Perhaps, but there's a difference between "just enough" and wanting a good machine that'll last for a few years. Being a huge geek and wanting the latest and greatest doesn't help much either.

I'm hanging back on installing my upgrade, too. I believe a clean install is best, but I haven't felt like messing with all that backing up. Plus, I worry about what programs I use that won't work on win 7, like PSP8 and my email client. 

Bebi - My machine is a bit more than "just enough".

works fine on my win 7

PSP8 works fine for me on Win 7 64 bit.

I have yet to experiance a problem with software or hardware once I turned off UAC. Your mileage might vary.

Now try windows 3.1

very overrated,  

My previous post did not come out well so here it is again:

I've read in some sites that a clean install can be done from an upgrade CD. Personally I would rather do a clean install myself although I can understand some peoples hesitation to want to reinstall all the software they currently have on their computer. I rather enjoy reistalling them, pasting the back-up files myself (such as game saves) and making sure all my favorite short cuts are where they should be. But that's just me. For example, some of the files for my Call of Duty World at War are saved under the Users folder on Vista while my Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare are saved in the same forlder as the game itself.

Here is a site that can help you decide the best way to install Windows 7:

http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/win7_upgrade.asp

And here is how to do the clean install with an update:

http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/clean_install_upgrade_media.asp

Hope this helps.

Of course you can!  In fact, a clean install is the only upgrade path from XP to Win 7... and it can be installed on a serarate drive/partition through the 'custom install' option.  This option leaves XP (previous OSes) intact and backing up especially is not necessary.

What is the best way to go from Vista 32-bit to Win7 64-bit?

It has to be a clean install... upgrade installation from 32 to 64 bit does not take. 

Edit: