Thursday, November 21, 2019

64 bit - What are the requirements for running a 64 bit operating system?


I'm a bit confused about this. I always thought you'd have to have at least a CPU that was a "64 bit" cpu, and probably a motherboard that could handle 64 bit memory addressing.


But recently I was checking out some info about my home PC processor (Q6600) and was surprised to find out that it can handle 64bit operating systems, even though it wasn't advertised as such. I've also seen sites claiming that any core 2 CPU from intel can do 64bit, which I find it hard to believe.


So, can I slap a 64bit OS on any Core 2 machine? Does the motherboard also come into play?


Answer



The only technical requirement to be able to install a 64bit version of an OS is that the CPU supports 64bit extentions. Most CPU's by AMD and Intel in the last couple years have included the 64bit extentions (AMD64/EM64T)


Your motherboard would most likely not prevent you from installing a 64bit OS, but you may not be able to go beyond 4gb of RAM depending on what the motherboard supports.


Some helpful questions:


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