EggXpert

I have an almost 2 year Dell XPS M1530 that I would like to upgrade. Currently it has 3gb Dell ram (PC2-800), and a 250gb HD with Vista 32-bit home. I'd like to upgrade the ram to two 2gb modules and replace the hard drive with a 500gb WD Scorpio Blue HD. I'd also like to upgrade to Win7after I upgrade those components. Would it be easier to just buy the full Win7 and go 64-bit and install it on the new drive or reinstall vista 32-bit and upgrade to Win7 32-bit? I mostly use this laptop when I deploy or in the case of my old Dell XPS desktop, as a temp desktop replacement. I mainly play MMo's and watch movies/listen to music on it. Thanks for any and all advice/help.

In short: It would be easier to simply install Windows 7 fresh on the new hard drive.

However, the only "difficulty" installing Windows Vista and then upgrading to 7 would involve is simply taking some more time. Going the upgrade way would be a bit cheaper, and it's not really hard (I've admittedly never used an upgrade version, but I'm certain the only difference from installing Windows normally is that it checks to make sure the previous system is installed). Installing Windows Vista or 7 really isn't hard, anyway, especially when you're just going to upgrade it afterward (you don't have to worry about making sure all of the appropriate drivers are installed).

If you choose to install Windows Vista and then upgrade to Windows 7 32-bit, I do see a problem that could arise: I've read all over the Internet since Vista came out that Vista 32-bit only took advantage of up to 3.25 GB of RAM, and that seemed to be pretty truthful. I read now that Windows 7 32-bit is the same. I have no personal experience on this having never built a compy yet with four gigs on a 32-bit system, but I would be wary of upgrading to four gigs with a 32-bit system as your purchase may give you only another .25 GB of RAM to utilize. 

It seems to me that you should be able to buy the 64-bit upgrade and upgrade from a 32-bit system, but don't quote me on that.

Edit: Oh. I did a quick Google search, and it looks like you can't. You have to get a full version of 64-bit to go from 32-bit. Sorry for the misinformation. But the 4GB RAM in the 32-bit OS thing is still a legitimate issue as far as I know.

The RAM thing isn't that much of an issue, it's just the max that a 32-bit system can read. So Weildish is correct that you'd want to get the 64-bit flavor of Windows 7 to utilize all 4GB that you're planning on putting in, just remember to grab the 64-bit drivers off of Dell's site.