Hello Lee,
My answer had nothing to do with the virtues of Win 8 x64 vs Win 8 x32. It specifically addressed a comment that a win 8 x64 uses less (hard drive) memory than an x32 installation and I simply responded with my test comparison results. Now I will respond to your advice based on my System Specs:
I am well aware of the differences in RAM allocation and/or addressing capabilities in a comparison of a 32 bit OS vs a 64 bit OS but thank you for reiterating same. However, in some cases, depending on the age of the computer, and its inherent capabilities thereof, a 32 bit OS has more advantages (IMHO) that a 64 bit OS. Moreover, I have found that a 64 bit OS actually takes a bit longer than a 32 bit OS to execute 32 bit programs. I believe this is because the 64 bit OS considers the 32 bit programs to be an overhead situation and I have read that it actually has to go through 2 layers of execution to complete a 32 bit task. And, in summary, I can just tell you that my 32 bit installation was noticeably faster than my current 64 bit installation so I'm going back to x32 as soon as I get the time to do it. Just for the record, over 90% of my user programs are 32 bit.
Now, getting to my rig's specs:
I have a Dimension 8400 that runs just fine on either x64 or x32. However, I do have a limitation that stems from the Dell proprietary BIOS and the 925XE mobo chipset that limits my use of memory. Moreover, I cannot control the memory channel operation, which defaults to whatever is detected by the BIOS. So, in my case, I have 4x1GB modules that are detected as dual-channel interleave, and from a Dell BIOS perspective, that will only give me 3.0GBs of usable memory, whether I have x32 or x64 installed. Now, the only work around that I might have would be to insert a 512KB chip in any one of the mobo memory slots and that would force the bios to (possibly) run in single channel mode, and on an x64 system, I might get 3.5Gbs out of it. This would not be worth my time because I have adequate memory at 3GB (usable).
So, again, thank you for your response but I'm having some difficulty in connecting it with original my response.
Cheers