Windows 7 32bit or 64bit for HTPC?

Trepidati0n said:
My real question is what is the reason why people seem to be bent trying to keep a HTPC 32 bit? What is the real long term benefit of staying 32 bit instead of moving forward to 64 bit (especially with win7)? Will 32 bit be faster in the future? Will it have more features? Will it be more aligned with available hardware?
Click to expand...

What's the real long term benefit of making an HTPC 64 bit? That's the point. My point is is that it just works now, anyone can take their pick of 32 or 64 bit and not be penalised for it with shitty codec support/drivers or software compatibility. It just works... but you still don't gain anything from it so it's not exactly a deal breaker (which some here advocating 64 bit seem to make it). (Side note: it really helps that Intel pulled their head out of their ass and made the Atom a 64 bit chip too.)

I've been running Win7 64 beta on my HTPC and plan to upgrade it to the full 64bit release here soon (have a retail copy, just no time to do it).
 
Obscure hardware for media capture or remote or whatever htpc functions may only have 32-bit drivers. Check their driver support pages and see. Some codecs now support 64-bit functions for playback. Though I can't really say if their effort was strong enough to make a real impact. Personally I always go with 64-bit installs. For me it's not been as evil as it seems.
 
krupted said:
because 32bit is being phased out. no more support for 32bit is on the long term horizon.
Click to expand...

No more support in the long term? Like 10 years+ when support is gone, and I am being conservative. I think we are going to see 64 bit programs be more primary than secondary in 3-4 years. But 32 bit will still be pretty strong. And by that time you would have reformatted your HTPC at least once in that time. Probably upgraded your OS even. Which gives you the chance to switch to 64-bit.
 
CrimandEvil said:
Dude. Windows 8 is being planned out for a 32 bit release last I heard.
Click to expand...

Early in development for windows 7 they said x64 only. And then quickly back tracked on that. I fully expect windows 8 to be x64 only. But haven't heard anything official.
 
Archer75 said:
Early in development for windows 7 they said x64 only. And then quickly back tracked on that. I fully expect windows 8 to be x64 only. But haven't heard anything official.
Click to expand...

That was Vista before they totally gutted it and made it into an expensive, time consuming half assed effort. The only thing they really said about Win7 was that it was built out of Vista (think Vista 2.0, Vista remixed or what Vista should have been from the fucking beginning).

Like Tomiboy said, I expect 32 bit to hang around a bit longer, at least two more major OSes longer.
 
CrimandEvil said:
That was Vista before they totally gutted it and made it into an expensive, time consuming half assed effort. The only thing they really said about Win7 was that it was built out of Vista (think Vista 2.0, Vista remixed or what Vista should have been from the fucking beginning).
Click to expand...

No, it was 7. I remember it quite clearly.

what people don't realize is that if 7 shipped in place of vista it would have exactly the same problems.
That being drivers. 7 uses the same driver model as vista. You'd still have to deal with immature buggy drivers. Hardware and software incompatibilities. People complained of performance and stability and compatibility. Same driver model as 7.
The only reason 7 is doing so well is because it had time while all of that stuff matured. Those changes needed to happen and now we are past all that. Not that I am discounting the additional changes in 7.
 
Last edited:
Having run both 32-bit and 64-bit media centers in the past, stick with 32-bit. The fact that a 64-bit OS can run both 64-bit and 32-bit applications can make the whole codec thing a nightmare. You can run a 64-bit OS if you would prefer, it'll likely just take more work to initially set up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top