Upgrade from XP to Windows 7 or 8? 32 bit or 64 bit?

[overclocked_enthusiasm]

Hello all. After doing a cheap upgrade on my old gaming rig (used cpu/ram), I ran into an issue and not sure what to do. I want to upgrade from DX 9 to DX 10/11 and wonder if it makes sense. My issue is this...I have 2 Dimms broken on my Asus P5E mobo so I am capped at 4 GB TOTAL ram. If I had 8 GBs available it would certainly be 64 bit OS upgrade time.

~ Currently XP 32 Pro
~ Overclocked Q9650 to 3.825 GHz
~ Overclocked GTX 470 823/1880
~ 4 GB G.Skill ram rated 1066 MHz 5-5-5-15 running at 850 MHz 4-4-4-12
~ 3dmark06 22,000
~ Heaven (high/DX9/no AA) 875

I want to give this rig to my son and need to know if I would see a noticeable improvement in doing the following:

1. Windows 7 32 bit (to utilize DX10/11)
2. Windows 7 64 bit (noticeable improvement from 32 bit or will my cap of 4GB ram hurt me?)
3. Windows 8 32 bit & 64 bit (same questions)

Any suggestions since I am capped at 4GB ram? Stay XP or go with Windows 7 32/64 or Windows 8 32/64?

Thanks in advance!

 

[homerdog]

Why not go with 64bit? You won't be able to use all of that 4GB with 32bit. Are there any downsides?

That sucks about the broken slots. With 8GB that rig could be suitable for years to come.

 

[overclocked_enthusiasm]

Why not go with 64bit? You won't be able to use all of that 4GB with 32bit. Are there any downsides?

That sucks about the broken slots. With 8GB that rig could be suitable for years to come.

I was under the impression the amount of ram set aside for the OS in 64 bit was much heavier than 32 bit...thus negating the unrecognized ram issue in 32 bit? If not, and you recommend 64 bit, would you suggest 7 or 8.1...i.e. which is less of a ram hog?

 

[entity279]

From my experience, Win 8 is generally smoother on resource utilization. Had an Athlon II DC based PC and later upgraded to Fx8350 and statement stays true for both.

There's basically no drawback to using 64 bit nowadays. The RAM usage may be a little higher though , although I'm not sure this has been objectively tested anywhere.

 

[Arwin]

64bit without question. I've had both with a 4GB machine, and it's undoubtedly better.

I would also go for Windows 8 (also, again, still using everything).

 

[orangpelupa]

it it was me, i will use windows 8 32 bit and use the unused memory as virtual hard disk and use it as a booster.

i only have used SD Card as a booster and the performace difference are noticable in low ram condition (playing game while web browsing many tabs, or while working on photoshop)

btw windows 8 are lighter than windows 7.

 

[overclocked_enthusiasm]

Just to be safe, I emailed Asus yesterday to see if my board was Windows 8.1 compatible...here is what they said:

"Unfortunately I am afraid to say this P5E board doesn't formally support the Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, so we can't ensure the compatibility."

I see lots of old socket 775 boards on their respective website support pages only list Windows 7, Vista and XP in the driver update section. Seems like Windows 7 would be the safest upgrade path yes?

 

[Arwin]

Just means that they haven't tested.

I don't know how there is anything different between 7 and 8 that would make this not work. In general it is safe to assume that if you can install 7 on it, you can install 8 on it too.

 

[overclocked_enthusiasm]

Just means that they haven't tested.

I don't know how there is anything different between 7 and 8 that would make this not work. In general it is safe to assume that if you can install 7 on it, you can install 8 on it too.

I was leaning in that direction...thanks! I will take the 8.1 64 bit plunge and report back.

 

[zed]

Ive used 8/8.1 for ~10 months
4 GB is plenty. In all that time Ive never had it use more than 3.5GB of my 8GB

metro sucks I think practically everyone agrees with a desktop but you dont have to use it that often. Apart from the UI/metro win 8 is an improvement over win 7

 

[homerdog]

4GB is definitely enough for now, and even going forward it should be fine for a while. You will start seeing some games in the near future that run better with >4GB RAM since the new consoles have 8GB, but you will still probably get by with 4GB even then.

 

[Davros]

You had cod ghosts with a fake 6gb requirement

 

[orangpelupa]

Windows 7 and vista drivers works fine on windows 8.
Btw most of the time, it does not need additional driver. The generic from default windows install already good.