I have 70 gigs free on my disk and i want to dedicate about 4 of that to FTB,
and what do you mean buy windows 7 x64? wouldn't i have to get a new computer with a 64 bit operating system?[DOUBLEPOST=1413160713][/DOUBLEPOST]wait, my task manager says i have like 1.37 GB
32-bit Windows
cannot access more that 4GB of RAM (3GB by default unless specially configured) to run programs in because of address space limitations built into the CPU... Keep in mind that although 32-bit Windows can run on a 64-Bit CPU, the limit is programmatically enforced.
Windows itself can require up to 1.5GB by itself to run efficiently depending on the version. Vista and newer versions have gotten less demanding of memory, but still require over 1GB, leaving the rest for programs such as Java and Minecraft to share.
64-bit Windows, written for newer CPUs with bigger address space available, supports larger amounts of memory but still has a set limit (it simplifies and optimizes the programming) primarily driven by current available memory module sizes and prices, thus older versions support less ram than newer ones.
Code:
Windows 8
Version 32 Bit 64 Bit
Enterprise 4 GB 512 GB
Professional 4 GB 512 GB
Windows 8 4 GB 128 GB
Windows 7
Version 32 Bit 64 Bit
Ultimate 4 GB 192 GB
Enterprise 4 GB 192 GB
Professional 4 GB 192 GB
Home Premium 4 GB 16 GB
Home Basic 4 GB 8 GB
Starter 2 GB N/A
Windows Vista
Version 32 Bit 64 Bit
Ultimate 4 GB 128 GB
Enterprise 4 GB 128 GB
Business 4 GB 128 GB
Home Premium 4 GB 16 GB
Home Basic 4 GB 8 GB
Starter 1 GB N/A
Windows XP
Version 32 Bit 64 Bit
XP 4 GB 128 GB
XP Starter Edition 512 MB N/A
Note that all 32-bit versions have 4GB limits, except the "Starter" versions... These were sold bundled with minimal hardware, usually to 3rd world countries.
The 64-bit versions show how ram limits have grown as larger devices have become available, making it possible to actually add that much memory
Newer 64-bit Windows support up to 2 CPUs since before multicore CPUs became available... I don't know how that impacts multicore CPUs, however.
The various Server versions of Windows use varying limitations on memory (up to 4TB with Server 2012) and support up to 16 CPUs the last time I looked, but that kind of support needs special hardware to run, well beyond your average home system, and the server OS versions cost substantially more than the client software does.