X64 or XP Pro

[Stone Fox]

HURRAH!

Today is payday and I'm ordering the parts for my new PC!

I've got a big bulging shopping cart on ebuyer and I'm down to my last purchase... the OS!!!!

I'm looking at x64 vs XP Pro and can't make up my mind.

I'm building a socket 939 system before anyone asks any silly questions...!

If i get this right, x64 will give me a performance gain over XPPRO with a 64bit system, but I might have driver issues with x64, is that about right guys? I'm mainly going to be playing games and backing up dvd's...

I'm going to leave my shopping on hold and go have a pub lunch in the hope that people more knowledgable on the subject than me (which isn't difficult :rolleyes: ) have been nice enough to provide help / advice while I'm out.

Btw, in the UK there's only about £5 difference between them so money isn't a factor.

[therealwesty]

I've got the x64 Edition on hand and I have installed it in a seperate partition a couple times to see how it was. I haven't done anything extesive with it so far though. The driver support is starting to come around, only my old ATi TV-tuner is lacking support now. But you shouldn't have any problems with your new components.

Regarding the performance; 32-bit applications and games should see a small performance hit because the 32-bit environment is actually emulated when you are running in compatible mode. Any 64-bit software should perform better than their 32-bit counterparts, especially give the 8 extra data registers available when working in a 64-bit environment.

Next time I am due for a clean-up I am considering dumping my ATi TV-tuner and going full out with the x64 Edition of Windows.

[Stone Fox]

I've got the x64 Edition on hand and I have installed it in a seperate partition a couple times to see how it was. I haven't done anything extesive with it so far though. The driver support is starting to come around, only my old ATi TV-tuner is lacking support now. But you shouldn't have any problems with your new components.

Regarding the performance; 32-bit applications and games should see a small performance hit because the 32-bit environment is actually emulated when you are running in compatible mode. Any 64-bit software should perform better than their 32-bit counterparts, especially give the 8 extra data registers available when working in a 64-bit environment.

Next time I am due for a clean-up I am considering dumping my ATi TV-tuner and going full out with the x64 Edition of Windows.

Thanks westy, much appreciated. :D

I'll go for the X64.

I'd buy you a pint, but it's not so much wrong city as wrong side of the pond!

I'll hoist one in your name though.

[speedy11309]

well if you buy xp pro, it should come standard with x64 on it... atleast it did when i bought it 4 days ago.