Pros&cons XP pro 64

[Rock]

Basically as the title says. Would like some feedback on the pros of owning xp pro 64 bit, and the cons of software not working avaliable on xp pro

The main reason i got it, was i now have 4 gigs of ram, but xp home(32 BIT) woould not recognise i had 4 gigs of ram. Plus i was told its quicker and more secure than xp home

[Evo<^|SiNz|^>]

Ugh, I wrote a huge response to you in the quickreply, including links to more information... but when I tried to post, I lost the whole thing because I don't have enough posts to link URL's here. Anyway, I'll try to do it again.

My experience might be different than others, because I only used the software briefly during the latter part of the beta stage. I scrapped it because some of my hardware lacked driver support.

Pros:
- You'll be able to use your 64-bit processor to its full potential (obviously).
- You'll be able to play games and use software that runs natively in the 64-bit computing environment. Right now, there are only a handful of games capable of this, including Half-Life 2, FarCry, and UT2004. If you do a Google, there are some lists published of all 64-bit software out right now. Unfortunately, I can't link at this point.
- You'll be ahead of the curve when it comes to future 64-bit apps. It's known that Valve is working on new software that will be native 64-bit apps.

Cons:
- The few games that are out that have 64-bit support can be run smoothly just as easily in the 32-bit environment. Depending on your hardware, you could only see marginal performance gains by switching to the 64-bit OS.
- There are still very few games out there that take advantage of 64-bit technology. And as I mentioned, the games that do exist have 32-bit counterparts that run very smoothly in that environment.
- You may not find 64-bit driver support for some of your hardware. When I tried WinXP 64 in April 2005, the manufacturer of my TV tuner card did not have a driver available for that OS, rendering that piece of hardware useless.
- Windows Vista is expected to come out hopefully within the next year. Its been reported that nearly every version of Vista will ship with both a 32-bit version and a 64-bit version, with the exception of the most basic package. I personally never pick up a new OS within the first few months of its release to make sure the driver support is there and all the bugs are worked out. And your hardware may not be ideal for running Vista.


[Edit] You should be able to get XP home to recognize 4GB of RAM, I believe there's a BIOS tweak involved. A good place to ask about that is tweakguides.com.

BTW, why do you need 4GB of RAM?

[ScratchMonkey]

I'm running WoW and BF2 on XP64 with no problems. When I first got it nVidia was a little slow getting drivers out but I think enough people are using it now that the hardware vendors have gotten better at deploying drivers quickly.

[P8riot]

Originally Posted by Rock

Basically as the title says. Would like some feedback on the pros of owning xp pro 64 bit, and the cons of software not working avaliable on xp pro

The main reason i got it, was i now have 4 gigs of ram, but xp home(32 BIT) woould not recognise i had 4 gigs of ram. Plus i was told its quicker and more secure than xp home

One thing - do you have a 64-bit enabled processor?

Edit, BTW - XP Home does support 4GB.. it may only show 3 though.. I don't remember what the reason was.

[TychoCelchuuu]

Why, exactly, do you have 4GB of RAM? Assuming you're actually using it, the program that's hogging that much might have a 64-bit version, in which case WinXP 64 would be a great choice.

[ScratchMonkey]

Makes a great RAM disk! Esp. for those fat games with slow load times.

[Rock]

Originally Posted by Evo<^|SiNz|^>

Ugh, I wrote a huge response to you in the quickreply, including links to more information... but when I tried to post, I lost the whole thing because I don't have enough posts to link URL's here. Anyway, I'll try to do it again.

My experience might be different than others, because I only used the software briefly during the latter part of the beta stage. I scrapped it because some of my hardware lacked driver support.

Pros:
- You'll be able to use your 64-bit processor to its full potential (obviously).
- You'll be able to play games and use software that runs natively in the 64-bit computing environment. Right now, there are only a handful of games capable of this, including Half-Life 2, FarCry, and UT2004. If you do a Google, there are some lists published of all 64-bit software out right now. Unfortunately, I can't link at this point.
- You'll be ahead of the curve when it comes to future 64-bit apps. It's known that Valve is working on new software that will be native 64-bit apps.

