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Going to use WinXP Pro X64. Any advices?

M

Mr. Stryker

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Mar 15, 2005
Messages
5,220
Is it a bad idea to do this? I feel like doing it for the hell of it. I got a student's license for X64 that came with my XP Pro 32-bit. Computer in sig.

EDIT: I'm a gamer. Are the drivers for the components I have .. stable and good enough?
 
I'm probably out of line giving this advice as my only experience with XP x64 was bad, but here goes.

Unless you need it for some specific reason... don't use it.

That is the only advice I can offer.
 
Pros:

1) It's based on the core kernel of Windows Server 2003, the highest performance OS Microsoft has created so far (personal opinion there based on a lot of actual testing over the past 2 years) and now with Service Pack 2 being released it's about 10-15% faster - XP x64 uses the same service pack(s) as Win2K3 does.

2) Did I say it was fast? Like, I mean, fast? If you thought a fresh clean install of XP was fast, wait till you see how freakin' snappy and responsive your machine will be with XP x64, seriously.

3) No memory issues to worry about if you've got 4GB or more. XP x64 will see it all and use it all.

4) Because it's based on the 2K3 core kernel, the memory management is vastly superior to XP.

5) It's fast. :)

Cons:

1) Driver support for some hardware. Personally, the only issue I had when I ran XP x64 recently on a Core 2 Duo laptop I owned was the craptastic Sigmatel onboard sound. I had to figure out the proper method to alter one of the .inf driver installation files to match the PCI vendor ID or the driver never worked. It wasn't a problem with XP x64 - that's the important point. The normal 64 bit driver would have worked perfectly but Gateway apparently put in a request to Sigmatel to create an entirely new Device ID pool just for Gateway - meaning the standard Sigmatel 64 bit driver I found all over the place would not install on that sound chip in my laptop: Gateway did that on purpose so people wouldn't call in asking for support on XP x64 since they don't sell it or support it.

But I fixed that and had absolutely zero issues of any kind with anything else, and this was a brand new laptop manufactured in October 2006.

2) Some possible application issues. Running 32 bit code on XP x64 requires the emulation layer to kick in, called "Windows on Windows x64," or WOW as Microsoft calls it. I noticed no ill effects at any time by running 32 bit code, and my games - I only play Quake 1, 2, and 3 - actually performed better on XP x64 than they did on XP itself. I can't account for why even with the WOW emulation taking place, but they did show slightly higher framerates across the board.

If you've got it, go for it. The only way to know is to install it and find the drivers and see what happens. If you don't have any of the cons above, I think all the pros will be quite noticeable, especially the overall speed and responsiveness of the OS.

It's freakin' fast, man... ;)
 
I just installed XP 64, I will tell you it is nice and fast, and quite responsive. The thing is, it will take some time for you to set it up, you can't just start DLing drivers and throwing stuff on there as you can with 32, and it can be somewhat "temperamental" sometimes.


Now for the good stuff, it's freakin' fast. I did notice a small gain in FPS, and some better response. My only one pet peeve, is that SLi will not work in Source based games, HL2 ,CSS, etc. But SLi works well in everything else, and as far as it not working with HL2 it's Valves fault. The game runs in "64 bit mode" it's fast yes, but it will not allow SLi to function I don't know why. Even with the 64bit graphic drivers. Good Luck!
 
Proxy said:
I just installed XP 64, I will tell you it is nice and fast, and quite responsive. The thing is, it will take some time for you to set it up, you can't just start DLing drivers and throwing stuff on there as you can with 32, and it can be somewhat "temperamental" sometimes.
Click to expand...
My XP64 install hasn't been "tempermental" in any way at all whatsoever, and when I set mine up I did in fact just "start DLing drivers and throwing stuff on there."
 
digital_exhaust said:
I'm probably out of line giving this advice as my only experience with XP x64 was bad, but here goes.

Unless you need it for some specific reason... don't use it.

That is the only advice I can offer.
Click to expand...


Well, if I run into problems, I can simply switch back to XP 32-bit. Reformatting is not an issue for me. Thank you for your opinion.

bbz_Ghost said:
Pros:

1) It's based on the core kernel of Windows Server 2003, the highest performance OS Microsoft has created so far (personal opinion there based on a lot of actual testing over the past 2 years) and now with Service Pack 2 being released it's about 10-15% faster - XP x64 uses the same service pack(s) as Win2K3 does.

