I currently run the 32-bit version of Windows XP Professional on my Dell Inspiron 1501. It can run 64-bit, because I run the 64-bit version of Ubuntu on it as well. It runs nice.
So I was thinking about taking the plunge to reformat and reinstall Windows to the 64-bit version.
I know the technical differences from 32-bit and 64-bit, but I want to know what I would benefit from if I did this. What are the ups and downs of running a 64-bit version versus a 32-bit version?
64 bit has almost no compatible software. Most software is 32 bit only.
To sort of counter that response; doesn't software that runs on 32bit will run on a 64bit system?
i ran xp 64-bit for about a day before ditching it. no drivers.
64 bit has almost no compatible software. Most software is 32 bit only.
That's total rot. I've been using it since the last two months and there are very few apps that actually had a problem in running. The 32 bit emulator is quite comprehensive, most software works normally. The only 32 bit apps that may have problems are those that want to interact directly with the hardware (such as drivers) and with the coming of Vista a lot of software companies are releasing x64 versions. All my devices work (nvidia card, motherboard chipset, printer x64 drivers were available out of the box) and I've had no hardware problems as yet. All apps (both x64 and 32 bit) seem to work faster than earlier. Some games that were a bit choppy on my low end gfxcard on 32 bit XP run smoothly on this one. All in all, if your processor supports it and unless you have really old peripherals, I'd recommend switching.
The only major problem I've had was that FAK wasn't compatible, so I'd to get stuff like Iconpackager which I'd never had to use before...
i'm on Windows x64 Professional, everything works for me, i use 4GB of ram, nice to see it fully used, drivers for all my hardware work great. Cheers
I know that drivers for this machine isn't a problem, because Dell are excellent with them. I even looked on my restore disk that came with my machine and it includes x86 and x64 drivers for all my devices.
then what are you waiting for?? Go for it! 
Here is my situation, though.
I have all this...sensitive data that would take me a LOT of time to gather and backup. It would take me two days at least to backup, reformat & install, and restore everything back to the way it was.
So before I actually do this, I wanted to know WHY I should upgrade. What would I benefit from doing so? All that stuff.
PS: 1000 Posts 
The benefit? The real one is that you can use more RAM than on the 32-bit system. And you propably won't feel the difference. IMO for real 64-bits we should wait for next Windows. Then the programmers will switch to it (they are doing so now, but veeeeerry slowly) and the potential will be used. Now IMO it's no sense of this (currently I'm Vista x64 user, but switching back to XP - 32-bit one).
RAM isn't an issue. The machine I am going to install the 64-bit version has 2GB of RAM (the laptop's maximum.)
So IMO (for now) it's not worth it. Why? 64-bit programms will work natively without problems, but most of the (there are exceptions) 32-bit apps will be in emulated environment, and it cost more resources. So - if you don't have real reason (and if you are asking, you propably don't) wait with x64 for a while.
Both 64 bit and 32bit apps work a bit faster than on XP 32bit. I was able to run games on this setup that my crappy nvidia card refused to run on normal XP. But since you've got all that data, I'd suggest you wait a bit, as I, in your situation, wouldn't want the hassle of spending two days on switching over...
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