Upgrading from 32-bit to 64-bit

[azasadny]

Good info here!

 

[Vincenzo]

If your reason for wanting 64 bit is to put another stick of ram in and get to 4 GB, you can do that with the OS you have now. And as someone said, the performance should not be any different with 32 vs 64 bit OS. And the OS does not look any different. On the other hand, if you just want to tinker, then go for it.

 

[theog]

Did your notebook come with Windows 8 pre-installed? Or was it upgraded from an earlier version of Windows (XP/Vista/7)?

When I bought it, Windows 8 come pre-installed to it.

If the notebook Aspire E1-421, came Pre-installed with Windows 8, it is x64.

Acer | Download

 

[Baskhara]

If your reason for wanting 64 bit is to put another stick of ram in and get to 4 GB, you can do that with the OS you have now. And as someone said, the performance should not be any different with 32 vs 64 bit OS. And the OS does not look any different. On the other hand, if you just want to tinker, then go for it.

if I put 2GB RAM on the empty slot (so I have 4GB now, right) and still running 32-bit windows, how much memory is usable? because I saw somewhere a computer running 32-bit windows with 4GB of RAM, and only 2 or 3GB usable memory.

 

[alphanumeric]

It depends on how much is used by your onboard Video card. If your Video card uses system RAM then just subtract what it used from 4 and you'll have a ball park on what will be left. Going 64 bit won't change that. If your Video card has its own dedicated RAM it will still subtract from your 4 gig limit under 32 bit. Go 64 bit and it can be mapped above the 4 gig limit and you'll get almost all of your 4 gigs of RAM to use.