[SOLVED] What will perform better: 32bit (2,6GB) or 64bit (4GB) Win 10/Linux Mint dual boot?

Jan 25, 2021
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Dell Latitude 131L

CPU: AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-56
Drive: SATA 150, 60 GB ( + 120 GB SSD not installed yet)
RAM: 4 GB dual channel (currently 2,6 GB available)
OS: Win 10 Home 32 bit (20H2)

Hi folks,

my plan is to double-boot from a 120 GB SSD and get a 2nd HDD for data in a caddy which I will insert in the tray for my optical drive.

At the moment I have 60 GB & only 1 GB left which slows the system significantly. Available RAM is 2,6 GB (4GB hardware).
.
Which system will work best in a double boot system: 32/64 bit, Win10/Linux Mint?

Does anybody have experiences with similar constellations?

Kind regards
Larry
 
Last edited:
Solution
Dell Latitude 131L

CPU: AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-56
Drive: SATA 150, 60 GB ( + 120 GB SSD not installed yet)
RAM: 4 GB dual channel (currently 2,6 GB available)
OS: Win 10 Home 32 bit (20H2)

Hi folks,

my plan is to double-boot from a 120 GB SSD and get a 2nd HDD for data in a caddy which I will insert in the tray for my optical drive.

At the moment I have 60 GB & only 1 GB left which slows the system significantly. Available RAM is 2,6 GB (4GB hardware).
.
Which system will work best in a double boot system: 32/64 bit, Win10/Linux Mint?

Does anybody have experiences with similar constellations?

Kind regards
Larry

That machine is going to be quite slow under Windows 10, however if you are going to run Windows 10 then use the...
Dell Latitude 131L

CPU: AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-56
Drive: SATA 150, 60 GB ( + 120 GB SSD not installed yet)
RAM: 4 GB dual channel (currently 2,6 GB available)
OS: Win 10 Home 32 bit (20H2)

Hi folks,

my plan is to double-boot from a 120 GB SSD and get a 2nd HDD for data in a caddy which I will insert in the tray for my optical drive.

At the moment I have 60 GB & only 1 GB left which slows the system significantly. Available RAM is 2,6 GB (4GB hardware).
.
Which system will work best in a double boot system: 32/64 bit, Win10/Linux Mint?

Does anybody have experiences with similar constellations?

Kind regards
Larry

That machine is going to be quite slow under Windows 10, however if you are going to run Windows 10 then use the 64 bit version as that cpu supports it (I have run 64 bit windows on Athlon 64 X2 desktop processors in the past and there's no noticeable performance hit, however being able to address all the memory will help improve things). The same applies for Linux, try the 64 bit version (note with Linux you can load it onto a USB stick and test run it from that to make sure it's all compatible). I have setup dual boots before in the past, the easiest way to achieve this is install Windows first as normal, then run the Linux installer and it should setup the boot menu and everything for you. You will be able to access the windows partition of the disk from Linux no issue (so I would suggest putting any shared data info on the Windows partition) however you cannot access files on a Linux partition from Windows (at least not easily).

In terms of which version of Linux, I know a lot of people like Linux Mint however I've never used it. If you are new to Linux I would suggest looking at Ubuntu as it's been designed to be very easy to get started with. The main branch of Ubuntu might be a bit graphically heavy for such an old laptop so personally I would try kubuntu (which is a fork of standard Ubuntu using the KDE desktop environment which is typically a bit less demanding hardware wise).
 
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USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
A 120GB SSD is going to be tight in a dualboot situation.

For that size device, you don't want to go over 80-85GB actual consumed space. You need to leave some free for the TRIM function to work.
As you're already at 60GB with your current drive, that doesn't leave a lot left over for the Linux.

32bit or 64bit? I say the 64bit.
It will be slow either way, but the 64 will allow you to utilize the entire 4GB RAM space.
 
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Depends from what you want to do in each OS. 120 GB is not much nowadays. In case of impossibility to afford second SSD drive I would ditch Windows completely. Or if Windows is expected to be main OS, then +/- 80 GB for Windows and 40 GB for Linux.

Update: I vote for 64-bit OS too. At least you will not lose some 300-400 MB of upper RAM space.
 
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Jan 25, 2021
5
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Thanks a lot to all for your quick reponses. That helped a lot.

