appreciate your help

If it means anything to you, I am only using 2GB Ram with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit. I have not really noticed any difference between the two bit versions.

I can add to this post that I have two separate computers that has 2GB RAM. One is a D610 Latitude laptop (32 bit), the other is this HP214 all in one (64 bit). They both run Windows 7. The HP (64 bit) smokes the 32 bit laptop. Age and processors probably make a difference, too. I do intend to upgrade my HP desktop to 4GB RAM, but I'm in no hurry, because most of the programs on here are 32 bit ones anyway. When 64 bit programs become the norm, then I'll move up to 4GB of RAM.

3GB should be more than enough for those purposes - on both a 32bit and a 64bit system. I agree with Clifford in his first post: the minimal performance increase that you'd get from having the 32bit system instead isn't worth downgrading in my opinion.

Keep the x64

If you're curious about RAM, read my posting here:
Update on help in choosing a new pc.

3GB is more than adequate, believe me. I run 4GB and here is what Task Manager shows when the browser is open, and listening to my audio player with streaming internet audio @ 64Kbps AAC+ Mode.

Hello Nibiru2012,

Thanks for reply; now I have almost made my mind to stick to 64 bit windows 7.

I also visited the toms hardware review you referred :
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...de,2264-2.html

It is an detailed review; but I would have really loved if they used commonly used configurations;

I mean come on... how many people really have CORE i7; DDR3 - 1600; 1 GB Graphics and 10,000 RPM HDD to top it off... and people who build this kind of rig will not be much bothered much about weather 3 GB Ram is enough... they would put much more ram than that.

I think the point was to show that the memory was not really needed passed 3GB. The only way to really prove this was to make sure the other components was not the bottleneck.

However I do see your point. I was curious to see what the scores would have been with 2GB and even 1GB. But that was not an option with triple channel DDR3.