Talk to me about 64bit

[Gavin Scott]

Herro peeps.

Can someone give the low-down on 64bit PCs, and how that impacts on working within a network of 32bit machines, software and so on.

If 64bit is the way all computers are going, is there going to be a lot of new software or patches required?

I'm installing a 64bit machine to our network. No problems with most of the software, but one thing is causing headaches, and the support company are struggling to make it work - and I'm thinking they must have considered this already.

The other aspect is that I have a new machine at home which is almost certainly up to the same spec and age as machines that are 64bit. I googled "how do I find out if my PC is 64bit" and got a bunch of answers telling me to look at the Windows System panel - but that only tells me if the windows version is 64/32, not the architecture itself - surely?

Advice gratefully received.

[Sput]

Not sure on any performance increases because I can't compare it directly with 32-bit, but I am finding having windows 7 64-bit a poisoned chalice: Nokia Updater, HTC Sync and various other things just won't work on it because they've not been made compatible. In terms of networking it shouldn't be a problem if you're using standard windows related things, but if you've got Novell or Cisco clients to install you'll have to make sure there's a 64-bit version available.

If you can tell us what cpu your computer has, we'll be able to figure out whether it's 64-bit (have a look for a CPU identifier program to download). Chances are it is 64-bit if it's less than a few years old.

Oh yes and 32-bit Windows can always be installed on a 64-bit CPU.

[Gavin Scott]

Not sure on any performance increases because I can't compare it directly with 32-bit, but I am finding having windows 7 64-bit a poisoned chalice: Nokia Updater, HTC Sync and various other things just won't work on it because they've not been made compatible. In terms of networking it shouldn't be a problem if you're using standard windows related things, but if you've got Novell or Cisco clients to install you'll have to make sure there's a 64-bit version available.

If you can tell us what cpu your computer has, we'll be able to figure out whether it's 64-bit (have a look for a CPU identifier program to download). Chances are it is 64-bit if it's less than a few years old.

Oh yes and 32-bit Windows can always be installed on a 64-bit CPU.

Core 2 Duo

http://www.shuttle.eu/uploads/media/SG33G5_e_02.pdf

There's reference to "32bit PCI slot" but not much else to be found easily.

One thing I have established is that my machine supports up to 4GB RAM, but that would be pointless in a 64bit machine which can support up to 12GB, no?

[Sput]

Then yeah, basically it is a 64 bit computer since it's got that cpu and 64-bit windows. The problem, as i alluded to, is just software vendor support. Yet another of my problems is that the VPN client recommended by IT simply doesn't have a 64-bit version, so I'm screwed.

If you're not doing anything that absolutely requires 64-bit Windows to run, I'd say just whack a 32-bit copy of windows on it and then you can treat it the same as every other computer. Makes life a lot easier

[Gavin Scott]

If you're not doing anything that absolutely requires 64-bit Windows to run, I'd say just whack a 32-bit copy of windows on it and then you can treat it the same as every other computer. Makes life a lot easier

That's what I did, along with a *cough cough* version of W7.

[Sput]

You mean it has a virus? oh dear.

[Dr Lobster*]

as far as mixing 64 and 32 bit versions of windows in a windows domain environment go, it's completely transparent. it will just work.

the problem, as has been alluded is with certain specific applications and in the case of the network at work, certain msi packages which are automatically deployed which won't work on 64bit boxes. not a huge problem right now as we're staying 32bit for a while, but it's something that will need to be addressed eventually (the 32bit software in question is some remote technical support tool we use which isn't available in a 64 bit version yet)

it seems that with vista, most hardware vendors have pretty much got their act together with 64bit drivers, i've been able to find 64bit drivers for every modern piece of hardware i've needed.

[WillPS]

The main reason (in my eyes) to upgrade, is that 64-bit editions of Windows can see more than 3.2gb of RAM. My laptop for example came with 4gb in built, but Vista 32-bit - so effectively the software limited my ability to utilise my hardware fully. Luckily I have access to MSDN (academic alliance), so promptly sorted that out.

If you don't see this being a problem for the next couple of years, go for Windows 7 x86/32-bit. The performance jump aside from the potential RAM boost is negligible under any normal circumstances.

[Beep]

The main reason (in my eyes) to upgrade, is that 64-bit editions of Windows can see more than 3.2gb of RAM..

3.33GB, actually.

[Neil Jones]

The main reason (in my eyes) to upgrade, is that 64-bit editions of Windows can see more than 3.2gb of RAM..

3.33GB, actually.

Depends on the chipset and the boards you're using. Can vary between 3.2Gb and 3.5Gb.

The main reason it caps out at 3.2-3.5Gb is because the rest of the space is taken up by the hardware itself.

You can get so painfully technical and bogged down in the details behind this, but it basically boils down to the fact that there's so much stuff to keep track of when a board is supporting a 32-bit environment. This would include all the stuff onboard, your graphics card, your cards, your drives and everything like that, also because the maths caps out at the 4Gb figure minus the space taken up by the hardware. In a 64-bit environment the figure is obscenely high and Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit is capable of accessing 192Gb of memory.

In theory an AMD setup today in a 64-bit configuration can access 4 Petabytes of memory - aka 1000 terabytes or a million gigabytes. A 64-bit environment is good for up to 16 Exabytes - a BILLION gigabytes.

N.B. The 4Gb limitation is not unique to Microsoft Windows; it applies equally to all 32-bit operating systems. The first 32-bit Windows operating system was introduced in 1995, with Windows 95, back when systems were lucky to have 16Mb of memory never mind 4Gb.