# Any reason to go 64bit



## sparky77 (Feb 22, 2008)

Planning to put together a new HTPC with one of the new atom mobo's with Nvidia Ion graphics, just wondering if there's any reason to go with Windows 7 64bit over the 32 bit version. The only real difference I'm aware when it comes to video processing is that no matter what, you need twice the ram, which only adds to the price of the build. All encoding of movie files will be done on another pc running Windows 7 home premium 64, so all the htpc has to do is run boxee and winamp since the music interface in boxee doesn't impress me too much. Is there any real benefit to running 64 bit for an htpc?


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## DWJ (Jul 10, 2006)

One benefit is, it gets you out from under the 4GB RAM (max) limit under 32 bit.


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## hddummy (Mar 9, 2007)

DWJ said:


> One benefit is, it gets you out from under the 4GB RAM (max) limit under 32 bit.


Agreed....if you are running a house full of extenders, running more RAM is beneficial. Other than that, I think 32 bit is perfectly fine for a one room machine.


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## sparky77 (Feb 22, 2008)

The only thing the htpc will be doing is playing streamed media from the freenas server, so I'm thinking I should be able to get by with 2gig of ram and the 32 bit version of Windows 7, or may even use my copy of XP that's no longer in use on any other computers, just to save the extra $110.


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## hddummy (Mar 9, 2007)

I would think so.


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## Theresa (Aug 23, 2010)

I would install the old copy of XP unless its already registered with a different machine.  Sounds like 32 bit would be just fine if you do go for 7.


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## zryder (Apr 13, 2009)

Win7 is very usefull for a HTPC, over XP. A big reason why is its media center.
However, I run 32bit on my HTPC, instead of 64. If you have 4g of Ram, 32 will see most of it, but many of the codec's and programs that are useful for a HTPC are 32bit only. For example, Reclock can only play with 32bit programs, and on Win7 x64 WMC is a 64bit application. For another example, Itunes 32 can run under WASAPI mode, Itunes 64 can not.
YMMV, but food for thought.


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## jrb2969 (Oct 15, 2009)

I definitely like W7 over XP for HTPC. Libraries, integration with Win Home Server, WMC are some good reasons. Would do 64 bit if you are going to do more memory than 4GB total - system and graphics card. Given current pricing and the performance needed, a fast machine won't go to waste...especially if you add games to the task list. If you are trying to keep it cheap and you don't have the memory, 32 bit if fine. I have 64 W7 machines and don't see any downsides for the most part.


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## panaman (Dec 16, 2008)

i would load XBMC live on that thing...


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## sparky77 (Feb 22, 2008)

Already planning to order this little computer as soon as I get my income tax check, so I guess I'll be running 64bit anyways.


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## luma (Feb 1, 2011)

These days I default to 64bit unless there is a specific driver problem which will require 32bit. There really isn't much of a noticeable difference in performance, but 64bit is where the market is going so I figure I might as well get on the bus now. The price is the same for both editions and all modern processors will support it.


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## Nissan-SR20-Man (Feb 4, 2011)

I did my HTPC on Win7 Ult x64

No major complaints, all x64 drivers work.
No STB video recording via firewire - no x64 bit drivers exist - TMK

Win 7 is very stable
I have a AMD 64 bit processor, so it logically makes sense to take of advantage of it.
I have 8GB of ram too, so x64 was needed


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## sparky77 (Feb 22, 2008)

Well the emachine's computer I wanted to get seems to be sold out all across the country so I had to order this one which has a slightly faster processor, and still comes with Windows 7 64 bit, but some reports say the fan is a little louder. Should get it in a couple days and will post a review after I get to test it out thoroughly, but can't say whether its any quieter having never used the emachines computer.

I do have a laptop running 7-64, and have no complaints at all, all drivers work just fine, no software compatibility problems either that couldn't be corrected by enabling xp or vista compatibility modes and a few quirks with some older software that doesn't know where to look for files with the x86 versus 64 bit software structure and the different file locations.


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## recruit (May 9, 2009)

I use Windows 7 64 bit for my HTPC and run with 8 gig of RAM, and it is very quick running the 64 bit version, I certainly would not go back to 32 bit on a HTPC, although I do use Vista Ulimate 32 bit on my laptop but that would never run some of the programs I use on my main computer which is the HTPC.


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## ghost rider (Dec 29, 2010)

Just stumbled on to this thread. I'm not in the market for a new machine but do these processors have enough power for HTPC usage? It used to require at least a 2x core and a quad if you want any kind of BD processing speed.


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## sparky77 (Feb 22, 2008)

Both the emachines and the acer are duo core processors. I ended up getting the acer, and it works just fine so far, I'll be testing out bluray fuctionality tomorrow, will post in the acer review thread when it's been thoroughly tested


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## ghost rider (Dec 29, 2010)

my mistake. I was looking at the wrong chart. In any case it might be slow for any BD rebuilds.


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## Nissan-SR20-Man (Feb 4, 2011)

HD processing can easily be handled by a sub $100 video card.

I had a P4 2.8 Prescott running 1080P rips (*.mkv) just fine. I used an ATI HD4670 video card to do the grunt work. ($100 due to AGP slot). This setup used about 20% processor

I currently have a AMD Athlon 5000+ ( 64 bit - 2 core - 2.6GHz) and a HD5550 ($45 newegg)

I have a ton of *.mkv bd rips, and plays everything perfect and only uses about 10-20% processor (both cores) . The reason for cpu over 10% is due to playing everything through win7 x64 MC.

