Trixter
Veteran Member
I have a relevant question--if the motherboard supports a maximum of 4GB, is there any compelling reason to go to 64 bits? I run a mix of 64- and 32-bit applications, I'm hard put to see a substantial difference in performance. But then, I tend not to use heavy CPU hog programs.
64-bit programs on 64-bit architecture with a 64-bit OS have measurable speed improvements compared to, all things equal, 32-bit equivalents.
Note that measurable != noticeable. Noticeable depends on what you're doing. Because I work with media (sound, video, photos, scans) nearly every day and have done so for many years, the performance improvement was immediately apparent when I switched from 32-bit Vista to 64-bit Vistas on the same hardware.
32-bit vs. 64-bit has much less to do with capacity than performance. That being said, if your workload does not exceed 4G, you probably don't need a 64-bit setup. (But since it costs less than $300 to do so these days, you probably should anyway. A new PC in 2013 for $500 or less will last 5-10 years.)