I will ditch Windows now (may be I will try double dual-boot with a bigger not yet bought SSD, because the Latitude 131L is running with Win 10 without any driver issues) and will look for a leightweight Linux distribution.

Cheers
Larry
 
Why do you want to double boot?

A 32 bit os will be limited to 4gb of ram.
Windows 32 bit will consume less ram than the 64 bit version so I would stay with 32 bit.
Likely, a old unit like yours can not support more than 4gb.
A ssd will definitely improve performance.
With ssd prices low today, I would suggest replacing the HDD with a single 240 or 500gb ssd. It will make all the difference in the world from a performance point of view.
I favor samsung for the job, mainly because of the ssd migration app:
 
Jan 25, 2021
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Hi geofelt,

thanks for your response.

I read in a forum that the Latitude 131L even can manage 8 GB.

I'll install a single boot system with a slim Linux with this machine now, and try a double boot system with a younger machine.
 
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Hi geofelt,

thanks for your response.

I read in a forum that the Latitude 131L even can manage 8 GB.

I'll install a single boot system with a slim Linux with this machine now, and try a double boot system with a younger machine.
Go to a ram web site like crucial or kingston and access their ram upgrade app.
Enter the make/model of your laptop and you will get a list of compatible supported upgrades.
 
Jan 25, 2021
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@geofelt

Crucials & Kingston say 2 GB RAM max, which is wrong. Kingston gives the advice to take DDR2-533 or-667.

I hope Crucial is also wrong with their statement that they have no SSD upgrade option for Dell Latitude 131L.
 
Possible upgrades as noted by Dell are those which the original unit could be configured with.

Possibly, you can do 4gb.
I found this link:
You could try.

On the drive, the unit comes with a hitachi 80gb sata connected hard drive.
https://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/dell-latitude-131l
Looks like 2.5 " standard size.
I would think that installing a normal 2.5" sata ssd would be possible.

If you can get both 4gb ram and a ssd then such an upgrade would make the laptop a useful device.

But, considering the age, I don't know that I would try.
You can buy more modern used laptops with better specs used at a very reasonable price.
 
Don't think so. Dell Latitude 131L laptop have IDE/ATA drive with mini-IDE connector. There are no SSD drives with this interface around and never was.
You could be right, there seem to be many different models with the same name.
The OP could take it apart and see what he has.
There are ssd devices made by kingspec with IDE connections.
I looked into that once for a very old laptop.
But, at the time those ssd ide devices were priced too high.
 
Yes, at 2007 IDE/PATA drives was still used very often. SATA was only 2 years old and appeared not in all new machines (seems retailers still had large stock of unsold PATA drives). There are mini-IDE 2.5" to SATA drive adapters for mini PCIe SATA drives. Which may be a solution for OP. However considering the age and level of mentioned laptop, any more or less decent (6 years or newer) laptop with SATA drive will be much better investment.
 
Jan 25, 2021
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Thanks to all for your replies.

I checked before with HWiNFO32 or CrystalDiskInfo. They indicate it’s SATA 150. The drive is Hitachi HTS541660J9SA00 (e.g. https://www.hdsentinel.com/storageinfo_details.php?lang=en&model=HITACHI HTS541660J9SA00). The same: SATA 150.

PCI-Z 2.0 indicates 2 mass storage controller: SB600 IDE and SB600 Non-Raid-5 SATA. Does that mean I can use IDE & SATA hard drives in the same tray? And what about the hard drive controller for the optical drive tray (I’ve read one can use a second hard drive instead of the optical drive.)?

RAM: I have already 4 GB installed, just 2,6 useable due to the 32 bit system.
 
I'll install a single boot system with a slim Linux with this machine now, and try a double boot system with a younger machine.
Good idea 🆒

Remember there is an open source forum you can ask if you get stuck or just have questions regarding to installing Linux.

Lightweight distros that i have used myself and can suggest is Linux Lite, Linux Mint, Ubuntu Mate, MX Linux. There is a whole lot of others too that I haven't tested out. Btw - do use a usb stick and try several distros before you settle with the one that you like the best. Also bear in mind that some distros may have different support when it comes to WiFi cards - so when you test any distro, it's a good idea to try to connect to your WiFi to see if it actually works.
 
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