I have Windows 7 32 bit running on a 64-bit capable machine.
I would like to install Windows 8 Pro 64 bit (64 bit, to take advantage of support for more than 3Gb RAM).
Naturally, I'm looking for the cheapest way to do this and would therefore prefer to purchase an upgrade pack.
Prior research
I looked at the zdnet article about upgrading from 32 bit previous version of windows to 64 bit: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsoft-details-its-windows-8-upgrade-plans/13051 But not sure if this is a policy statement about going from 32bit to 64bit or a technical one. From a technical point of view, I don't care about keeping my existing programs or files - I will back them up and re-install them. So assuming the Windows 8 installer just checks for the presence of an eligible older OS and then has an option to do a clean install of Windows 8 64 bit, then this should be possible.
I already know that that a clean-install of Windows 8 32 Pro is possible on a machine already running Windows 7 32 bit. Here, the Windows 8 install checks for the eligible OS and when passes, it offers 2 options for install: 1) in-place upgrade, keeping existing programs and files and 2) option to wipe/format the disk and install. For my required case of going from 32 bit to 64 bit,option 2 is what I would want.
Similar questions and answers I already looked at (but didn't answer my question - note how I worded my question title) :-