{"id":148,"date":"2008-09-10T00:01:22","date_gmt":"2008-09-10T07:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/?p=148"},"modified":"2008-09-08T09:00:39","modified_gmt":"2008-09-08T16:00:39","slug":"the-64-bit-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/?p=148","title":{"rendered":"The 64-Bit Question"},"content":{"rendered":"

Should you get the 64-bit edition of Windows Vista? Should you buy a 64-bit CPU for your next PC? These questions aren’t really that tough to answer \u2014 providing that you (yes you<\/em>) know the answer to a single, simple question.
\n
\nEvern since I first wrote about buying computers, the questions people ask always seem to be about hardware. Dell-this, Toshiba-that. Those are good questions, but they miss the point.<\/p>\n

Hardware is nothing without the software to drive it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Remember that. All the hardware power in the world is useless when there’s nothing to take advantage of it. You need software that craves the hardware. Without that software, there’s no point in owning the hardware.<\/p>\n

Consider the case of some first-time computer buyer paying way too much for a high-end graphics card. Then the user never installs any video games or graphics software. Sure, expensive graphics make the web and Microsoft Word look just stunning<\/em>, but what’s the point in buying something you don’t use?<\/p>\n

Recently a reader asked me whether it’s worth it to buy a 64-bit PC. She was also concerned whether buying such a PC would affect her current lot of peripherals, such as the printer and scanner. It was a good question.<\/p>\n

64-bits refers to the size of information the CPU can manage at one time. A 64-bit chunk is twice as wide as a 32-bit chunk. Even so, a 32-bit processor can work with 64-bit chunks, just not as efficiently. But all that technical mumbo-jumbo isn’t the issue. What’s important is knowing whether your software requires a 64-bit processor.<\/p>\n

If you’re using a program that says \u2014 right there on the side of the box \u2014 I prefer 64-bits<\/em>, then you get a 64-bit processor and the 64-bit version of Windows. When none of your software meets that criteria, then the 64-bit processor and 64-bit Windows are nice, but not necessary.<\/p>\n

The second part of the reader’s question dealt with peripherals. The printer and scanner, and all peripherals, continue to work no matter what bit-breadth the processor lurks inside the console. Internal components must be geared to appreciate the processor, but that’s something done by the manufacturer.<\/p>\n

Bottom line: There is no point in buying technology you’ll never use. The best way to learn what you’ll use and what you won’t use is to become educated on the topic. I have a book to suggest: PCs For Dummies<\/em>. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Should you get the 64-bit edition of Windows Vista? Should you buy a 64-bit CPU for your next PC? These questions aren’t really that tough to answer \u2014 providing that you (yes you) know the answer to a single, simple question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}