upgrading a 32bit hardware system to 64bit

frankkky · 10-02-2010, 10:16 PM

i have a few systems (linux boxes and windows boxes) that are currently 32bit hardware systems with 32bit OS installed and running.
These systems are HP desktops pc with intel pentium chipset, Dell desktop pc with AMD chipset, IBM xSeries servers with intel pentium chipset.

but now i want to upgrade all these systems (workstation/servers) to 64bit OS, but need the 64bit supported hardware.

the strange question is,

is there "possibly" any way to work around this 32bit hardware systems and make them ready to accept 64bit OS?

TobiSGD · 10-02-2010, 10:22 PM

There is no way around getting a 64 bit processor, if you want to run a 64 bit OS.

frankkky · 10-02-2010, 11:56 PM

thanks for the response, but should i just change the cpu to 64bits version, will i be ready to go?

Timothy Miller · 10-02-2010, 11:59 PM

If your board supports 64-bit chips, yes.

rob.rice · 10-03-2010, 12:53 AM

with out the mother board being built for 64bits adding a 64bit cpu to what other wise is a 32bit system and running a 64bit O/S would slow things down

you need a 64bit data buss to at the very least between the cpu and the MEMORY hard drive controler and graphics adapter to see the advantage of having a 64bit O/S

so you need to upgrade the mother board as well as the cpu

Timothy Miller · 10-03-2010, 09:10 AM

Not necessarily. Some boards support 64-bit even though they came with only 32-bit processors. One of the ones that pops to my mind is the Dell Latitude D620 laptop. It's fully 64-bit capable, but the default processor was a Core Duo T2400 (no 64-bit). The upgrade processors were T5600 Core 2 Duo, T7000, T7200 Core 2 Duos (all 64-bit).

So it's possible that one of them is like that.

frankkky · 10-03-2010, 10:19 AM

Timothy,
thanks for the explanationan and the example

actually one of the machines in question is (HP) Compaq Evo D500 desktop machine

any idea of any compatible 64bit cpu brand for it?

Timothy Miller · 10-03-2010, 11:12 AM

Wow, that's one of the ones we used to use at work.

No, no chance of getting 64-bit on there. The chipset doesn't support 64-bit processors, and I don't believe there were even any made in that particular socket configuration, as that's an older P4. Only the Prescott based P4's supported EMT64 (Intels name for the AMD64 extensions) to my knowledge.