Windows 7 64 bit -- Is it a no brainer on a Core 2 Duo?

[Bandana Boyz]

I am currently running Windows 7 Pro 32 bit on my new T500 with the intel T9600 cpu & 4gb of ram. Before I install Office 2010 and all the latest software from Corel I thought maybe it's best to install Windows 7 64 bit ultimate because I have a Core 2 Duo system. I fugure it's best to do it now and save myself a lot of time reinstalling in future if I decide to upgrade.

Is Windows 7 64 bit the way to go on a Core 2 Duo system or at least on my loaded T500? If I do, than I will definately upgrade my memory to 8gb. It appears that 64 bit is where we the world is headed in the future!

[billp117]

Install 64bit...you will be happy running the increased memory. Now is the time to do it...and memory prices are dirt cheap for 8GB of PC2-8500 1066MHz DDR3.

[Foodog]

Moved my X61 to 64 bit little over a month ago. My only regret is that I installed 32 bit when 7 was announced. Lenovo has released most of the drivers needed and Microsoft already has the rest imbedded.

Foodog

[ashleys]

By investing in a 64-bit capable machine you have, as you rightly infer, already made your decision.
There is no additional software cost in adopting 64-bit Windows 7 rather than 32-bit.
The aditional RAM you mention may not be required but its relative cost is minimal.
If you have 32-bit applications that require virtual storage constraint relief then going to a 64-bit OS can help, as long as they have been linked with the large address aware option, thus providing access to the full 32-bit address space.

As to technically whether you really need 64-bit, well that's a completely different question. Much of what I read regarding 64-bit vs 32-bit for the desktop/laptop market reminds me more of the Spinal Tap amplifier joke rather than a reasoned technical discussion on machine architectures.

[miamicanes]

The only grief I've encountered so far was when I had a brief video fetish for a couple of weeks before Christmas. If you use things like AVIsynth, VirtualDub, HuffyUV, and related apps, things can get ugly fast if you try mixing 32 and 64-bit versions in the same pipeline because most of the authoritative web sites for those apps have only the 32-bit version for download, or have a 64-bit version that barely works (if it works at all). To get a 64-bit version that works, you have to go hunting for someone else who downloaded the source and rebuilt it to run properly on x86-64. The horrific way that Windows deals with thirdparty rendering codecs, and fact that most of the one-click installers blindly dump 32-bit versions of everything makes matters worse (let's just say that getting FFMPEGsource to work with Avisynth and render mpeg-4 to HuffyUV via VirtualDub was NOT fun) But that specific ecosystem is the only one I've encountered so far that was really hostile to Win64, and from what I've seen that mess has slowly been resolving itself over the past year or so as the authors slowly move to 64-bit themselves (ironically, most of them tried independently making the jump, got mad when the OTHER programs their app/plugin depended on crashed, and grudgingly went back to 32 bits to wait for everyone else to catch up... stir, rinse, and repeat a few times).

[Bandana Boyz]

Great feedback I am going to install Windows 7 64 bit.

Now, which option is best?
a) Buy the Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate recovery disks from Lenovo for $45 which will set-up my harddrive with the partitian (I like all that Thinkvantage software) or
b) Use a retail copy of Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate and then go to Lenovo's website and download all the drivers, tools, etc....

Option 'A' seems like it's a faster install and will likely make everything work correctly with all the current drivers. Overall thoughts?

[dfumento]

Not certain you can purchase the 64-bit recovery disks.

My machine came with 32-bit Windows 7 Pro and I installed my own version of Ultimate 64-bit fresh (but I also have SSD and it is important to do fresh install on SSD for alignment reasons).

Just a couple of days ago I did the Win 7 Ultimate x64 with integrated SP1 install and it works great!

[Bandana Boyz]

I spoke with Lenovo and they said I can order the Windows 7 64 bit in ultimate version. I can go ahead and install on a new drive or do a clean install on the existing drive with no issues. For $45, I figured it will save me a lot of time and agony if I order all the disks from lenovo rather than installing from Retail.

[ashleys]

Please be aware that for Windows 7 Ultimate, mainstream support will cease on the 13th January 2015 and there is NO extended support.
See here for the lifecyle details,
http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=14498

Only Windows 7 Enterprise and Professional have extended support until 14th January 2020.

