I've got a Dell Precision that I'm thinking of doing a pretty big upgrade to. It's got 4 mb ram, and a 500 gig hard drive and I want to install a 1 TB hard drive and 16 gigs of ram. However, I believe it is running a 32 bit system (windows 7) and, from what I've read, it cannot run that much memory unless I can change it to a 64 bit system. Is this possible with my computer? How would I do this?
Could I just upgrade to windows 10 and have it happen automatically?
OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name (blanked out)
System Manufacturer Dell Inc.
System Model Precision WorkStation T3400
System Type X86-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9300 @ 2.50GHz, 2493 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Dell Inc. A08, 8/14/2008
SMBIOS Version 2.5
Windows Directory C:Windows
System Directory C:Windowssystem32
Boot Device DeviceHarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7601.17514"
User Name Blanked out
Time Zone Blanked out
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 3.00 GB
Available Physical Memory 0.98 GB
Total Virtual Memory 7.04 GB
Available Virtual Memory 610 MB
Page File Space 4.04 GB
Page File C:pagefile.sys
Thanks in advance,
kayakdude
Maybe but I'd be concerned by the line that says System Type X86-based PC, that may only be referring to the OS. Crucial does show 16GB as a maximum so that implies the 64-bit version of Windows would work. Since it is more computer than a consumer would use it may work better with a version of Linux or maybe even UNIX, haven't check into the limits for those.
The place to start is at Dell support:
They offer no support for Win 10 on the Precision T3400. That doesn't mean that it won't work, but Dell won't help you get set up.
To use 16 GB of RAM, you would need to install a 64 bit OS. You can't install a 64 bit OS as an upgrade over a 32 bit one; it would have to be a clean install. Dell lists a max of 8 GB of RAM for the model newegg.com sells a max of 8 GB (4 X 2 GB), but Crucial sells 16 GB.
(While the free upgrade to Win 10 is nominally over, it's still available in a couple of ways, for a duration that Microsoft hasn't disclosed. If you upgraded the 32 bit version, you could then clean in the 64 bit one, and the "digital entitlement" would carry over.)
The CPU supports 64 bit. There were a few 64 bit processors that were left behind by some Windows 8.1 (and later) requirements, but I'm pretty sure that a Q9300 is OK.
Whether you can easily get drivers for all of the subsystems, I don't know. You may be able to use the Windows 7 drivers, although you may have to do some finagling to get them to install.
A 1TB hard drive shouldn't be an issue. The break point is at 2GB. (Above that, you'd basically need a UEFI BIOS to allow it to be used as a GPT boot drive.) Speaking of BIOS, yours is old.
