My computer seems to be a bit of an anomaly then, I have a 1Gb 5770 and 4 Gb of RAM. With 3.49Gb of RAM showing under Vista 32 bit lol
Actually this is normal. For a reason I can't put my finger on, for some people it only goes down to 3.5GB. I don't know if what I initially said on my previous post only applies to XP, or some video cards or computer configuration. But I recall building a computer for my brother, with a 1GB memory GPU and 4GB of RAM, and only 3GB was addressable out of 4, he used XP, and was about to get Vista and go 64-bit.
64 bit od all the way ive been using win7 x64 professional since january and have never had any problems there is only one draw back and that is that some programs wont work on a x64 computer but this is solved with windows virtual pc using it you dont have to actually virtualise the whole winxp just the program you want to use so in some cases it is better than using a full virtual machine like virtual box and it dosnt have all the hassle either
Hi guys. A basic question I know but I wan't to be sure. I have a retail copy of Windows 7 installed. If I were to change my motherboard, memory and CPU and then attempt to re-install Windows 7 on that 'new' machine. Upon completion of the installation for Windows, I'd be prompted to phone Microsoft for a new product key?
Nope, if it really is a retail, and not OEM copy it'll be just fine. You MAY need to get some sort of specialist activation when the time comes round, but your product key will remain the same, 2 secs on the phone with a nice lady from MS, and you'll be fine. TSB
Right, thank you. The 'specialist activation' you mentioned, does it mean the new hardware configuration would be registered with the Windows 7 key I already have? If I were to re-install Windows at a later date, would I have to phone them up again?
Windows MAY think that you installed your license of Windows on a second computer. So the automatic activation will fail. You'll have the option on the menu to do a phone activation. When you click on it, a 1-800 number will appear on the screen for you to call. When you call a person or robot will ask you to read (or type with your phone if it's not a person), a series of numbers on the phone-activation panel. Once you are done, they will ask you if you installed the same Windows 7 license on more than 1 computer. If you say yes, it will transfer to a sales rep, who will inform you that tour license is only valid for 1 computer, and try to find the best version of Windows 7 that fits your needs and budget. If you say no, the person will give you an override code that you insert on the phone activation panel (the code changes every time, and doesn't work again... so it's useless to write it down). Once you finish typing the number you received on the phone, hit OK, and Windows will be activated.
Hello, just a follow-up message here. I will be upgrading my PC, which will include a new motherboard, CPU and memory; i.e. PC 'B'. It's safe to assume that I will be asked to call Microsoft if I were to attempt an installation of Windows 7 with a previous retail copy. In my current machine, which is PC 'A' I will soon replace my 1TB hard drive with a 2TB one. Is it likely that once I re-install Windows on the 2TB hard drive (1) I'll be prompted to phone up Microsoft? I imagine that many users who a) have an OEM copy and attempt a re-install or b) use a retail copy on a different PC, will lie over the phone and say they had hardware problems and had to swap components or some such story? 1. After having formatted and taken out the previous 1TB hard drive.
Nearly every program seems to run in a compatible fashion on a 64-bit system now anyway so i cant think of any reason not to. I even managed to get pro tools 7.4 working on 64-bit windows 7 with a patch, and this was my main reason to not upgrade to 64-bit too!
If you have under 4gb of RAM, go 32 bit. Over, go 64 bit. More programs are compatible in 32 bit Windows although nowadays most software is compatible with 64 bit windows 7
graphics memory addressing is the main reason, the upper end of the memory addresses are reserved primarily by the graphics card's onboard ram, with a few addresses for DMA access and the like... Back in the days of 64MB and 128MB of system ram when PCI and AGP was the interface of choice, AGP worked on the basis that the pc could write directly to the graphics ram if need be. to do this it needs have a memory address range. no one thought 4 gb would come any time soon, so they shoved things that needed direct memory access (DMA) addressing into the far end of the address range, working backwards. when i ran XP on my rig (C2D / pci-e) it showed up as 3.49GB as the upper 512mb address range was reserved for my at the time 512MB 8800GT i'd bet 64-bit still does this, but till someone gets into the terabyte range of ram in a gaming system it's not going to be an issue. (watches in 8 years... "I've got 3.2TB of ram installed but windoz18 only sees 2.9TB")
Windows 7 64 bit. I had a bargain of £60-70 for the Ultimate version. The worse thing about 32 is that it cannot support many new gen upgrades. And now, more and more software supports 64.
So is some of the kit that W7 is installed on; e.g. W7x64 won't work in it anyway. Not everyone wants to / can afford to upgrade their kit.
you get both 32 and 64 bit last time i checked in the retail version. most primary kit from the last 4 - 5 years has been 64bit (started with althon 64's), you'll usually only have problems with old devices that haven't had 64 bit drivers made. all my kit works, including an old pci tv tuner from haupauge, and a random tiawanese webcam (after hunting for drivers)
If you don't have any problem with drivers/softerware compatibility then go for 64bit. I have some legacy hardwares which don't have 64 bit drivers, so stay with 32bit.
IIRC, since it's a fresh installation, you'll still have to phone MS, even though your main hardware has stayed the same. Yeah, a lot of people must falsely claim their hardware failed... this works perfectly if you have a retail copy of Windows, but OEM versions are licensed for one set of hardware only - whether you'll get away it depends on how convincing you sound on the phone, I guess
"Microsoft Windows: A sixty four bit graphic cover up to a thirty-two bit extension of a sixteen-bit patch to an eight-bit operating system originally coded for a four-bit CPU which was written by a two-bit company that can't stand one bit of competition ."
