Should I upgrade from 32bit to 64bit?

I have a Fujitsu t730 currently running 32bit windows 7. I ran the Windows 7 upgrade adviser and it said I met system requirements. I have 8GB of RAM and of course only about 3GB is usable because I'm using 32bit, but backing all my programs and files up seems like a big pain. Will upgrading to 64bit have a noticeable positive impact?Are there any problems that I should watch out for before upgrading? Is it free as long as I have my Win 7 product key?

 

do you run any heavy programs like Photoshop and use them with relatively heavy files, or do you do some heavy multi-tasking or have dozens upon dozens of tabs in a internet browser, or similar things that like to use lots of ram? if so then running 64-bit and being able to use the 8GB will help in keeping slow-downs to a minimum (that's about it though). Yes it will be 'free' as long as you have a DVD drive (either a modular bay one, or a USB one; and either a Win 7 install disc that has a x64 un-branded version the key is for, or a blank DVD); or a USB thumb drive that is ~4.7GB+

In your case I'd recommend at least considering going out to a local store like Frys or Microcenter [if there are any near you] and picking up a decent priced SATA 2.5" 9.5mm HDD for $70-80+ or a Intel, Crucial, Samsung SSD for $80+ for a 64GB, or $120+ for 128GB, or $240+ for 256GB [Newegg may have better prices than anyone around you for these SSD's though, especially the Crucial)... this way you simply install to the new drive and install windows to it and you have your old one as back-up incase you screw something up or whatever, and you could use it as a test bed for multi-boot with Win 7, Win 8, Linux distros, and maybe even Android on x86 without having to worry about your original install.

 

I use photoshop quite a bit for drawing. I shy away from using many of the larger complicated brushes and filters for fear of lag... I think I was pretty well convinced I should I just didn't really want to and wanted to know if I was missing something. Would it help with using programs like blender or movie editing programs?

My computer came with two 140GB hard drives (C & D). Currently only my C drive is in use except the properties of my D drive says 92MB are used. As far as I can tell there is only a Fujitsu folder with one 1KB file in it and a Temp folder with nothing in it. Could I use my D drive to install 64bit Win 7? I like the idea of being able to fall back on my old set up if the upgrade isn't what I had hoped.

 

It's perfectly doable to burn through >3GB of RAM in day-to-day work, let alone anything graphical, so definitely do it.

There's no difference between 32 and 64 bit keys, so you're all good. The only disadvantage is that sometimes it's harder to find 64 bit drivers, but that's less of an issue nowadays.

 

Well, installing to even the other partition on that drive will NOT keep the primary partition safe at all (it will cause you headaches if you screw up or decide later on you want to go back to exactly as it was; its basically the same as wiping the drive if things go wrong so back-up your data if you decide on this route)... I would really recommend going out and just picking up a cheap drive, you may want to try out a good SSD like the Crucial [Newegg should be the best place]; and installing to that so you can simply swap the origional drive in and have everything back to the way it was, or test different OS's on the other drive without bothering the original. Also, for $6-15 you can pick-up an external USB SATA 2.5" enclosure to hold your original drive and have access to all your files)

 

Thanks, for the advice and clarifications! 100 bucks or so might not seem like a lot but I'll probably have to wait a while before I could pull that much spare change together. I may just get brave and back everything important up and do a clean install of 64bit.