| > Client editions of Windows do not support PAE while server editions do. That is not correct, client editions fully support PAE. > As for why PAE isn't supported on client editions It is supported (and enabled), the limits are implemented separately and independently. > this isn't a licensing problem (you can buy x64 editions for the same price that have massively increased RAM limits) Windows 7 Home Basic x64 will only make 8GB RAM available, Premium will restrict to 16GB, professional and up will allow up to 192GB. Meanwhile Server 2008 R2 Enterprise and Datacenter allow 2TB. These are very much licensing restrictions, as is Windows 7 Starter (x86)'s 2GB limit. > but rather, Microsoft playing it safe with driver compatibility. That is the excuse they give for it, yes. It just happens to make no sense when applied to the x64 limits I quoted above, to Starter's 2GB limit (and Vista Starter's even lower 1GB) or to e.g. Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation's 8GB limit (2008 R2 only runs on x64 and Itanium so 32b isn't even remotely a factor) > so it's more a hard limit on addressable physical memory It's not "hard", since it's merely based on the licensing mode of the kernel. It can even be hacked out. |
Why not go x64? x32 can be faster, and MS does not allow OS upgrades from 32 to 64 bit.