Win 7 64 bit or 32 bit for HTPC use

I have 4 computers with win 7 64 bit on them and no issues. If you ever want more than 3.2gb of memory then do 64 bit without hesitation. I have no issues with my htpc either. haali ffdshow etc are all available in 64 bit.

only one app I have ever heard doesnt work in 64 bit called reclock I believe and have no clue what it does and is unnecessary for me and many of us who run 64 bit.

How exactly do you know that its unnecessary for you if you don't have a clue what it does???

I went with 32 bit for my build. Reasons are simple. I will NEVER that much ram for a HTPC, and certain programs are not available in 64 bit. Granted, you can install and run 32 bit stuff on 64 bit Win7, but why bother. Ultimately, decide if you need more than 3 GB of RAM and if so, get x64. Otherwise, save yourself possible headaches and just get x86.

I use Windows 7 64-bit and have no problems.

ReClock works with 64-bit operating systems (and has since Windows XP 64 bit), but it doesn't work with 64 bit programs.

The only problem that many user;s had with the 64 bit Win7 early on was that the manufacturers of some peripheraals such as printers, scaners, and display cards had not completed upgrading their drivers by the time Win7 was released early last fall.
AFAIK 64bit systems if they require any more memory it is not much over 32 bit OS Win7 systems which I have run without problem in 1GB of RAM.
If you have any doubt about an applicastion running in Wkin7 64 bit then just Google or Bing search with the name of the application and with Win7 64 bit.
With Win7 64 bit you can run either IE8 32 bit or IE8 64 bit and with IE64 bit you can run Websites in 32bit compatibily mode if you have any trouble with them in 64bit. I have Icon's for both on my desktop but it has been months since I have had to use IE8 32 bit or run in 32 bit conmpatibily mode.

you wont have any problems with x64.

i think you will find that everyone running x64 on an htpc is not having any problems.

How exactly do you know that its unnecessary for you if you don't have a clue what it does???

Because I have everything exactly how I like it on my htpc and I dont have that installed.

I would like to chime in as another very happy Windows 7, 64 bit, user. My HTPC has been working awesomely. My primary software is PDVD9 Ultra, Windows Media Center, Soundgraph software for my remote, various burning software, and My Movies. I have a clean install and keep it that way.

I'm happy with my 64-bit HTPCs.

I've been happy with 64 bit as well.

Have you ever seen a customer review of an item of computer hardware or an accessory where the reviewer said "I could not get it to work in Win 7 32bit so then I tried it on a Win 7 64bit machine and it worked perfectly?"

I've read through thousands of computer products reviews of various sorts over the past six months and I have never seen such a review. I have seen many dozens of reviews stating that a product would not work in 64bit Win 7 whereas many reviews for that product stated they got it to work in the 32bit version. Now clearly some of those people simply did not install the item correctly and it might have worked in either version of Win 7 if they had. Equally clearly, some of those items would have had problems in both versions of Windows 7. And undoubtedly, in the upcoming months and years better drivers will be released and newer products will come on the market that will significantly reduce the compatibility differences between the two versions.

However, I've seen so many people complaining that they could not get something to work in 64bit Win 7 that I would not risk compatibility issues. A few months ago, when I researched it, I did not find a single good reason, other than for some yet-unforeseen future-proofing rationale, for going with the 64 bit version of Windows 7 in an HTPC. I got four copies of the 32bit version.

I've installed Windows 7 64 bit just to match everything else in my network. I haven't noticed major issues with it.

If you're doing a pure HTPC and not doing heavy gaming or video encoding then there really is no reason to go 64bit unless you really want to. 3.2 gigs is waaaaaay more then you need for an HTPC. 2 is just fine.

Personally I have 4 gigs installed but went 32bit simply because I just didn't want any compatibility issues down the road with even a minor plugin I might like. 64 bit would gain me nothing but the use of an extra 800 MB of memory that will never be used by the machine anyway.

