Windows Xp 64bit..The lo-down

[R0xy0urs0x]

I'm sure you guys have herd this a million times but:

Is there a benifit in performance of a 64 bit based cpu (e.g. athlon 4200 x2) when windows xp 64 is installed instead of windows xp profestional?

is it worth getting if iv only just made the jump from a 32bit athlon xp?

kind regards

[fat jez]

Some things seem slightly more nippy to me and there is increasingly support for 64-bit versions of games, but before taking the plunge, I would be sure that 64-bit drivers are available for all your hardware.

Cheers,
Stephen

[csi_grissom]

ive been looking at this as well, the feedback is its got better with more drivers around but it doesnt make for too stable a pc yet, then why is it being sold if it isnt?
would lik to know anyone who has this and what they thought of it.

every where i read it said "make sure u have all the drivers before u start!".

[ajones]

I found the XP-64 install on my machine the simplest I've ever done. With the XP-64 disk, AMD and nVidia latest drivers, the machine was working within an hour.

My problems started when I started adding things afterwards. My Compro PVR doesn't support 64 bit, and the company couldn't tell me when they plan too. My USR Wireless LAN doesn't support 64 bit, and they couldn't help either, but I was able to find a 64 bit driver for the chipset on the PCI card (Broadcom or something), so managed to get it working. HP flat don't support 64 bit, which is really *!£$*!£"$^"!£&!£"$ annoying from such a high profile company, which means I can't use my printer connnected to this machine any more.

You'll find these kinds of stories everywhere. Rock solid, I couldn't tell you if it's faster or not, feels and looks the same as 32bit XP. I did laugh my bo**ox off when I came to run the system updates.... First thing Windows did was switch to a 32 bit browser because Windows Update doesn't work on the native 64 bit one!!!!

Just make sure that you check you've got 64 bit drivers for every peripheral you've got burned onto CD before the fated format c: /u

[csi_grissom]

errrm think ill give it a miss for now....lol

[DavidM]

If I was going XP64 - it'd definately be as a dual boot..

[KowShak]

If I was going XP64 - it'd definately be as a dual boot..

Legally speaking you can't do that unless you buy two licenses for Windows XP. To install XP-64 you have to convert an XP-32 license to XP-64.

[DavidM]

Yes, I know you'll need two licenses

[shaithis]

To install XP-64 you have to convert an XP-32 license to XP-64.

You can buy licences of XP64 independantly and have been able to since the day it launched.

Microdirect sell them, as do Scan.

Also, the stability is BETTER then 32 bit Windows IMO.

Check out PlanetAMD64.com for in-depth info.

[directhex]

I have both 32-bit and 64-bit XP on my system.

Notes:

* Microsoft's Realtek 8169 driver is broken - driver from Realtek webby is needed
* MANY games don't work right - Civ4 suffers massive slowdown, sound is broken in F.E.A.R. and HL2
* Forget about drivers for anything USB-based more complex than a mouse (e.g. printers, Bluetooth)

[shaithis]

FEAR and HL2 sound work fine for me.....in fact EVERY game I have ever tried under x64 just worked.

I have a multitude of USB devices: 2 x Card readers, Microtek Scanner, ZBoard keyboard, Mouse, Bluetooth Dongle (use with Nokia phone), Barcode reader (for cataloging DVDs) and a Saitek Evo joystick.

All working fine under x64.

Some things don't have drivers......thats life and is the same with EVERY operating system EVER released and will be the same when Vista releases and the one after that and the next......

[csi_grissom]

surely then m/s is just conning us with a release that doesnt work and didnt work properly on its release? there just using us as testers if u like.

[kalniel]

If you can wait for Vista, that will probably be a much more supported 64bit OS.

[arthurleung]

XP64 is FAR better than XP32
I test run my unstable highly overclock rig on XP32, about 30 tries the 32Bit will breakdown, but on the XP64 it just tell me it got a system check error and it withstand my unstable overclock without problem.

The another advantage is I can use the GPT disk which is much safer than MFT(or MBR, whatever) disk in some way.

[5lab]

i've been running the win64 beta for 11 months (i know this, becasue i've just started getting messages telling me i've 30 days left to get a propper copy) and its been flawless -some drivers (ms hardware, ironically) took a while to arrive, but other than that i've noticed a slight improvement in speed. incidentally my completely stock pc (not even got unusual drivers) gets about 10% more than the average with similar spec on 3dmark.