I'm conducting a poll to see when the people here first owned their own PC with a 64-bit processor. I've listed all the years, from 2003 to 2013, and also an option for those who don't have one yet.

You can certainly post about it if you wish, but you could also just select the year without posting if you would rather keep it private.

here in 2011

Don't have one yet.

I bought an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ in 2006.. but strangely, I didn't run a 64-bit OS on it until 2009!

I got my first 64-bit PC in 2007.
I don't remember what it was.
My second one was from 2009 and it was my first Mac, a 2009 iMac 24" model running Snow Leopard.
Third was my dad's old Athlon 64 X2 machine that i was given about December 2011.
At that same time, I got a Mac Pro (from 2010)
Fourth was a MacBook Pro from late 2012
Fifth an iMac from late 2012
Then a Mac Mini from late 2012
and that is it so far.

2010.

I did it for Gaming. Gaming is better on 64 Bit machines because the higher ram limit.
I built my gaming pc around 64 bit. I always build 64 bit machines.

The only downfall is some programs are not compatible with 64 bit.

'05 - my family got an Athlon X2. I followed this up with my first proper PC for myself - a Sempron64

Every CPU that's entered my house since then has been x64-capable, with the exception of my first two netbooks - EeePC 701 (A Celeron M underclocked to 630MHz) and my Lenovo IdeaPad S10e (Atom N270). The second netbook was retired mid-2011, and I've been x64-exclusive, even on an OS level, since then.

2010 in my case.

1/19/2004 to test Xp x64 builds

ASUS: K8V Deluxe
Athlon 64 3000+ w/ 512K (L2 cache)
2 X 512 Corsair PC 3200
GeForce FX5900 /128 MB
2- 80 GB (PATA) hard drives
20” Hitachi Super Scan CRT Monitor
DVD/ CDRW
Floppy

*Pretty weak specs by todays standards.

My own PC with a 64-bit processor? 2010. 32-bit OS, though, since it was a netbook and so didn't have 4 gigs of memory.

2011 was when I got a new "proper" PC, and it came with a 64-bit OS since it had (over) 4 gigs.

In 2007, a HP Laptop with Vista.

In 2009, A used PC with these specs

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 2.2 GHz
ATI Radeon HD 2600 256MB AGP 8x
1GB (2x512MB) of DDR PC-3200 SDRAM
160GB Western Digital SATA Hard Drive
IDE 8x DVD-RW Drive
IDE 52x CD-ROM Drive
3.5-inch Floppy Drive
Windows XP Professional SP3

In 2012, a Dell XPS laptop.

When the MSI KN8 SLI Platinum Came out

Athlon 64 X2 1.8 [I was poor at the time]

built just to play Far Cry 64 bit

2006, when I built a PC with a 2 GHz Athlon 64 X2 3800+. Originally, I tried to run Server 2003 x64 on it, but the lack of NT 5.2 x64 drivers was excruciating, so I switched to Vista build 5600, which had all the drivers that I needed right on the DVD.

I acquired a PC with one of those in 2009, it was my first 64-bit PC, and is still my main desktop PC. Even though its still running on 2GBs of ram.

2008, HP laptop. It came with 2 GB of RAM so 32 bit OS.

1997, Dec Alpha.. good times!

Actually, louisw3, I'm talking specifically about 64-bit x86 processors, and not 64-bit implementations of other architectures. That was why I only went as far as to list 2003, which was the date when the first 64-bit x86 processor, the AMD Athlon 64, was released.

I got mine recently this month. Its a PowerMac G5 running Tiger and an HP computer running Windows 7.

I got mine in April last year, simply because my 2008 machine was too slow.

Specifications as Speccy sees them:
Windows 7 64-bit SP1
Intel Core i7 2600 processor @ 3.40GHz
16GB DDR3 RAM
Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. Z68XP-UD3 (Intel Sandy Bridge) motherboard
1535MB GeForce GTX 580 (EVGA) graphics
977GB Hitachi Hitachi HDS721010DLE630 (SATA) hard drive

Also, before anyone posts anymore, I want to make something clear in case people don't understand:

I am talking specifically about systems with 64-bit processors. I am not talking about the first time that people had a 64-bit operating system, but specifically about the first time that they owned a machine (PC compatible) with a 64-bit processor installed in it.

But anyway, as you can see from the posts in this topic, and the results on the poll, it obviously took many years for even systems with 64-bit processors to really catch on, and even longer for people to move up to 64-bit operating systems. I mean, we're right at the end of that era, but even as late as 2010, there were still many people who were just getting their new 64-bit machines for the first time.

how do you explain to the Avg User 64 bit OS Vs 32 ....

Again, in case you somehow missed it, I'm talking specifically about processors, and not about operating systems.

Also, TheBC, by last year, do you mean April 2011, or do you mean one year ago this April?

Year 2008
Specs :
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6850
- Asus P5i945GC/1333 or something motherboard, later Gigabyte G41M-COMBO
- 3 GB of DDR2-667 RAM (Kingston VR)
- nVidia GeForce 8500 GT
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 (later replaced by .12) 500 GB
Lasted 3 years. Still have the RAM and the hard drive.