Dell Dimension 8400 - XP or Windows 7

[Al Green]

Dell Dimension 8400

Specs : Intel Pentium 4 , 3.60GHz 3.59GHz , 4GB of RAM

I want to install window's 7 but not sure what to go for 32bit or 64bit ?

Also what are the benefits of 64bit am i really going to see much quicker performance on this OLD PC lol

Or is it best to just go safe and install the 32bit version ?

What if the RAM limit on the 32bit aiming to use all the 4GB i can ?

Many thanks in advance for your help

 

[Matsushima]

Pentium 4s are 32-bit (instruction set) and therefore require a 32-bit OS. If you use a 64-bit OS something bad will probably happen. About the memory limit, there will be around 3-3.5GB usable. I got 3.25GB usable on Win7 and 3GB on WinXP on my rig. Benefits of 64-bit OS are that you can use more memory and you might get better performance with processors that have 64-bit instruction sets (AMD processors and modern processors). The difference in performance because of the memory limit is hardly noticeable.

 

[MuddyFunster]

EM64T was available on late P4s so running 64 bit will depend on what CPU you have. 64 bit will let you address all 4GB of RAM you have installed, 32 bit will not address all of your RAM. Apart from that it should run okay assuming there is driver support for the hardware, either native or from Dell support.

I have 7 running on an old HP P3-M 1.2GHz 1.5GB RAM and it's seems as responsive as xp was on the same hardware.

 

[Al Green]

thanks for your quick responses , I thought as much went with the 32bit ultimate clean install , got 4 gb of ram showing 3gb usable very responsive tho

I need to get used to 7 as I'm studing at the moment for my 680-685 exams was trying to use Xp with virtualbox to practice but it was laggy.

I'm going to build my own rig soon so I'll probably be on here loads lol

cheers

 

[MuddyFunster]

thanks for your quick responses , I thought as much went with the 32bit ultimate clean install , got 4 gb of ram showing 3gb usable very responsive tho

I need to get used to 7 as I'm studing at the moment for my 680-685 exams was trying to use Xp with virtualbox to practice but it was laggy.

I'm going to build my own rig soon so I'll probably be on here loads lol

cheers

Ah going for a MSCA:Windows 7, will be sitting my 680-685 very soon. Then on to VCP and Server 2012. Happy studying.

 

[Matsushima]

EM64T was available on late P4s so running 64 bit will depend on what CPU you have. 64 bit will let you address all 4GB of RAM you have installed, 32 bit will not address all of your RAM. Apart from that it should run okay assuming there is driver support for the hardware, either native or from Dell support.

I have 7 running on an old HP P3-M 1.2GHz 1.5GB RAM and it's seems as responsive as xp was on the same hardware.

Only the late 65nm (Cedar Mill) processors had 64-bit instruction sets, Willamette (180nm), Northwood (130nm), Prescott (90nm) all had 32-bit.

 

[MuddyFunster]

Which is what I said "late"

 

[Matsushima]

Which is what I said "late"

Sorry I missed that bit.