[bill bolton]

Please be aware that for Windows 7 Ultimate, mainstream support will cease on the 13th January 2015 and there is NO extended support.

At this point in time, that's not really significant in any way.

Historically, Microsoft alters extended support information depending on a whole bunch of arcane factors (which are largely obscure). However, basically, if a retail product sells well enough, it will get extended support.

Cheers,

Bill B.

[Bandana Boyz]

Which Windows 7 64 bit would you recommend; Pro, Enterprise or Ultimate?

Are Lenovo cd's the way to go either way?

[crashnburn]

Which Windows 7 64 bit would you recommend; Pro, Enterprise or Ultimate?

Are Lenovo cd's the way to go either way?

Hmm.. I am wondering the same..

[sarbin]

choices are only for pro or ultimate, i think. enterprise is for volume licensing in corporate settings, i believe, but ultimate and enterprise are feature-equivalent. have a look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7_editions and see if there's anything in ultimate that you must have, otherwise save a few bucks and get pro.

[craigmontHunter]

Yup - enerprise is only for large corperate deployments (same as with vista). All the features of enterprise are present in ultimate. I would reccomend pro, especially since (unlike vista), it has all of the multimedia functions (media center, dvd maker) built in. Unless you need something offered in ultimate, pro is the best value (and IIRC, it is going to be supported longer)

[Bánh mì]

You really don't need 8GB. 4GB is sufficient for 64-bit W7 if you are not using XP Mode and your usage is everyday office applications. I would go with Ultimate or Enterprise so you can use BitLocker. You don't need the Lenovo CD. Not sure what they charge for it but it has to be overpriced. You can still install your Lenovo tools with a MSFT CD buy copying the folder and moving all the *.*exe applications over.

[crashnburn]

Is Bitlocker any good? Why would one want to use it and why not?

[ozzymud]

Bitlocker is microsoft's drive encryption software, If it is the only decision on which flavor of 7 ot get, then there are open source alternatives, google for TrueCrypt

for a decent comparison, read:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/bit ... ,2587.html

[Bánh mì]

I beg to differ. While True Crypt is a technological marvel and every bit as good as BitLocker, you don't get the intergration with the Thinkpad fingerprint reader not the abilty to use Bitlocker to go. Having said that, regardless of which you choose, I would never use a notebook without encryption. If its stolen the repercussions are too high due to loss of data etc.

Conclusion:http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/bit ... 587-9.html

[ozzymud]

Yea, cause we all trust fingerprint readers

Article: Gummi bears defeat fingerprint sensors

The only encryption i use on my laptop is a winrar file with a password kinda like "2 Be Or Not Two Bee" but way longer... i.e. you ain't getting into it... And for really sensitive stuff, I just VNC into my home machine. If the thief who stole/found my laptop wants my mp3,video collection, or copy of Angry Birds stored on it... oh well

[craigmontHunter]

I think the fingerprint readers he defeated were the "pad" style, not the swipe style (like what is on a thinkpad) I think the swipe style is more secure, because it measures electrical fields, and you cannot create those with a gummy bear, rather thna taking an optical image/physical impression of the fingerprint (which a gummy bear can create). (I have no clue, this is just what I have determine by playing with mine) - either way, I use the fingerprint reader to keep my brothers out, if someone really wants my laptop, they can have it, provided they do any homework on it for me

[ozzymud]

rofl... yea, I ain't a corporate user with million $ R&D stuff on my machine, so yea, I have played with encryption in the past, but it only lasted long enough to "see how it works".

[antskip]

I upped my ram on a W500 to 4GB, and tried 63bit Win7. It was a lot quicker than 32bit Win7, but I found the Lenovo-provided 64bit Win7 switchable gpu driver markedly inferior to their 32bit version. So I went back to 32bit Win7.

[JohnnyB]

Greetings Bandana Boyz. I also have a T500 on which I'd like to install the 64-bit version of Windows 7. Did you wind up ordering the restore discs from Lenovo, or did you go the retail route?

Many thanks!


JohnnyB

[ac12]

I went Win7 Pro x64 on my T61.
This was primarily so I could max out the memory, so I won't run into the low memory situation that I used to run into. I figure w 8GB of RAM I should be good for quite a while. My desktop w 4GB would start to thrash the page file when it maxed out the RAM.