Can't decide whether to get Windows 7 32bit or 64bit?

[Ssenkahdavic]

Gilgamesh said:

phnguyen89 said:
Here is the deal, all new CPU should be 64 bit compatible. The license for Windows 7 is good for both 32/64 bit for any edition. So if you have say Pro (get at least Pro), then you can switch out to 64/32 any time, the hassle is the re-installation.

I suggest you get 32 bit. The deal is that 64 bit is still a bit of an issue with compatibility. (Also, Windows 8 is supposed to be 128 bit).

My example of incompatibility: I am researching for my professor on CUDA for structure from motion. x64 Windows does not support CUDA with visual studio 2008. I tried all the hacks, but none of them worked. Once I downgraded to 32 bits, I just installed it and everything worked immediately.

Like I said I'm more of a casual user, 95% of the time all I'll be using is internet browsers and the other 5% would be anti virus programs. And the odd time some games.

(And I guess WMP is playing 100% of the time.)

The most important thing is to make sure it will work for you.  Check all of your drivers (video/mb/audio etc) and make 100% sure they all have 64bit driver support.  While they should, it does not mean that they do.

Also, 32bit will always run faster with under 4gb of ram simply due to addressing (the amount of speed increase is almost 0, but it is still faster).  Going higher does not matter since you have to have the 64bit environment to run.  As far as gaming goes, I load everything I play directly into RAM (running 8gb atm) so loads and whatnot are faster.  Since 64bit win7 has b/c with 32bit applications and one day they will make apps purely in 64bit, Id suggest going with 64bit.