Supernova1138 :
A lot of the Atoms don't have 64 bit support, as they are meant for netbooks that will never need to use more than 4GB of RAM. Some of the newer Atoms do have 64 bit support, but the netbook OEMs tend to restrict support to 32 bit only. If you really need 64 bit support, right nowyou need to have an actual laptop, not a netbook.
Hello All,
I think I found the answer to my question in a previous post:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/325554-28-atom-d2700-cedar-trail
It seems that Intel themselves are limiting the functionality of the Cedar-Trail Atom CPUs to 32bit only, even though it is a 64bit chip. The post that I've quoted above gives both Jetway and ASROCK as examples where the 64 bit funtionality has been "turned off". My own experience adds both ASUS and ACER to this list, which only confirms the 64bit boycott.
I was asked in a post above why I wanted to install a 64bit OS on this platform. The main reason is because my friend did want the Windows 7 "Starter" edition, and had a 64bit Windows 7 ULTIMATE license that he wanted to use. However, I've always felt that the 64bit version is a more robust OS, and being in 2012 I should be able to choose which OS I install, without this choice being dictated by the hardware manufacturer.
My own netbook experience started last September when I was going on a business trip and wanted something smaller than my current laptop to bring along. I was hesitant to buy a netbook for fear that it simply wouldn't meet my needs. What initially convinced me to take the plunge was the price: $180 for an ACER ASPIRE-ONE with a an Atom N570. For an extra $20 I got a 2gb stick of DDR3 ram to replace the 1GB which was pre-installed.
Just for fun, I tried running the netbook with the 1GB of ram and Windows 7 STARTER. To the say that the experience was painful would be an understatement. The OS was very limited and preloaded with so much crapware that using the netbook simply wasn't an enjoyable experience.
So naturally, I went ahead to install the extra ram. Installing the 2gb of ram was a little tricky, but there's a youtube video for everything these days. After watching it a couple of times I had no problem. Next I flushed the hard drive and installed an OEM version of Win 7 64bit pro with the license I had.
The difference was like night and day!
I now had a fully functional computer which runs ALL my applications, including Microsoft Office and the VPN software I need to connect remotely to my worksite. With the 2Gb of ram and the fresh (crapware-free) install of Windows 7 64, the netbook was now a speedy little machine which catered to all my computing needs.
Then it happened: during the business trip, two of my co-workers borrowed my netbook over lunch to chat with their wives and update their Facebook pages. Both were so impressed with the netbook that as soon as they got home they went out bought their own! Of course, they came to see me to add the extra ram, and reinstall a clean copy of Windows 7 64. ;-)
They ended up telling a few more people at the office and in no time I had people showing up and asking to see my netbook!
They were impressed at the size of the netbook and that it was speedy enough to run all the applications they used. A few even admitted that the netbook, the way I had configured it, was a much more versatile tool than the tablets they had recently bought.
So as of today, I have performed this setup on 11 different netbooks. The first 9 all sported either an Atom N450, N550, or N570. I put in 2GB of ram and installed Win 7 64 on all of them. It is only the last 2, both with the Atom n2600, that I was not able to take the 64bit path.
So I guess the moral of the story is that the netbook ( and like most laptops) offer a pretty crappy initial experience to the end user. The crapware alone make them pretty bad. But with a little know-how, these machines become great tools, and at a great price!
One of the posts in the thread I linked above mentions that Intel is probably doing this because the Atom line of CPUs are maybe a little too good. I guess if poeple are exploting the resourcefulness of these chips, why would we want to go out and invest in more hardware when these tough little chips get the job done? ;-)
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