i was about to preorder windows 7 for my macbook pro 4,1 with the student discount and cant figure which of them to get. I've messed around with vista 64 bit and was never able to get all the drivers working even after downloading a custom drivers pack by someone else. I heard windows 7 was pretty good at identifying necessary drivers. At the moment I'm using windows xp 32 bit. I really want 64 bit to take full advantage of my 4gb or RAM. any suggestions?
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preorder win 7, 32 or 64 bit?
- Thread starter bobbypotluck
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you should go 64bit all the way since it supports more than 4gb of ram. Most drivers issues have now been resolved.
thanks. one more queation. for those not familiar with the student discount program heres a link
http://windows7.digitalriver.com/store/mswpus/en_US/DisplayHomePage
I'm going to preorder the windows 7 professional 64-bit. when at the checkout it offers to send me a disc for an additional $13. My question is if i dont pay the 13 and do the download, is it an iso or is it an upgrade exe or something. I realize since i have 32bit xp i'm going to have to do a custom install for 64 bit, is that even possible using an upgrade instead of buying retail? thanks. this stuff is getting confusing.
http://windows7.digitalriver.com/store/mswpus/en_US/DisplayHomePage
I'm going to preorder the windows 7 professional 64-bit. when at the checkout it offers to send me a disc for an additional $13. My question is if i dont pay the 13 and do the download, is it an iso or is it an upgrade exe or something. I realize since i have 32bit xp i'm going to have to do a custom install for 64 bit, is that even possible using an upgrade instead of buying retail? thanks. this stuff is getting confusing.
These kind of charges are very usual for MS media. Actually the price is good.
Install media for 64-bit and 32-bit are completely different and do not mix at all. The only thing that translates across the 32/64 chasm is the COA. The COA and the license applies to both the 32-bit and the 64-bit version.
Hence you need to download a completely new ISO unless you order the DVD. You also have to consider your EFI version. 64-bit install media require EFI64 for painless installation. I'm very sure MBP5,1 has EFI64 but with MBP4,1 I'm not sure.
For those non-students wanting to take advantage of this, go to http://www.australia.edu and you can sign up for a free .edu email address. Once the account is approved, simply follow the digital river link above and use the australia.edu address you got and you will qualify for the $29 price. Several people I know have done this and signed up and pre-ordered their copy of Win7.