[SOLVED] Can I upgrade my PC from Windows 7 32-bit to Windows 7 64-bit?

[DGCG_OE]

Hello. I want to upgrade my PC from Windows 7 32-bit to Windows 7 64-bit. However from a quick search on the internet I found out that some PC's can't upgrade from 32-bit to 64-bit. I am using an Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 CPU that the manufacturer's site lists it as 64-bit, but when I checked the System Information window on my PC it showed that the system type is x84-based PC. I want to know if my PC is capable of being upgraded to Windows 7 64-bit.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.00GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte EP31-DS3L
RAM: 3.00GB Dual Channel DDR2

Thanks in advance.

 

[drea.drechsler]

Hello. I want to upgrade my PC from Windows 7 32-bit to Windows 7 64-bit. However from a quick search on the internet I found out that some PC's can't upgrade from 32-bit to 64-bit. I am using an Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 CPU that the manufacturer's site lists it as 64-bit, but when I checked the System Information window on my PC it showed that the system type is x84-based PC. I want to know if my PC is capable of being upgraded to Windows 7 64-bit.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.00GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte EP31-DS3L
RAM: 3.00GB Dual Channel DDR2

Thanks in advance.

If it's a 64 bit CPU you can 'upgrade' to Windows 7 64 bit. But if you don't have 4Gb or more memory, or plan on expanding capacity above 3Gb, there is little reason to since the only benefit of it is addressing that much (and vastly more) memory.

 

[SkyNetRising]

1st - upgrade from 32bit to 64bit - means full reinstall. You can not upgrade directly. Old system has to be wiped clean and new version installed.
2nd - cpu supports 64bit instructions, so 64bit windows 7 can be installed.
3rd - agree to previous - with just 3GB or ram, there's no point in upgrading to 64bit. It's beneficial only , if you have more than 4GB of ram.

 

[william p]

About the only "recent"computers that used 32 bit CPUs were some laptops running Core 2 on older 32 bit sockets.
You may also need to upgrade your other software to 64 bit versions.
You could run a modern 2GB GPU on that and have 6GB RAM installed. The GPU will find the extra 2GB, and the 32 bit OS will use the rest.
Since you need a fresh install why not jump to WIN10-64 and kill 2 birds with 1 stone?

 

[SamirD]

On an older platform like that, you can upgrade, but you need to understand that your are running software that will demand more than the hardware might be able to deliver.

The first area that this might be a problem is ram--as mentioned before, you need more. The more the better.

The second area is that you're using a dual core processor with an OS that ideally needs more cores--just for itself.

And the third area you need to consider is software. 64-bit software is different so if you have existing 32-bit applications they may not work properly.

All this being said, I always try to keep the OS tied to the same era of the hardware. It is then limited in functionality, but not performance. Your setup would be ideal for an xp install that can be locked down with the free steadystate add-on.

 

[william p]

The E8400 was one of the last LGA775 CPUs. Well into the Vista/ Win 7 era. Anything before Win 10 won't recieve security updates. I have computers with WIN7 COA from the factory running that era CPU. Plenty of quad cores avilable for those including some 65W versions if needed. Q9550S is one. If you don't have an SSD now would be a good time to add one.