So if you are sure that everything you want to use both hardware and software have no issues with 64 bit and you just *have* to go 64 bit for whatever reason then go for it. But you aren't gaining anything or getting something "better" by going 64 bit (again, unless you'll be doing heavy gaming or video encoding).

I completely agree with Scott. I run 64bit on my main PC since I use it for many different things and it runs perfect. However, I just switched to 32bit on my HTPC because that is all I use it for, a HTPC.

It's not that 64bit is bad or anything, I love it. Many use it and don't have any problems at all. It's just that is doesn't give you a single benefit if you are using your system as a pure HTPC. So since there is no benefits I went with 32bit so nothing done the road causes an issue.

If you are not sure which one to choose or you are not sure what you will be using the system for in the future, then go 64bit. But if you know you will just be using it as a pure HTPC, then I say go 32bit.

If you use firestb to do firewire channel changing for a STB, then I don't believe the drivers are compatible with W7-64. This is the one thing that is may force me to fall back to W7-32.

64 win 7 pro - no problems

I do have 4 GB of memory and 2GB of it is consumed when recording shows,etc. I did see an improvement after upgrading from 2GB of memory.

pp

Wow I can't believe anyone uses 32bit anymore. I've been running 64bit since it cameout on xp and haven't had problems. Back when 64bit cameout there were driver problems but thats all been solved. They don't even make 2008R2 in 32bit or exchange server in 32bit. I'm 99% sure win8 will be 64bit only. It doesn't make any sense to run in 32bit. There are no advantages of running 32bit unless you only have 1gb of ram.

http://www.infoworld.com/d/windows/3...-windows-7-145

I have one HTPC based on Win7-32bit, and one on Win7-64bit. Both work well. I consider HTPC apps "safe for 64-bit OS" by now, based on my experience.

The x64 vs. x86 question pretty much boils down to how much you want to tweak to improve things. If you want to use it "out of the box" so to say (no tweaking), x64 is fine. If you think you might want to get deep into tweaking, x86 is the safe route. You CAN install the x64 OS and use all x86 apps, but if you do that, what was the point of the x64 OS? Just so that Windows recognizes all your memory?

I've got Win7 x64 on my laptop and have everything working with x64 apps (MPC-HC, ffdshow, Haali, etc), but I prefer the ease of x86 for deep tweaking on my actual HTPC. Like I said, I could install all the x86 apps/plugins on my laptop and get the same depth of tweaking I get on my HTPC, but I chose to go all x64 just to see if there was any improvement. I don't see an advantage. As someone else mentioned, its a HTPC....more than 3 GB of RAM will NEVER be needed.

The absolutly best application that is on a 64bit OS system is the OS itself since it can execute 74 bit instructions that are equivalent of two 32 bit instructions in only one machine cycle doubling the OS perfrormance. Also the 64 bit can move data twice as fast by using 64bit wide registers innstead of 32bit wide registers. The fact that it can address more then 4GB is a benefit but not as important as the ones I point out above

LOL. Funny, I don't know anyone that uses 64 bit. Heck, both my main PCs are still on XP (no reason to upgrade to Win 7 until I build a new PC). All my friends are gamers and there are games even to this day that have issues with 64 bit. The latest I had was with Dragon Age which came out end of last year. Many 64 bit issues that still haven't been fixed. That alone convinced me that 64 bit still isn't for prime time. Now if all I did on my PC was surf the web, email, Office apps then 64 bit would be fine. But for gaming there are still enough issues to keep me from going 64 bit even when I do finally build a new PC and go Win 7.

As for my HTPC, I already gave my reasons. There were some plugins that I was looking at before I built it that had issues or very little support for 64 bit. What I mean by that is the author wrote it in 32 bit and some 3rd party converted it to 64 bit. So when the author updates the program the only way the 64 bit version gets updated is if someone does it and if there is a bug with the 64 bit then it's not getting fixed or will be difficult for the author to debug.

