I have an older PC- Dell Dimension with pentium4 3.2 GHz CPU (800 MHz bus speed), 4 GB of ram, and whatever built in graphics card came with this thing (256 MB Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator.)

I am currently running XP but have the option to upgrade to windows 7 ultimate in either 32 bit or 64 bit versions for free through my school.

Any advice? Should I just stick with the tried and true?

Thanks.

How long do you plan to keep this computer? BTW, you cannot use a 64 bit operating system on that processor.

At least a couple more years. (We are saving for a house so trying to spend as little as possible). My wife has a newer laptop (1 yr old) that serves us pretty well also.

What requirements are there for a 64 bit processer?

your not saying upgrade your current machine are you, I assume you mean you have the ability to get a new machine with 7 on it? There is not a clean way to upgrade to 7 from XP.

talking about upgrading to windows 7 on the current machine. I can't just completely reinstall with windows7?

The reasearch I have done says you can't just "upgrade" XP to windows 7, your data won't be preserved. You have to do a "clean" install which is like a brand new reimaging of your hard drive.

If you had Vista, you can "upgrade" without losing programs/data, however, I still would do reformat/clean install.

A quote from a Microsoft spokesperson “I can confirm that customers will be able to purchase upgrade media and an upgrade license to move from Windows XP to Windows 7 - however, they will need to do a clean installation of Windows 7,” a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed to The Register. “This requires the user to back up their data, install Windows 7, re-install the programs and restore their data.”

Windows Vista users, however, will have the option to install over top their existing OS.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/windows-xp-7-upgrade-vista,6965.html

Thanks for the info Randy.

I don't mind wiping over and starting anew... just not sure if I will have a bad experience with windows7 on this comp.

There is a way to install Windows 7 over XP and the install will transfer your files to the Windows 7 OS.

I've got windows vista that I installed on a machine I build last year and I'm going to install 7 64 bit sometime soon. It seems I need to do a fresh install about once a year because I get so much spyware that I always end up with a slow computer and it seems only a fresh install will cure it.