Switching to Windows 7 64 Bit

[airport1000]

My current PC is running on Windows Vista 32 bit and while it run well it is starting to get harder to run some of the more upto date modpacks. The problem is with my current setup which is a Intel Core Duo E8400 Wolfdale cpu and 4 gigs of memory of which only 3.2 gigs is usable and when it comes to Minecraft Java will only let me allocate 900 megs maximum, any more and MC crashes on starting.

Now I am on the long road of saving to get a replacement PC running a 64 bit OS but this is going to take me quite a number of months as cash is very tight.

So as a stop gap for now I was thinking of get a new copy of Windows 7 64 bit and installing that on my current machine.

So my question is, will it be worth while doing this, would it allow me to allocate more memory to MC via java thus allowing me to play some of the more upto date modpacks.

If you need any more info please ask.

Thanks in advance Airport1000

 

[lenscas]

First I would check if your hardware can support a 64 bits OS

If it turns out it can you need to keep this in mind: a 64 bits OS in my experience needs more ram to run then a 32 bits OS. In the case of windows 7 I would recommend to always have at least 2 GB RAM available this means that in your case you only have 2 GB left. If you increase the amount of ram available to 2 GB that means you pretty much can't run any other programs because you simply don't have enough RAM.

I have no idea if your CPU is able to handle up to date modpacks someone else needs to inform you about that

 

[gattsuru]

Wolfdale can support EM64T (aka Windows 64-bit), and it's a pretty decently quick 3 GHZ processor. Two cores isn't a little weak, but Minecraft doesn't do multithreading well anyway, so it's not that big of a penalty. I've run fairly intense modpacks on a laptop with a 1.8 ghz variant of the same chip, albeit at decreased settings

So going to Windows 64-bit is an option.

That said, especially if you're planning to buy a new computer down the road, it may be overkill. Switching from a 32-bit to a 64-bit Windows version is not a simple upgrade; you're going to be stuck with a full reinstall, and depending on how you got your computer's current Windows key you might be looking at an 80+ USD license purchase (unless your employer or college has a deal, or you have the right sort of key and don't mind downloading the 64-bit version from Microsoft's Digital River site).

There are some other choices. Dual-booting is an option, and because Minecraft works on anything that supports Java, it's possible to put a second install of something like Ubuntu 64-bit on the same disk drive. There are guides on how to do this, although it does take some patience to get used to Linux. Setting the 3GB RAM Mode may let you get more power from your current setup, although I'd recommend against this if you're running a graphics card with more than 600 GB of video RAM.