64 Bit or 32 Bit OS for AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ ?

LoLCashCow

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May 8, 2013
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Hi there,

I have very little knowledge about computers. I just bought a used computer that has a AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ with a 32 bit windows 7 installed. I want to install Windows XP and I was wondering if I should make it 32 Bit Or 64 Bit? I have a copy of both.... I think this CPU is 64 bit? So I kept thinking it should be 64 Bit OS. Yet it has a 32 Bit W7.

I will be using this computer to play League of Legends. It has 4 GB Ram, a 30 GB HD and a low end graphics card which I want to upgrade sometime soon. I believe it has a 600 Watt power supply also. Motherboard is BIOSTAR MCP6P M2+

The owner said the GPU is 1 GB NVIDIA GeForce 210 Video Card
 

elemein

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Mar 4, 2013
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Windows XP 32-bit.
 

Matsushima

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Mar 6, 2013
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Either version will work fine, but 32-bit operating systems will only recognise about 3~3.5 gigabytes of memory. The processor is a 64-bit.

Note that at the time of Windows XP 64-bit release, there wasn't a lot of software that supported 64-bit. But like the above has said, go with 32-bit.
 

LoLCashCow

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Hi everyone,

What will happen with the additional .5 ram that won't be recognized? Will it not be available for use? Will it recognize the full 4GB Ram with windows xp 64 bit? I believe I have windows xp professional 64 bit. Is there any specific reason why I should install 32 Bit instead of 64 bit? Will it cause the computer to run slower?
 

Matsushima

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There is almost no difference, it's just that you can't use the unusable memory. e.g for my computer with Windows XP 32-bit, it says 4GB memory but 3GB usable.
I think you should go 32-bit, 64-bit back then was in its early stages and most people used 32-bit, even with 64-bit processors.
 

anxiousinfusion

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Jul 1, 2011
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Hello, I have a machine with AMD Athlon X2 64 3800+ running Windows XP Professional 32 bit. Windows creates what's called a Physical Address Extension or PAE. This means that out of the 4GB of installed memory, 2GB are used normally and 2GB is available to the operating system through PAE. Performance, however, is not the same as with full 4GB on 64 bit Windows.