T60p 2623D8U upgrade to Win 8.1 32 or 64 bit & how much RAM?

[jam_27]

Hi,
I would like to upgrade my T60p 2623D8U to windows 8.1.

My T60p 2623D8U currently running windows 7 pro. The system has 3 GB RAM.

The question is shall I go for Windows 8.1 32 bit OS or 64 bit OS. Can the system take more RAM with the processor it has? Can I increase the RAM to 4 or more GB (systems has two RAM slots)?

Basic specs:
Core Duo 2500 - 2.0 GHz
1+2 Gig pc-5300 DDR2 RAM at 667 MHz
80 Gig SSD intel
ATI FireGL V5200 256 MB (512 hypermemory)
14.1" screen
9 cell battery

Please advice.

[Cigarguy]

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=110619

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=110619

[RealBlackStuff]

T60 can only use 3GB out of max. 4GB you can put in.
Your current (Core Duo) CPU can only handle 32-bit OS.
With a Core 2 Duo CPU you can run 64-bit OS, but still only with 3GB out of max. 4GB.
C2D: T5500/T5600/T7200/T7400/T7600

[joester]

Not to argue the 32 bit part, but my T60 20073LU is running W7 Home Premium 64 bit pretty well and I only have 1GB installed.

What issues am I unaware of?

[Saucey]

Depends what you do on it...
Usually I disable Aero and widgets on Win7 so it doesn't use much ram and CPU usage while in idle.
Having youtube running at 720P on a second monitor and firefox on the main laptop screen im at 1.1Gb usage while my CPU is averaging at 70%... T2500 & V5200 but my machine is 32bit though.

But sometimes it seems the Ram is just peace of mind.

Edit: The only difference is that, if you want to toss the HDD into another system and keep the same OS then perhaps you'd want the 64 bit processor and hope it could run on your next Thinkpad/PC without having to reinstall Windows again. You would not be stuck with the 4GB limit with the 32 bit OS.

[TuuS]

Not to argue the 32 bit part, but my T60 20073LU is running W7 Home Premium 64 bit pretty well and I only have 1GB installed.

What issues am I unaware of?

Win7 can run on 1gb, but you're going to be relying on virtual memory often which is a performance killer. If you want to upgrade the memory I'd be glad to help, I have some 1 and 2gb modules that are well tested and reasonably priced. Your boards chipset will allow upto 3gb, but if funds are tight I'd go with 2gb, if you have a single 1gb chip instealled it would cost about as much as a good cup of coffee at starbucks to upgrade and basically the first gb is needed just to get windows up and running which leaves very little available for running apps.