Going from XP to W7 - RAM upgrade question

injuredrunner

Hello all :-)

I'm a longtime lurker and a first time poster.

My venerable HP Pavilion T360 currently runs 32 bit Windows XP and has 2GB of RAM installed (I upgraded it many moons ago from the factory installed 1GB to 2GB).

With the impending doom of XP I have decided to take the plunge and upgrade to Windows 7. I've run the Windows 7 compatibility tool and it states that I should be ok for 32 bit Windows 7.

I have done a bit of googling and see that the motherboard of my computer can support up to 4GB of RAM, although HP only recommend 2GB.

I'm just wondering, is it worth taking the plunge and trying 4GB of RAM? If I do, and it works, will I still need the 32 bit version of W7 or the 64 bit?

I'm trying to extend the life of my desktop for a bit further yet so would I notice a big difference? Or should I stick to what I currently have?

Opinions gratefully received.

JJ_Egan

32bit can only see something like 3.3 GB .
64 bit will go vastly higher .
I would go to 64bit win 7 .

injuredrunner

Thanks for that, what difference would I see realistically? Does it matter that HP only recommend 2GB?

emptybox

Windows 7 will run fine with 2GB RAM.
4GB would give it more elbow room, but it maybe that you would require a BIOS upgrade for the motherboard to work with the extra?

Do you know which processor is in your laptop? I can't find the specs for it online.

You won't really see any performance difference between the 32 bit and 64 bit versions. The 64 bit version would use all of 4 GB RAM, but you might have more trouble finding drivers for older hardware?

injuredrunner

That's good info emptybox thank you :-)

According to speccy its an Intel Pentium 4

ThemeOne

Agree with that advice. Also bear in mind a surprising number of other Windows applications you might use still only come in 32-bit versions e.g. Adobe Reader, many alternative browsers etc.

That's not to say don't go for 64 bit, as you'll still be able to run all the 32 bit apps, I just found it a bit disappointing many of them don't have a 64-bit version.

aerostar

64bit Windows will ONLY run on a 64bit CPU so make sure if you go this route that you do have as 64bit CPU.

32bit programs work fine on 64bit CPUs

closed

by the time you've bought windows and some ram, you're half way to the price of a new machine. xp will still work

jbuchanangb

I would not advise attempting to upgrade to 4GB and 64-bit. Safe ground is to stick with 2GB and 32-bit. I upgraded a 6 years old Dell from XP to W7 last year. It does need care and attention, because everything has to be backed up re-installed and restored.
I followed the Microsoft instructions and used a proper Windows 7 upgrade disk which included migration tools.
It's all in the preparation. Make sure you have everything ready, including the disks or downloaded files for all the applications you intend you re-instate.

And of course there's no real to do it unless the old laptop is in need of a nice clean operating system anyway. My wife's Dell was getting distinctly creaky after 6 years use and so a nice clean new OS was needed. XP will go on as long as you want to use it. Just Microsoft will stop sending those irritating updates!

ThemeOne

It'll be interesting how long XP does remain usable for.

The reason I say that is because its immediate predecessor, Windows 2000, is now hardly usable at all (if you want to run any applications on it, that is) since most applications now run on technology that was never included in the OS and cannot now be added to it.

For example, last time I checked (about a year ago), I think there was only one mainstream browser that still supported Win2k, so very soon all it would be good for is perhaps running an old version of MS Office, and remaining entirely offline.

emptybox

injuredrunner wrote: »

That's good info emptybox thank you :-)

According to speccy its an Intel Pentium 4

aerostar wrote: »

64bit Windows will ONLY run on a 64bit CPU so make sure if you go this route that you do have as 64bit CPU.

32bit programs work fine on 64bit CPUs

I was going to say that, because only the later Pentium 4s are 64 bit capable anyway.
We'd have to know the exact model and/or motherboard model, to be able to tell for certain.