Windows 7 Professional (student)

[kareem]

My university is providing me the student version of Windows 7 Professional for only $30 and I can either choose 64 or 32bit. I'm wondering if I should go along with the 64bit, since I've heard how much better it makes use of your memory and processor.

Also, I;m wondering if it can be installed on two machines or just one.

Any takers?

[Train]

If this is your cpu?

Conroe" Core 2 Duo 1.86GHz

Then the 64 bit will install.

[rockinup1231]

To be honest, unless you have more than 4gb of ram on your system, and require the use of the few and far software applications that are 64 bit only, are running a server, or even running alot of scripts, the performance benefit gained from using a 64 bit operating system isn't all that great.

I'm probably right in assuming many of the applications you will be using will be 32 bit, which will not get any benefit from running in the 64 bit environment.

Unless you are running a system that meets the criteria I listed, then for the sake of compatibility I suggest sticking with 32 bit Windows 7. I ran it on my laptop (that was, til Ubuntu 9.10 came around) and found that 32 bit 7 performed much better than Vista.

EDIT: Unless the license they give you is different than standard, it will only activate on one machine. I got a free copy from my college of the same OS you are to obtain, and I tested that. It only activated on my main laptop.

[kareem]

If this is your cpu?

Conroe" Core 2 Duo 1.86GHz

Then the 64 bit will install.



Sorry, I need to update my system specs:

4Gigs DDR Kingston
NVidia 9400 GT
2.33 gigahertz Intel Core2 Quad Q8200
WDC 320Gig Hard drive 1 SMART Status: Healthy
WDC 320Gig Hard drive 2

[Midknyte]

4Gigs DDR Kingston

Go 64-bit.

http://www.crucial.com/support/recognize_memory.aspx

[Train]

Yes, go 64-bit.

[BipolarBill]

Agreed.

[CrazyCrusher]

Agree 64bit is the way to go