[kurite]

Hello,
I am currently building a small fanless HTPC. I am going to use it primarily for media/kodi but I will be doing some light gaming on it. Because it is fanless would it be a better idea to install windows 10 32 bit for less heat build up? Would I be missing any features of windows if I used 32 bit vs 64? The system will only have 4gb of ram.
Thank you

[Soulbind]

Where in God's\Allah\Buddha\Unicorn-with-laserz name did you get the ideea that 64bit Windows would heat up your computer more? Lol.

Install 64bit, there's to use for having a 32bit OS in 2016, unless you plan to run some 1998-era apps on it that may not work under WoW64 . Most recent games require 64bit Windows anyway, and don't work on 32bit. But if you're gaming, you might want to up the RAM to 8GB, or at least 6.

[kurite]

Well i know that windows 64 bit ends up using more ram, I head windows 32 bit uses 500mb-1gb while 64 bit uses closer to 1gb-2gb which means there has to be additional processes going on which would take up more processing power/produce more heat. Is that not right?
Also it would be really light gaming, so im not too worried about ram.

[Soulbind]

No. 64bit programs use more memory because of longer pointers (for example, on a 32bit OS a pointer takes 4 bytes, on 64bit, it takes up to 8 bytes, a long double can be up to 16 bytes versus 4 on 32bit) etc. . That's why you see a higher memory footprint for 64bit Windows. The thing that Windows has extra on 64bit is called WoW64, and provides emulation to run 32bit apps on it. That's about it.

[Rickt1962]

BY ALL MEANS stay away from WIndows10 if you can help it ! Stick with Windows7x64

[kurite]

BY ALL MEANS stay away from WIndows10 if you can help it ! Stick with Windows7x64

Whys that?

[Zpectre87]

BY ALL MEANS stay away from WIndows10 if you can help it ! Stick with Windows7x64

Whys that?

Because of the "spyware", probably.

Anyway, you can opt out of most data collecting stuff in Windows 10. There are rumors that some of it remains because you can't kill the Cortana app and there's still some anonymous (in theory) telemetry being sent to MS even after opting out of everything, but I wonder whether this is just paranoia because "it's MS" and people like to hate on them. I mean, Google tracks you everywhere and it's very annoying, Facebook has that master plan by Mr. Sugar Mountain to claim the internet for themselves, and MS is the problem? People don't throw tantrums regarding Google because you can (again, in theory) disable the trackers with various third-party plugins as well as not using their services in the first place, but the best privacy tip I could give to anyone is to avoid making yourself a prime target. True anonymous browsing is an illusion unless you're in on the system (like Snowden).

As for performance, 7, 8.1 and 10 are fairly evenly matched ATM. I expect 10 to become faster as it develops.

[Soulbind]

Some people forgot to take their tinfoil hat off . Everybody tracks you, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon etc etc, more or less. The fact that you are on the freaking internet means you are being tracked ffs. If you want privacy, go dump your computer \ smartphone \ tablet , even TV down the dumpster and go live the Amish way in a freaking bunker 35 feet below ground. Nobody will even know you even exist.

The fact that you are being tracked for ads is the sole reason we have free websites, otherwise joining a site like, i dunno, Engadget or Anandtech, would require a monthly fee. Servers and hosting don't exactly pay for themselves, somebody needs to make money and pay the bill.

As far as performance is concerned, i find Win 10 on my desktop (use Open ELEC on my HTPC) a little bit better, especially Hard Disk (well, actually, SSD) I\O has gone down vs Win 7 i previously had. Can't speak for gaming, though in the benchmarks i've seen, more or less the same.

[nickr]

There have been a number of reports of performance troubles with win 10 vs win 8.1.

I for one hate the win 8.1 and 10 interfaces.

If you don't want 'reporting back' and want a great kodi experience try openelec.

[nickr]

There have been a number of reports of performance troubles with win 10 vs win 8.1.

I for one hate the win 8.1 and 10 interfaces.

If you don't want 'reporting back' and want a great kodi experience try openelec.

[Topken]

Also Kaby Lake will only work with Windows 10 or higher according to Microsoft. So yeah if you need windows for anything and get a kabylake or newer cpu in the future you will be stuck using windows 10. Linux and openelec should not have that problem tho.