Dell M90 -- Any benefit to running Win 7 64-bit vs. 32-bit?

I have a Dell Precision M90, which came with Vista originally, but I've been running it with Win 7 Pro 32-bit for the last couple of years. I have 3GB of RAM installed, and have recently added an 128GB SSD as a primary drive, with a 500GB secondary drive in the optical bay. Machine still runs fine, since I renew Dell Completecover every year, and have pretty much changed almost everything inside over the last 5+ years!

I'm going to do a total reformat and reinstall of the OS soon, and I was wondering if I should install Windows 7 64-bit on it. Would it be a hassle, re drivers? And most important -- would the final performance improve over 32-bit Win 7 Pro? Usage -- Generally Office, Outlook and other Office programs -- the thing though is that I like to open a lot of these programs and keep them open together (three Firefox windows with 15+ tabs each, Outlook, MS Word, PDF reader and X1 -- a search indexing program, and maybe even IE, Excel and/or Powerpoint all open and running at the same time; plus, lots of small programs in the system tray).

I'm not going to be doing this reformat/reinstall too often, so would appreciate any input in order to make a decision.

Thanks

 

If I recall correctly, the m90 came with core 2 duo. If the system can support more than 4 GB of RAM. Going 64 bit is good choice long term. I believe the m90 can support up to 4 GB. You would see an increase using native 64 bit applications. Though if they are mainly 32 bit, there's no benefit.

For example my last system was the m65. It wasn't until I got my m6400 that I went with x64 to take advantage of additional RAM. Most of the software I use is still 32 bit. Primarily it comes down to software. You need to look at your application list & decide if you're willing to upgrade to x64 software (if available) for a performance boost. It doesn't seem like you'd gain much from x64. Other than the ability to use both 32 & 64 bit software. The amount of RAM would still be the limiting factor. Personally, I'd stick with Windows 7 32 bit. Until you upgrade i.e to a precision that can support more RAM.

 

I don't think there is any tangible advantage to using 64bit here. At the same time, I don't think there's any real disadvantage either unless you know you have some specific program that won't work on 64bit. The driver support is generally pretty good these days if you are worried about that.

 

Thanks for the replies...guess I'll stick to 32-bit till I get a new machine (next year, after all the Win 8 buzz dies down or clarifies). Interestingly, I believe that Dell isn't offering a touchscreen on their new 6700 -- I wonder why, given the Win 8 hype!

 

I also had my M90 for 5 years, two years ago I upgraded the ram to 4GB and installed Windows 7 - 64 bit. Everything worked great and it still does. I can't see why you would limit your self with 32 bit because there are many programs that only run on 64 bit.

 

@blackboard13 -- now you've got me flip-flopping! Two issues though:

a. What did you do about drivers? Where can I get 64bit drivers for the M90?
b. I don't think I'll be upgrading to 4GB, since I'll probably be changing the machine next year (no point in putting more money into it). But as long as (as Commander Wolf says) there're no real disadvantages in performance terms, I might go in for 64bit.

Appreciate your responses.

 

@rkr3 You need to get the drivers either 32 bit or 64 bit from the DELL website :Drivers and Downloads | Dell [United States]
Although windows 7 is not listed, you can use the windows vista drivers (Both 32 and 64 bit are available on the website).
I was under the impression that the performance of the 64 bit would be better when I upgraded to windows 7, not entirely sure though. I don't believe there are any disadvantages.
Good luck!

 

There are 64-bit drivers on the web site like blackboard13 mentioned. I find that lots of times Windows is able to pull in most of the stuff through Windows Update (if you can get the machine online) so you might not have to worry about finding many of them.

You can always install 64-bit Windows and try to get your drivers sorted out first thing. If you run into a blocking issue, just reinstall with 32-bit. Not much time lost.

As for performance, as others have mentioned; you won't see much difference unless you are using 64-bit software. While there are 64-bit versions of, for example, Microsoft Office available, you're still not likely to notice much unless you are running something CPU-intensive. (Most of the bottlenecks in an office-type workflow are at memory or disk access; the CPU is stupidly fast compared to everything else and spends most of its time idle.) The main benefit to 64-bit is being able to use more than 4GB of RAM.

There's not much disadvantage, other than that a 64-bit system will use slightly more memory just to run.

And as for the M6700 touch screen --- it is coming.

 

as long as you can get drivers for all of your hardware ABSOLUTELY run Windows x64 just from a security standpoint... There are vulnerabilitis in x86 that are never going to get patched that can be negated in x64.....

 

I set up my M90 w/ Win7 64 ULT, because of the software issue. I put 4G DDR2 and used the nVidia drivers that windows update pulled for me, but I installed the nVidia toolkit, so I could have access to the card. It was easier to set-up than my other two newer Precision's, M4400 and M2400, those need video drivers from last year. (#285 or prior) The M90 runs great, WOW took a 13G update! Then gave it to my son for his gaming computer.