My laptop has an Athlon 64 x2 and 2Gb RAM. I may go to 4 eventually, but it's not a top priority. My Amazon Windows 7 preorder showed up today - I'm probably going to put 64 on unless there's a compelling reason to stay with 32.

Unfortunately, since I lost the charger to my phone and Palm doesn't have x64 USB drivers, I can't install 7 until my new charger gets here...because the only way I can charge my phone now is by plugging it into my laptop..

I think there might be some problem with x64 VPN clients connecting to some VPN servers. My university site says rather bluntly,


yes, the bold is there in the original too.

No need for VPN, but ty!

Older Cisco VPNs don't have a 64-bit client and Cisco will never release one, but there are third-party 64-bit clients that can connect to them like NCP.

Yes, but can't you just run 32-bit VPN anyway? A 64-bit OS doesn't mean all your software must be 64-bit.

It installs a virtual network driver, and Cisco won't make a 64-bit version.

64-bit windows cannot run 16-bit applications (IE applications designed for Windows 3.1), some old game installers are 16-bit in particular. This also includes DOS applications as well, however you can use DOSBox for those.

64-bit windows does not have any innate advantages except 1) everyone is moving to 64-bit eventually 2) most apps will work fine 3) you can use more memory.

VirtualBox can run 64-bit OS inside of a VM even on a 32-bit host OS, as long as you have a 64-bit proc. I don't know about other virtualization solutions, VMWare probably can, Virtual PC probably can't. Of course you can run a 32-bit guest OS regardless of whether you use a 64 or 32-bit host OS. So this can be another consideration, depending on which OS mode you think you'll be using the most.

For example, Mort-Hog/Darth/Emon, you can easily make a 32-bit guest OS that will run the VPN software and share the connection using network bridging or internet connection sharing.

Or you can use a 3rd party VPN client like NCP that works in x64 Windows and can connect to VPNs from various companies. A whole lot less of a pain than using a VM solely for the purpose of using a VPN.

Not to mention Windows 7 has a built-in VPN client that you may or may not be able to get to work with some VPNs.

Windows 7 x64 requires all drivers to be WHQL signed. This means, for instance, no ATI Tray tools or other overclocking apps. In fact, no beta drivers at all.

This, in my opinion, is probably my main reason for sticking with 32bit for the time being, along with the fact that i dont have time to do a fresh install and you cant go from 32bit to 64bit

I've had no such issues.

I use beta drivers all the time.

Beta drivers are still WHQL. ATI Tray Tools doesn't even install drivers, so I have no idea what you mean there.

64-bit generally means your computer will be faster. There are a lot of reasons for this. It'll become more apparent as more software is released that takes advantage of the platform.


There are way more advantages than what you listed. But yeah, there are probably only 3 people on this forum who'd know the difference.

Well yeah, apps can work with larger numbers natively, which can result in a speed boost over apps which have to work with a special library for big numbers. AFAIK.

Of course this only works if they need numbers bigger than 32-bit, but not bigger than 64-bit. Otherwise you have to use/make special functions anyway.

I had the ATI Tray tools going before I switched video cards, they worked fine.

I have CCC running with the tray icon in 7 Pro x64..works flawlessly.

So basically, there's no reason for me to install x32 other than my Palm will be able to tether via USB. That's pretty significant (intarwebz), so maybe I will go with x32.

I would be astonished if there were no drivers for your palm as well?

x64 has twice as many registers.

the larger address space also makes memory mapped file i/o practical.

other things

I need to remember that I don't know as much as I think I do about hardware.

Apparently there are for bluetooth sync, but not USB.

ati tray tools is a third party app that has more OC functionality than CCC, but is less intuitive.

What Palm do you have?

Centro.

I am so looking forward to upgrading next summer. This one has a habit of freezing whenever it receives a text message...or sometimes for no apparent reason at all. Pisses me right off.

http://www.mobile-stream.com/usbmodem.html

Supposedly supports 64bit. Has a demo to try it out.