Windows 7 professional 32bit vs 64 bit

I just bought a refurbished laptop. I will list all the specs here because I don't know which are important to answer my question:

Lenovo ThinkPad T410
Intel Core i5 processor
2.40GHz
4GB DDR2 SDRAM system memory
250GB SATA hard drive

It was supposed to come with Windows 7 Pro 64bit, but I realized after getting all the updates and installing some other software that it is actually the 32bit version.

I don't use the computer for games, but I have ArcGIS which is probably the biggest thing. Otherwise, I just use SAS (not installed yet), word, powerpoint, excel, email and a few other small things.

Two other problems with the new laptop are that the battery only lasts about 20 minutes, and the adapter/power cord they sent triggered a message that it's not the one designed for the laptop (it's 60W, but I'm using my son's 90W).

My question is, how important is 64bit for my uses? Would it make a big difference in how much I could run at one time or in how fast I could process in ArcGIS or SAS? If not, I was thinking to negotiate for a better battery.

Opinions?

Thanks.

 

since you only have 4GB of RAM, it doesn't matter.
If you want to go beyond the 4GB limit, then you need a 64 bit to address that.
(FYI - 4GB really means you get 3.5GB)

 

32 or 64 bit isn't a speed thing, it's about how much memory can be addressed. 32 bit is limited to 4GB (2 to the power of 32 = 4,294,967,296 = 4GB), and as that has to include memory required by your graphics card, probably up to 1GB, it means the system can't use all of the 4GB RAM installed. However for the uses you have in mind that will be ample. One of the boxes here is running Win 7 32 bit on 4GB RAM with a 1GB graphics card and it's absolutely fine in normal use. Right now it's running MS Word, MS Outlook, and IE11 and still has 1.75GB free. So unless you plan on adding more physical memory there wouldn't be any point in changing to 64 bit.

 

So really, 64 bit will be better so that they aren't stuck with less than 4GB of usable ram.

 

If you're buying a 'cheap' refurbished laptop, the batteries are usually 'as is', unless it is a factory refurb. And people usually buy refurbs for cost, so why upgrade the OS and RAM? Next time put the money up front and get what you want. So if you're trying to be thrifty, don't spend the money to gain 512MB of RAM.

 

ARCgis is currently only 32 bit, so there is no reason to go beyond that with ram.

Unless..... You are dealing with geoprocessing, then yes 64bit will help. Also, there is a new version coming out called ArcGis pro, which does support 64 bit.

Where I work, we have a test user using Autocad map 3d 2015 (64bit) and arcgis (32 bit). Running about 32 GB of ram. They benefited with also using an SSD. Opening ARCGis took a few seconds, opening up a map, was seconds. This was going from almost a minute to pull up anything from their old computer.

I custumed built this machine for speed.

 

Thanks for all your replies. It was a cheap refurbished laptop, so I guess I'll accept the fact that the battery is not good. But since it was advertised as having 64bit Windows 7, I think I'll hold them to it. It's a hassle since I've already installed a bunch, but it sounds like it will be worth it.
Thanks again.