Cons:
- The few games that are out that have 64-bit support can be run smoothly just as easily in the 32-bit environment. Depending on your hardware, you could only see marginal performance gains by switching to the 64-bit OS.
- There are still very few games out there that take advantage of 64-bit technology. And as I mentioned, the games that do exist have 32-bit counterparts that run very smoothly in that environment.
- You may not find 64-bit driver support for some of your hardware. When I tried WinXP 64 in April 2005, the manufacturer of my TV tuner card did not have a driver available for that OS, rendering that piece of hardware useless.
- Windows Vista is expected to come out hopefully within the next year. Its been reported that nearly every version of Vista will ship with both a 32-bit version and a 64-bit version, with the exception of the most basic package. I personally never pick up a new OS within the first few months of its release to make sure the driver support is there and all the bugs are worked out. And your hardware may not be ideal for running Vista.


[Edit] You should be able to get XP home to recognize 4GB of RAM, I believe there's a BIOS tweak involved. A good place to ask about that is tweakguides.com.

BTW, why do you need 4GB of RAM?

An interesting read, Thanks

Originally Posted by ScratchMonkey

I'm running WoW and BF2 on XP64 with no problems. When I first got it nVidia was a little slow getting drivers out but I think enough people are using it now that the hardware vendors have gotten better at deploying drivers quickly.

So everything is A ok with your setup? IM glad to here BF2 works fine. What improvements did you notice over xp home?

Originally Posted by P8riot

One thing - do you have a 64-bit enabled processor?

Edit, BTW - XP Home does support 4GB.. it may only show 3 though.. I don't remember what the reason was.

Yes i do. Amd 4000+ 64bit
Hmmm, when we had it in the xp home OS it did actually show 2.7 gigs of ram. Any chance you can remember later and let me know?

Originally Posted by TychoCelchuuu

Why, exactly, do you have 4GB of RAM? Assuming you're actually using it, the program that's hogging that much might have a 64-bit version, in which case WinXP 64 would be a great choice.

Good question, to which i dont have a serious answer to im afraid. If im honest i wanted a dream cpu at xmas, but after spending £1500 i kinda ran out of spare money and my girlfriends patience. So im playing catch up, which i have succeeded in i think, apart from the fx 60!. I dont really use the cpu apart from gaming to be honest, i just want a nice good fast machine to play games on, albeit a £2000 monster which is out of date already. lol

Im in 2 minds whether or not to revert back to xp home edition this is the reason behind this post really.

[P8riot]

Originally Posted by Rock

Hmmm, when we had it in the xp home OS it did actually show 2.7 gigs of ram. Any chance you can remember later and let me know?

Edit the file boot.ini. You'll see some strings showing the BIOS where the Windows installation is. To the end of that string, and you will notice other switches, such as /FASTDETECT. Add /PAE and you may also want to add /3GB as well. Then save the file. Then reboot. That's it.

If your computer has problems, and it could, as not all systems (hardware) support PAE, then boot up in safe mode, where PAE is disabled automatically, and fix the file to remove those switches.

If it works for you, the /3GB tells windows to assign the RAM 1 GB for core system processes, and the other three for applications

[TychoCelchuuu]

Originally Posted by Rock

Good question, to which i dont have a serious answer to im afraid. If im honest i wanted a dream cpu at xmas, but after spending £1500 i kinda ran out of spare money and my girlfriends patience. So im playing catch up, which i have succeeded in i think, apart from the fx 60!. I dont really use the cpu apart from gaming to be honest, i just want a nice good fast machine to play games on, albeit a £2000 monster which is out of date already. lol

Well, sounds like you're not actually doing anything that will use anything near 4GB of RAM. Unless you get the giggles by way of leaving other programs running the background while you play games, there's no point in spending even MORE money to get a new OS that recognizes your RAM; just be content that you have more than enough. Maybe give a stick to charity or something.

[Rock]

Originally Posted by TychoCelchuuu

Well, sounds like you're not actually doing anything that will use anything near 4GB of RAM. Unless you get the giggles by way of leaving other programs running the background while you play games, there's no point in spending even MORE money to get a new OS that recognizes your RAM; just be content that you have more than enough. Maybe give a stick to charity or something.

LOL. To late, XP pro is already installed. Gonna try it for a few days when i have moved house and see how it goes.

Thanks for your input men.