64 or 32 bit?

[excollier]

I have an Acer Aspire 5535 laptop with (now) Windows Vista Basic and LM 13 Cinnamon dual boot. I was looking at the AMD sticker on it (beside the Windows sticker) and it says "AMD Trurion X2" at the top of the sticker and "64" at the bottom. (RM-70 2GHz, 1MB L2 Cache, on the other sticker)
Do I unwittingly own a 64 bit computer?(We've had it for a good few years now). Could I have installed LM 13 64 bit instead? Too late now but it would be interesting to know.
I looked up the spec sheet but it is vague about the processor saying "varies by model..."

Oh, and yeah, I also discovered a ExpressCard/54 slot. What's that for?? Like I've owned this computer for around 5 years now...

Edit: found this

"AMD64 Technology Yes
Simultaneous 32- & 64-bit computing Yes
L1 Cache (Instruction + Data) per core 128KB (64KB + 64KB)
L2 Cache (512KB per core) 2MB total for Turion X2 Ultra; 1MB total for Turion X2
HyperTransport™ Technology Up to 14.4 GB HyperTransport™ I/O bandwidth
Integrated DDR2 Memory Controller yes
Memory Controller Width 128-bit
Type of Memory Supported PC2 6400(DDR2-800), PC2 5300(DDR2-667), PC2 4200(DDR2-533), and PC2 3200(DDR2-400) unbuffered memory
Memory Bandwidth Up to 12.8 GB/s memory bandwidth dual channel memory bandwidth
Total Processor-to-system Bandwidth (HyperTransport plus memory bandwidth) up to 27.2 GB/s

AMD Notebooks @ Home

The AMD Mainstream Notebook Platform" [b][/]
Could I replace my 32 bit LM 13 with 64 bit? Would I see any benefit if I did? Is it even possible to just replace it?
I should say her that I am very happy with LM 13 as it is, but curiosity......killed the dual boot!!

[xenopeek]

Looks like yes, you sneakily do have a 64 bit processor To weigh whether you should want to run 64 bit instead of 32 bit, have a look at my recent post here: http://forum.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.ph ... 58#p692304

[DrHu]

If it is an older notebook, it will likely max out at 4GB or less RAM; which wouldn't be that useful for a full-on 64bit OS + 64bit applications
-as well as some inevitable problems with 64bit modules/drivers or applications (they will of course use 2x the usual (32bit) system RAM))

You could, however use an PAE kernel to allow more system memory (RAM) for the OS, but the above would still apply: unless you do have more RAM, and I would say probably 8GB is a good size, I personally wouldn't even bother with a 64bit OS, it doesn't get you much in terms of system speed (apart from compiling source files..) or functional application support.

[xenopeek]

(they will of course use 2x the usual (32bit) system RAM))

FUD. Just like 64 bit isn't twice as fast as 32 bit, neither does it use twice as much memory.

[excollier]

I think I'll stick as I am, all is working well, so no need to upset it, but an interesting discovery, none the less.

[d00med]

The 64bit version of Mint uses a good bit more than twice the RAM of its 32bit counterpart here, and the 32bit computer has a much older install with a lot more bloat installed.