2) Did I say it was fast? Like, I mean, fast? If you thought a fresh clean install of XP was fast, wait till you see how freakin' snappy and responsive your machine will be with XP x64, seriously.

3) No memory issues to worry about if you've got 4GB or more. XP x64 will see it all and use it all.

4) Because it's based on the 2K3 core kernel, the memory management is vastly superior to XP.

5) It's fast. :)

Cons:

1) Driver support for some hardware. Personally, the only issue I had when I ran XP x64 recently on a Core 2 Duo laptop I owned was the craptastic Sigmatel onboard sound. I had to figure out the proper method to alter one of the .inf driver installation files to match the PCI vendor ID or the driver never worked. It wasn't a problem with XP x64 - that's the important point. The normal 64 bit driver would have worked perfectly but Gateway apparently put in a request to Sigmatel to create an entirely new Device ID pool just for Gateway - meaning the standard Sigmatel 64 bit driver I found all over the place would not install on that sound chip in my laptop: Gateway did that on purpose so people wouldn't call in asking for support on XP x64 since they don't sell it or support it.

But I fixed that and had absolutely zero issues of any kind with anything else, and this was a brand new laptop manufactured in October 2006.

2) Some possible application issues. Running 32 bit code on XP x64 requires the emulation layer to kick in, called "Windows on Windows x64," or WOW as Microsoft calls it. I noticed no ill effects at any time by running 32 bit code, and my games - I only play Quake 1, 2, and 3 - actually performed better on XP x64 than they did on XP itself. I can't account for why even with the WOW emulation taking place, but they did show slightly higher framerates across the board.

If you've got it, go for it. The only way to know is to install it and find the drivers and see what happens. If you don't have any of the cons above, I think all the pros will be quite noticeable, especially the overall speed and responsiveness of the OS.

It's freakin' fast, man... ;)
Click to expand...

Nice! I can see this benefiting me later once I have it all set up. I loved Windows 2K3 when I used it for my servers, and I have experienced setting it up. So I shouldn't have problems with installing drivers, I hope. The XFX CD also has the latest x64 drivers for the motherboard, which surprised me. Thanks for your optimistic advice!

Proxy said:
I just installed XP 64, I will tell you it is nice and fast, and quite responsive. The thing is, it will take some time for you to set it up, you can't just start DLing drivers and throwing stuff on there as you can with 32, and it can be somewhat "temperamental" sometimes.


Now for the good stuff, it's freakin' fast. I did notice a small gain in FPS, and some better response. My only one pet peeve, is that SLi will not work in Source based games, HL2 ,CSS, etc. But SLi works well in everything else, and as far as it not working with HL2 it's Valves fault. The game runs in "64 bit mode" it's fast yes, but it will not allow SLi to function I don't know why. Even with the 64bit graphic drivers. Good Luck!
Click to expand...

Hmm, I'm not too worried about SLI seeing that I'm not going to use it for maybe 8-16 months. I'm not a big SLI fan, anyway, even if I had one GTX, it's plenty enough for me! :cool: I also noticed Steam contains a 64-bit version of their client as well as CS:S too. Have you noticed any performance difference between 32-bit? Also, thanks for your positive advice!

Lord of Shadows said:
Advice? Have 64bit network card drivers ready ;o)
Click to expand...

Yeah, already got that arranged, thanks! :D
 
Mr. Stryker said:

Hmm, I'm not too worried about SLI seeing that I'm not going to use it for maybe 8-16 months. I'm not a big SLI fan, anyway, even if I had one GTX, it's plenty enough for me! :cool: I also noticed Steam contains a 64-bit version of their client as well as CS:S too. Have you noticed any performance difference between 32-bit? Also, thanks for your positive advice!
Click to expand...

I didn't know there was a 64bit steam client, I am running the 32 but one:eek: Maybe this is my problem!? Thanks for the update man heheh. Oh yeah, one last thing, be very werry of Microsoft tech support, because XP x64 is OEM only, they do NOT directly provide tech support for it. I found this out the [H]ard way. Long story short, I had to make an appointment with Microsoft for their call-back system. They have a branch dedicated to x64 support.
 
Other have basically mentioned most the issues.

It can be very tricky getting your drivers working. But once you do, it runs fast. Booting to a clean desktop is ages faster than any other version of XP. Like you, I have a student license. I wouldn't recommend it as your only OS, but dual booting it is great for academic interests as wells as personal enjoyment of its speed and such.

Currently I am quad-booting Vista(32), XP(32), XP(64) and openSUSE 10.2


Why not have the best of all worlds?
 
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