64-bit vs. 32-bit advice for windows 7

[maflynn]

Hey,
I just got off the nut and purchased win7 but my question is which flavor would work the best for my situation. Since the OEM versions require you to choose at purchase time, I want to choose wisely.

I'm thinking of running mostly in VMware Fusion, on a late 08 (unibody) MacBook Pro with 4gig of ram. I understand that the going with 32bit would decrease my accessible ram a bit but would running 32-bit increase compatibility.

I do plan on setting up a bootcamp partition and perhaps in time using that, but so far I only forsee my usage being in vmware.

Any advice or suggestions would be helpful.

 

[Stridder44]

but would running 32-bit increase compatibility.

This was kinda true back in 2007, but now it's not a problem at all. Virtually every manufacturer/developer have been making 64-bit drivers/versions for both new and releasing several year old products/software. Not to mention Vista and Win7 have something called WOW64, which essentially allows all 32-bit apps to run at native speeds on a 64-bit OS. You'll be fine with 64-bit (and happy you did it too).

Just out of curiosity, what apps do you intend to use?

 

[maflynn]

Mostly work related stuff, nothing too exciting, like games.
I'll be connecting to my work network via RDP (once I log into the network via VPN), text editors, oracle and peoplesoft apps. Some other applications for maintaining/editing images, like Qimage.

Thanks for the update on 32bit vs. 64bit. I've been out of the loop with this regard as I've been running on Linux for a while now.

Edit: I might try running adobe lightroom as well and see if the performance is any better then under SL

 

[balamw]

I've personally run into some compatibility problems with Windows on Windows and Windows Side-By-Side features (for custom software from my workplace) that have made me wish that I had stayed with 32 bit. There are easy workarounds (i.e. with Win7 Pro/Ultimate, just use XP Mode), but they are far from seamless.

Edit: I might try running adobe lightroom as well and see if the performance is any better then under SL

This is probably the best reason to go 64 bit, if you have even one application that would benefit from it. For me it's MATLAB and some other engineering software, for you maybe Lightroom.

B

 

[Stridder44]

Thanks for the update on 32bit vs. 64bit. I've been out of the loop with this regard as I've been running on Linux for a while now.

No problem, but just to be 100% sure do a few Google searches on those programs you want to run to make sure they're 64-bit bug free. The vast majority of software should work, but there is always the occasional weird app that doesn't work for whatever reason.