Another example is I've seen a few posts around with issues with the HDHomerun OTA tuner. Common thread among those with problems....64 bit OS. Not everyone with 64 bit has the issue but most that do have 64 bit.

So anyway, chances are good if I did Win 7 64 bit that I would not have any problems. But why even take a chance when WAF needs to be high and the HTPC has replaced pay TV for us so it needs to be rock solid.

Again, nothing wrong with going 64 bit, nothing at all. But for many like myself there is no benefit *at all* so why even take the chance there might be an issue if the HTPC needs to be mission critical.

What if any programs have problems running in a 64bit OS?
I did a quick search on dragon age 64bit and found a bunch of people saying they haven't had a problem with running it on 64bit.

I think people are still afraid of changing because maybe something might not support it 100% and it might not be able to maybe work perfectly because maybe its meant to be ran on 32bit. If you feel more confortable running 32bit because it's the old technology that's slower but works then thats fine but don't be bias because you're too scared to upgrade. I haven't ran into any problems with 64bit. I've had only one program that doesn't work with windows 7 (bentley manual software for my Audi) but other than that its a no brainer. Please post reasons why 32bit or 64bit would be better with actual facts.

Heres the FAQ from microsoft about win7 32vs64bit
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...4-bit-faq.aspx


"The benefits are most apparent when you have a large amount of random access memory (RAM) installed on your computer, typically 4 GB of RAM or more. In such cases, because a 64-bit operating system can handle large amounts of memory more efficiently than a 32-bit operating system can, a 64-bit system can be more responsive when running several programs at the same time and switching between them frequently. "

Since the product keys can be used for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, why not dual-boot? That's what I do. 40GB partition for 7x86, 40GB for 7x64, then the rest of the hard drive for data. Makes it easier to troubleshoot if a problem is related to 32-/64-bit or something else.

I must say I'm finding the 32-bit partition to be very useful now that I'm dabbling with emulators again.

maybe when windows 8 comes out they will have some interesting things that a 64bit os can do that a 32bit os can't. but right now in htpc land there isn't anything. htpc works fine with 2gb ram. all the htpc public/free tools that have been developed support 32 bit. some things have to run as 32bit apps on the 64bit environment. i don't see how emulating 32bit os is better then having a native 32bit os.

i just don't see the point in using 64bit. If i have a choice, i use 32bit. The only way i would use 64bit for an htpc is if the pc already came with it installed. Since i build them myself, they are all 32bit.

i keep my htpc setup clean and simple so there isn't a lot of extra software to add potential for bugs. 64bit has 2 copies of half the software it ships with (32 bit and 64 bit versions). i just don't see the point in having 2 of everything when the 64bit versions don't do anything better then the 32bit version.

it isn't a matter of being afraid of 64bit. I have successfully installed/configured on several pcs. the stuff added by 64bit os is just worthless for my htpc applications. I would rather use the cleaner/less kludgy pure 32bit os and save the disc space.

i have my c: drive in a swappable bay. i can have a clean install on an identical drive... just swap out the drive and turn on the pc. that way i can wipe a drive and use it for something else and/or do clean os install without any added potential for issues. while i was making my transition to win7 i kept seperate 32 and 64 bit boot drives (plus my previous vista setup). i can archive a drive image easily to resurrect old tests cases.

One reason to use a 64bit OS is that it removes the 2gb limit for processes. Games and a few other apps were coming up against that limit recently. Moving to 64bit gives each 32bit process a clean 4gb process space to play with.

For an HTPC depending on your needs their isn't much benefit going 64bit, but not much trouble either. Haali has a 64 bit splitter, AC3 Filter has a 64bit version, FFDshow has a 64bit version, PowerDVD and arcsoft both play well with WCM64, anyDVD and CloneDrive play nice. That's enough to take care of everything I do.

NOt to mention when "windows 8" comes out typically upgrades are only from same "bit versions"...meaning if you install win7 32 bit you'd need to upgrade to win8 32 bit...if it exists.