[Sun Guru]

Hello all,

In these past days, I have searched the web for all the information I need to upgrade from Windows XP Professional 32 bit to Windows 7 Professional 64 bit.

Let me first start with my computer details:

Motherboard: ASUS P5KPL
CPU: Intel® Core™2 Duo E8400 @ 3.00GHz
Service Pack: 3
RAM: 2 GB (2*1 GB)

Things I have done so far:

I ran the Microsoft Upgrade Adviser and all of my hardware supports the 64 bit but my RAM. So...

RAM
I understood that the 64 bit edition needs 4 GB of RAM since it processes large amounts of RAM's smoother. According to this website the max RAM that my motherboard supports is 4096 MB which I assume is 4 GB. If this is the case, all I need to do is to by two sticks of RAM, each DDR2-800 2 GB (I am aiming for the Kingston ones). Am I making the right assumption?

Now on the Windows 7 itself.
As I said before, I'd like to upgrade to the Windows 7 64 bit Professional Edition. But the thing is that I don't know which exactly to buy. Should I buy the Upgrade version or should I buy the full version (is the latter the same as the "retail" version?). Aside from that, I saw many have the "EOM" tag on them, what does this mean and is it something I should involve myself with?

I know that whatever I choose, I need to do a clean install. That is no problem at all since XP doesn't support the way that you upgrade it while having the Vista OS installed.

Another small question is relating to the PSU. Having Windows 7 and these two larger RAM's, will the strain on the PSU be bigger?

I think these are my questions for now. I will really appreciate it if someone can help me with these questions. Thank you in advance.

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Hello Sun Guru...

It's not a requirement of a 64 bit operating system that you have 4+ GB of RAM. The 64 bit operating systems are able to utilize 4 GB or more while a 32 bit operating system is only able to utilize a little over 3.5 GB of RAM. You can run on the 2 GB you have...or you can install the full 4 GB as you mentioned.

The difference between a Retail version and an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) version is in the licensing. If you use a full Retail version, the software is licensed to you as the purchaser. It's yours to use on any machine you wish...as many times as you wish...so long as it is only installed on one machine at any given time. An OEM version is licensed to the machine it's originally installed on and is tied to that hardware in perpetuity...it lives and dies with the machine it's originally installed on.

An Upgrade version will require that you have the disk for a previous version of Windows (for verification of upgrade status) even if you do a clean installation. A full version does not have this requirement. And you're right...upgrading from XP to Windows 7 will require a clean install.

If your power supply is in good shape and has an output of more that 350 Watts, you should be good to go. I usually recommend installing at least a 550 Watt PSU when installing a 64 bit operating system.

wannabe1

[wannabe1]

Hello Sun Guru...

It's not a requirement of a 64 bit operating system that you have 4+ GB of RAM. The 64 bit operating systems are able to utilize 4 GB or more while a 32 bit operating system is only able to utilize a little over 3.5 GB of RAM. You can run on the 2 GB you have...or you can install the full 4 GB as you mentioned.

The difference between a Retail version and an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) version is in the licensing. If you use a full Retail version, the software is licensed to you as the purchaser. It's yours to use on any machine you wish...as many times as you wish...so long as it is only installed on one machine at any given time. An OEM version is licensed to the machine it's originally installed on and is tied to that hardware in perpetuity...it lives and dies with the machine it's originally installed on.

An Upgrade version will require that you have the disk for a previous version of Windows (for verification of upgrade status) even if you do a clean installation. A full version does not have this requirement. And you're right...upgrading from XP to Windows 7 will require a clean install.

If your power supply is in good shape and has an output of more that 350 Watts, you should be good to go. I usually recommend installing at least a 550 Watt PSU when installing a 64 bit operating system.

wannabe1

[Sun Guru]

Thank you very much wannabe1 for your input. I truly appreciate it.

On the PSU, I have a 650 watt one..so I guess that covers it.

As far as the RAM goes, currently when I play my online games, I am left with a bare minimum in the Avaliable Physical Memory...so probably it is a good investment in the future as I do a lot of video editing and photoshopping.

On the Windows 7 itself, in essence the Retail one is the best option then. I assume that it will be the most expensive one as well. But on the EOM version, to what hardware is it exactly attached to? For example, I can't imagine that it will be attached to a harddrive and if that harddrive crashes, you need to buy a new license...(maybe it is a noob question, so my apologies).

As far as the upgrading goes, I don't have the original CD anymore of this windows XP. What I use is a random version and activate it with the key that I have. I guess that won't be enough for an upgrade version?

Ty again for your answers.

[wannabe1]

Without going into too much detail, an OEM version has a "hardware set" that it's tied to. You can replace any of the hardware if it fails so long as you don't make too big a change to the hardware set the operating system was originally tied to. In example, you can change the hard drive without raising flags, but if you change the hard drive and the video card or change the hard drive and the processor, it will likely be seen as a different hardware set and you may be asked to activate Windows...which it will likely balk at. So...while it allows for routine maintenance and component replacements, a large upgrade made all at once will cause problems with activation.

Any Windows disk will work as a qualifying product when installing from an upgrade disk. It doesn't have to be the version installed on the machine you are upgrading. They just want to know that you have purchased a full version of Windows at one time in order to qualify for the upgrade. If you're after a trouble free experience, I'd recommend the full Retail version...and yup...it's the expensive one.

If you use your machine for intense graphics work, by all means, install the 4 GB of RAM. Windows 7 will grab a little over half of it to run on, but will only use the reserved memory when it needs it.

A 650 Watt PSU should be plenty.

[Sun Guru]

Thanks you wannabe1. You helped me a lot ^_^

This thread can be closed :]

[Peterkorse12]

My confusion was on the same question and I got the solution from Internet. It will be OEM tag not the EOM tag and this tag shows that you are a purchaser of this operating system having the licence. You can use this operating system anywhere, any time. So no need to worry for that. If you have good power supply with an output of more than 350 Watts than you can install PSU of 550 Watt while installing the 64 bit operating system.