Windows 7 32-bit or 64-bit

[guncrasher]

  I'm thinking of upgrading to Windows 7, from Vista.  I've been doing a lot of reading on the Pros & Cons of both 32 & 64-bit.  I'm still quite confused though.  It appears that 64-bit is the future, from what I can gather, but needs more memory to really shine.  Where 32-bit seems to outperform 64-bit when using 2gb of RAM or less.
  I guess I'm wondering how AHII will run using 64-bit.  I've read on the these forums that for some it's great, but others say it's worse.
I'll be getting the OEM version, so I will be stuck with one or the other.

Thanks for any input.
Coogan

do you actually have 2 gigs of ram?  try getting 2 more and if not having problems with vista, that may actually improve the game.

semp

[100Coogn]

Is the OP currently running AH on his oh so bad Vista and did he complain about having trouble with it? If yes, install 7. If not, no reason to touch it at all. Simple as that.

The OP has read somewhere about the pros and cons of going 64-bit and is now thinking to pay money and reinstall. I would never suggest anyone to do that on such basis. Well, unless I owned MS stocks and wanted to grow my returns.

MrRiplEy[H], I have no issues running AHII on my current setup.

MotherBoard  ASUS M3A76-CM
CPU  AMD Phenom II 9850
Video Card   EVGA GTS 250
Memory  4gb
Sound Card  Creative SB X-FI Xtreme Audio

Not a power house by anymeans.

My impression I got from my research was that I may have a performance increase, (even a slight one) If I upgraded to Windows 7.  I'm not having any issues using my rig for every day to day things.  And as I've said, AH does run smooth on it.  I have the processes cut back to 49.  The CPU shows between 0-1% usage, when at idle.
Perhaps I'll just bank the money I was going to drop on Windows 7 for a future hardware upgrade.

Thanks for all the reply's on this matter.
  Coogan
 

[Skuzzy]

The bad rep Vista got was due to the change in driver model and subsequent troubles with a bunch of device drivers.

By the time 7 was released the drivers were matured and also Vista was stable but nobody cared anymore. Damage was done.

The point is: IF the OP has no actual problems with his Vista he has no sense to start installing Win7. It won't bring anything that beneficial to warrant the cost.

That is not quite accurate.  Vista was Microsoft's first attempt at a full blown DRM system and it was badly botched in Vista.  The memory management was also botched.  The layers were wrapped in the wrong order, as it were.

Vista still has very serious issues with power management.  The issues are architectural and will not be fixed as the only fix is to install a new OS that has been properly designed to address the issues.

There are serious design issues with Vista's core logic.  Moving away from Vista is always a good idea.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Moving away from Vista is always a good idea.

The OP said he has no problems with his system. I'd like to see which one of you will bail him out if he manages to botch his system with reinstall or get an application broken / lost install cd / whatever through the process

If it isn't broken don't start to fix it with all due respect Skuzzy.

[Skuzzy]

The OP said he has no problems with his system. I'd like to see which one of you will bail him out if he manages to botch his system with reinstall or get an application broken / lost install cd / whatever through the process

If it isn't broken don't start to fix it with all due respect Skuzzy.

I too agree with the "Don't fix it if it is not borked".  However, if everything the OP has works fine under Windows 7, in the long run he will be better off moving away from Vista.  I have yet to see a Vista box that did not manage to gore itself over time.

[soda72]

You can dial UAC back a touch Soda - not a good idea to turn it off completely (but ymmv)

Wurzel (got mine set to only come up if a programme wants to change something on the HD)

If you have a link describing what needs to be done please post it.   Dialing back sound like a reasonable approach..

[SectorNine50]

I too agree with the "Don't fix it if it is not borked".  However, if everything the OP has works fine under Windows 7, in the long run he will be better off moving away from Vista.  I have yet to see a Vista box that did not manage to gore itself over time.

That interesting that you say that, my mother's laptop just started acting up.  Sometimes the web browser even gets an "encoding error," which I had never seen before (in Firefox AND Internet Explorer... )  I suppose if I can get my hands on a Windows 7 install, I'll be doing that instead of just reinstalling Vista.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

I too agree with the "Don't fix it if it is not borked".  However, if everything the OP has works fine under Windows 7, in the long run he will be better off moving away from Vista.  I have yet to see a Vista box that did not manage to gore itself over time.

I'm not a fan of Vista either - but as long as it works I see nothing that would warrant an investment neither in time or money to switch OS. I would run it as long as it works or untill I build a new system which naturally would be with the latest and greatest OS.

IMO if the OP would now move to Win7 x64 it would be nothing short of a disappointment to see that very little on surface changed after spending all that time and money. If he has a lot of applications it might be a strenuous job to reinstall everything, move stuff from backups (I hope he has backups) etc.

[gpwurzel]

If you have a link describing what needs to be done please post it.   Dialing back sound like a reasonable approach..

Soda, on my machine, I go to...control panel, user accounts, change user account control settings, and I see a slider bar (vertical). I have mine set quarter of the way up. This way, if a prog wants to change something on my hard drive, it tells me. Most of the time I dont see it (unless I run prog's as administrator, in which case, when I start them, it asks then!)

hth,

Wurzel