I ran Win 7 32 bit on a P4 with 1GB of memory, no overclock perfectly fine. It actually ran faster than XP for single task. It fell on its face for multitasking.

I built a 20HDD 6.0TB HTPC Server using the Dual core AMD due to its 26 watt idling power, I run the HTPC 24/7 downloading stuff. No sleep mode ever, always on

USE VIDEO HARDWARE ACCEL! - 720P and up was not possible on a P4 without it. 1080P is possible on my AMD CPU with no hardware accel.


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## ghost rider (Dec 29, 2010)

My 1st HTPC was a P4 Northwood core. I had a ATI 1600 agp card. When I tried to play BD disc it would not do it. 

I got a AMD 5000+ and with a ATI 2600xt card it played fine but when I started reencoding my backups and it took 24 hours for a single encode I got a AMD Phenom 940 3.0 x4 I have it O/C to 3.41 and the encodes are done in hours not days.

The AGP video card finally died so I retired the P4 and the 5000+ / 2600xt combo is my new internet computer


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## sparky77 (Feb 22, 2008)

The HTPC will not be doing any encoding/re-encoding, that will be handled by the Asus G60VX laptop. Although processor wise it isn't that extremely much faster processor wise, it just has a WAY better gpu.


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## ghost rider (Dec 29, 2010)

Yea I have 2 HTPCs too speed becomes less important when you can encode on one while watching the other.


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## Nissan-SR20-Man (Feb 4, 2011)

Any ATI HD4000 series and up have UVD, HD5000 have UVD V2

UVD = unified video decoder

This allows for hardware accelerated video decoding and encoding.

I can encode via my AMD 5000+ in days also, the video card gets it done in hours via ATI AVIVO add on program. ATI allows additional download of the AVIVO package that converts anything to anything

bottom line, any CPU with a AGP slot can do 1080P video with the help of a HD4670 - which is still sold. If I had an old school P3 I bet it could do 1080P with that video card. PCIE slots + HD4000 and up equals bliss. My HD5550 uses PCIE backplane power - no external power plug required + it is low wattage + win7 speeds up and slows down the card cpu and memory speeds. All of this is ultra low consumption on my power bill

Without a video card the CPU is slammed with decoding/encoding process. My personal $0.02 is that ATI is superior when it comes to HD video. Not to mention Direct X11 on windows 7 for less than $50 (HD5550). NVIDIA wants my unborn child and my right nut for DX11.

Encoding in CPU only = more cores the better - X64 allows for better addressing and more memory


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## ghost rider (Dec 29, 2010)

very interesting thanks for the info


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## sparky77 (Feb 22, 2008)

The NVidia cards have CUDA technology that allows them to be used as extra processing cores for encoding video and audio files too, including the ION card in the little Acer computer. Just not all enocoding software supports CUDA but at least Divx Plus does, and thats what I use the most.


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## peterselby7 (Nov 29, 2008)

IMO Go with win 7 64 bit. 

Get the best Mobu you can afford that takes DDR3 RAM. Also be sure it can take fast RAM like 2133Mhz speed. (upgrade path)

In my experience you have less hiccups and stutters if dealing with a faster machine. 

Overbuild the HTPC and use large fans at slow rpms to keep it cool and quiet (in a large case for good airflow). You'll be glad you did. 

Get a quad core processor too. They won't get bogged down with multiple applications like other CPU's can. Some of the software even for home theater can get pretty intensive. Don't forget that you may use the HTPC for room correction and other things in the near future. 

Just some food for thought.


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## sparky77 (Feb 22, 2008)

The acer aspire revo that I purchased is actually one of the recommended pc's for buiding a boxee box and also recommended by vudu to run their app from boxee, already tested, and it runs flawlessly as long as my kids aren't also watching HD vids off of youtube at the same time. At this point I see no reason to spend thousands on a htpc unless you plan to use it for dvr while simultaneously watching hd programming off of a digital cable tuner card. From my research already, the atom processors are just as capable as the celeron duo processors, and my experiences have shown nothing different, in fact they run much cooler at the same processing levels. Much different than what I was expecting especially considering the atom has a 1ghz fsb running ddr3 ram. My only recommendation is that using the atoms, disable hyperthreading in the bios, so you don't choke the ram if your running only running the stock 2gb ram that comes in the pc. I may be upgrading the ram in the near future.


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## yamahaSHO (Nov 14, 2007)

I've tried 64-bit on a few of my HTPC's a few times in the last year or so with Win7 and both times gave me issues. With my most recent one (few weeks ago), I finally went back to 32-bit and took out 4GB of RAM (had 8GB) and my NIC doesn't quit on me during file transfers to my WHS. I tried all the drivers I could find for the board, in addition to many other options, and going back to 32-bit was my fix. I can't recall what the problem was about a year ago, but I just remember being frustrated and went back to 32 again.

On the plus side, I have a x86(3) and x64(1) OEM disk. I can switch back and forth when I want, so nothing really lost but time.


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## robbo266317 (Sep 22, 2008)

I have been running 64 bit on a system I built from components over 18 months ago. I have since upgraded the m/b, cpu and memory. My wife is also running 64, as well as my work and home laptops. 
None have had any issues.


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