A quick question about MCE

[Paladin238]

to my understanding MCE is A variant of Windows pro. so does that mean MCE will support dual processors? and dualcore. i heard home supports dualcore but not dual processors. but not sure if thats true anyway. thank you.

[thedude42]

for home:

http://support.intel.com/support/processors/sb/CS-007880.htm

"Be sure to use an operating system that supports dual processing. Currently, Microsoft* Windows NT*, Windows 2000, Windows XP* Professional and some versions of Linux support dual processing. Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me and Windows XP Home do not."

then i found:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/chats/transcripts/05_0519_ez_mce.mspx

the guy asking the question kept calling MCE by the name MCSE.... maybe he had been up to long, but here's the Q and A from his comment:

"RobertSchlabbach-MVP (Expert):
Q: If I can find a dual processor dual core motherboard and build a MCSE system will MCSE recognize and utilize all four virtual processors?
A: Microsoft licensing is per physical socket, not per core nor per (hyper)thread. So in the scenario you describe, you should get four CPUs displayed. You could also get a Pentium 840 Extreme Edition and have 4 virtual CPUs (two hyperthreaded cores) this way."

which leads me to beleive they are implying that MCE is licensed for a single socket. there is no other mention of this in the transcript.

intel then confuses the matter by posting this:

http://www.intel.com/support/processors/tools/piu/sb/CS-015478.htm

then i found this:

http://www.buybusinesssoftware.com/wixp20meceed.html

which says single or dual processor for MCE system requirements. the microsoft information on media center i looked at didn't mention anything about cpu support other than minimal frequency and model requirements.

[Paladin238]

well thank you for the information. >.< even in my microsoft windows books they say nothing about proccessors support for MCE, just said it was a variant of pro.. so i assume it is cause pro is. but i try not to assume anything with MS >.< just wanted to see if any one else had an idea, good to know were all in the same boat, paddling our way up the blue screen.