upgrade 32bit vista home premium to 64bit?

A

Ampsonic

Gawd
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Apr 18, 2004
Messages
830
Hello,

I have Windows Vista Home Premium (OEM) from new egg. Do I have any way of upgrading to a 64 bit version?

Thanks,
 
There are two parts to this. If you obtain x64 media, you shouldn't haven an issue using your key and installing. You probably won't qualifiy for the $10 x64 disc from Microsoft, since you have an OEM license. Your best bet would be to borrow media from a friend. I can't see recommending that anyone download the disc from a torrent site.

The second part is, once you have the disc, you can't do an in-place upgrade. You'll need to wipe the drive and do a fresh install to go to Vista x64.
 
Interesting. So my license should be valid, I'm just on my own for media. I should be able to find one.

I'm looking forward to a fresh install, the system is a little bogged down now as it is.

Right now I only have 2GB of ram, but I'm hoping to go to 4GB (hence the upgrade to 64bit). If I don't upgrade the ram, is there any benefit to the 64bit version?
 
There are some minor benefits here and there, but as of now, the real reason is the memory. With memory prices this low, I wouldn't wait to go to 4 GB. All it takes is another earthquake in Taiwan before those prices skyrocket.

Vista license keys are valid for both platforms....just not at the same time. I've heard people say that some OEM keys are tied to x86 or x64, but I haven't seen anyone confirm this to be sure.
 
Well, since you seem to know your stuff, a few more questions.

Any concerns with mixing brands of RAM? I currently have 2x1GB Crucial Balistix (ddr2 800), and I'd like to buy this cheap ram: pqi TURBO 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800

Never heard of pqi but it has good reviews on new egg.
 
Ampsonic said:
Well, since you seem to know your stuff,
Click to expand...
I try to tell my wife that everyday!

I don't believe you'd have any issues mixing memory types, as long as you had them paired in the channels properly...meaning, keep the Curcial paired, and the PQI paired together. Just be aware, and this may not be important to you, especially if you aren't overclocking, you'll be running at whatever the slower speed and slower timings are of the memory. If the Crucial is CAS4 and the PQI is CAS5, all will run at CAS5, for example.

As a suggestion, just to consider and price out before you buy, you might have better luck selling your Crucial memory on our FS/FT forums, and getting a 4 GB kit. With the money you'd get for the Crucial, it might work out to be the same cost overall, but now you'd have 4 GB, and still likely have two slots open for future upgrades.
 
Ampsonic said:
Interesting. So my license should be valid, I'm just on my own for media. I should be able to find one.
Click to expand...


Your 'license' is not technically valid for the alternate install. It's valid (when it is an OEM license) only for installation with the install you were provided with.

That's a different consideration to 'functional'. Your install code will 'work' with either install. It'll install, activate, validate, update. But it won't be a valid license. It'll just be a working installation.
 
Ampsonic said:
Well, since you seem to know your stuff, a few more questions.

Any concerns with mixing brands of RAM? I currently have 2x1GB Crucial Balistix (ddr2 800), and I'd like to buy this cheap ram: pqi TURBO 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800

Never heard of pqi but it has good reviews on new egg.
Click to expand...

I have mixed ram and I've had no problems and they both have different timings. Just make sure you set the timings the same. One was 4-5-5-15 and the other 5-5-5-15. I lowered it to 4-4-4-12 and have had no problems. Hell I had them overclocked from the original 800mhz to 900mhz with no problems.

But with all hardware YMMV.
 
Mileage certainly varies when you 'mix and match' RAM. As a general observation made over time, I'd say that the more 'performance-oriented' the motherboard chipset is the less tolerant it will be to mux and match, and the more recent the Windows version is the less tolerant that will be also.

You don't need to "set the timings the same". The motherboard's BIOS will set ALL modules installed to the same speeds/timings as the slowest module fitted. You simply can't have modules installed and operating at different settings. It doesn't work that way.


It's inadvisable to mix and match RAM, to be honest. That's never been 'good practice', and it's always been an exercise in pot luck. Best practice is to only use 'matched' modules of the same make, model and (preferably) production run.
 
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