x64 - Which One?

A

Adam

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 9, 2003
Messages
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So I've been running Windows XP Pro x32 for a while... need to go with a 64 bit OS so i can kick up the memory for Photoshop use.

So decided to go with Windows Professional x64. So far i seem to be able to find all the drivers I need... however I have some concerns with future support.

I see x64 of XP only has SP2 and doesnt look like much work is being done on an SP3...

Sooo im not sure how much longer XP will be around. Its definitly a favorite still, but what should I do here.

Should i bite the bullet and go with Vista x64, i run it on my HTPC. I have some issues with some software, but thats all multi media stuff, not desktop applications.

My friend runs Vista x64 i believe for his photo editing needs.

Or should I wait another ... 2 months almost, for Windows 7???

I have the final beta thingy from microsofts site of Windows 7 but i believe that will expire sometime in 2010 right?

Any thoughts/recommendations?
 
Windows 7 x64 all the way. There is an XP mode for it if you really need it. Not sure if any applications will have issues with that or not, but I haven't had any problems with Windows 7 so far. I've got RTM on a few machines and I'm still running build 7100 on a couple of them. All have been working fine.
 
I think 7 as well... should i wait to buy my pc parts later or build it now and run the release candidate? What sucks is having to reinstall the OS when the final retail version comes out...
 
Adam said:
I think 7 as well... should i wait to buy my pc parts later or build it now and run the release candidate? What sucks is having to reinstall the OS when the final retail version comes out...
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If you wait a bit Core i5 will be an option. Once it comes out LGA775 prices should drop. Depending on what you wanted to build you'll end up with more options once the Core i5 is released.
 
Adam said:
I see x64 of XP only has SP2 and doesnt look like much work is being done on an SP3...
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That's because Windows XP x64 is a Server 2003 derivative, not a Windows XP derivative.


My suggestion would be to use (for now) the Release Candidate distribution of Windows 7, if you have no driver or software conflicts with it. It's a perfectly stable release, and it'll be fully usable until start of March next year. (At which time it'll begin to reboot every 2 hours.) Sometime between October 22nd and March 1st you can go grab hold of a retail; release or OEM system builder copy of Windows 7, and you'll have already done all the groundwork of adapting to its use.
 
devil22 said:
Xp Pro 64 is speedy? Well, not according to this performance test on Firingsquad that pits XP, Vista and 7 in 32 and 64 bit against each other:

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/windows_7_gaming/

XP Pro 64's scores were pretty much lower than the rest. Maybe it's fast at other things, but it's definitely not for gaming.
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I was noticing that the other day as well. After reading that is when I was convinced that XP, all variations, is dead in the water.

Windows 7 is the only version of Windows worth considering on a new install at this point.
 
Catweazle said:
That's because Windows XP x64 is a Server 2003 derivative, not a Windows XP derivative.


My suggestion would be to use (for now) the Release Candidate distribution of Windows 7, if you have no driver or software conflicts with it. It's a perfectly stable release, and it'll be fully usable until start of March next year. (At which time it'll begin to reboot every 2 hours.) Sometime between October 22nd and March 1st you can go grab hold of a retail; release or OEM system builder copy of Windows 7, and you'll have already done all the groundwork of adapting to its use.
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It's more accurate to say that the kernal of Windows XP Professional X64 is based off of the Windows Server 2003 kernal. That much is true, but the rest of the OS is clearly Windows XP. It does use service packs for the server OSes such as Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2003.
 
It's more accurate to just call it Windows Workstation 2003 x64 and be done with it. Windows Server 2003 with the Luna theme to make it look like XP Pro x86, but aside from that, it ain't XP... bleh, let's not start this XP Pro x64 comparison thing once again. I don't care what benchmarks other people put out, I can do testing on this Core 2 Duo today and the results will put it squarely ahead of the competition (XP x86/Vista/Windows 7) so... let's let bygones be bygones, eh?

I tossed out those specs to show that it does offer superior performance in that particular benchmark only because I had just completed the testing and noticed the mention of XP Pro x64 at all... wasn't meaning to stir up the pot again... geez ;)
 
Firing Squad was the one who helped dispel all of the Vista FUD when that came out. They're pretty reputable and I respect their results. And their results have XP x64 behind the competition in almost every case.
 
I put 7 x64 on my dell laptop, it installed everything, all drivers, except the mass storage controller, autopmatically, thats nice. I think im gonna go with 7 at home. Now adays i just do photo procesisng, quikbooks, quicken and outlook. I also do some movie watching, so hopefuly codecs work.
 
There are still apps in the business world that require ie6 or even <cringe> ie7 so until those are updated to work with ie8, I'll be deploying xp64.
 
I don't see any LAN drivers for my motherboard (Gigabyte EP43-UD3L) for Windows 7... can Windows 7 use the same drivers as Vista???

I might still install XP x64, i really like XP over vista/windows 7..
 
ibdoomed2 said:
There are still apps in the business world that require ie6 or even <cringe> ie7 so until those are updated to work with ie8, I'll be deploying xp64.
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Hint: XP Mode

I have Internet explorer 6 running on Windows7 right now and with the XP mode there is seamless integration and it behaves the same as any other app (you don't have to run inside a virtual pc)

ie6ie8.png
 
GotNoRice said:
Hint: XP Mode

I have Internet explorer 6 running on Windows7 right now and with the XP mode there is seamless integration and it behaves the same as any other app (you don't have to run inside a virtual pc)

ie6ie8.png
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So then I'll let you do the user training on this?

Seriously, not worth the headaches.

Nevermind. It's far too complicated to explain, it's SAP.
 
ibdoomed2 said:
So then I'll let you do the user training on this?

Seriously, not worth the headaches.

Nevermind. It's far too complicated to explain, it's SAP.
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User training? You click on the ie6 icon and it opens an ie6 window. Your users wouldn't even realize it was actually running on XP other than the different window styles. Clicking on icons is hard.
 
Adam said:
I also do some movie watching, so hopefuly codecs work.
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Windows 7 has the best codec support of anything I know. And this is due to what many try to fault Microsoft for, but DRM. Since Microsoft supports DRM, the latest and greatest movies play with no issues.

Gone are the days of "XP Codec Pack".

Adam said:
I don't see any LAN drivers for my motherboard (Gigabyte EP43-UD3L) for Windows 7... can Windows 7 use the same drivers as Vista???
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Yes. This is one of the big reasons they didn't give Windows 7 the kernel of 7.0 but rather 6.1

It makes driver manufacturers that do crappy jobs coding their stuff think it's still Windows Vista, which means that almost anything that works on Vista works on Windows 7.

GotNoRice said:
Hint: XP Mode

I have Internet explorer 6 running on Windows7 right now and with the XP mode there is seamless integration and it behaves the same as any other app (you don't have to run inside a virtual pc)
Click to expand...
My question is why even bother... IE6 runs perfectly fine in Native Windows 7.
 
GotNoRice said:
User training? You click on the ie6 icon and it opens an ie6 window. Your users wouldn't even realize it was actually running on XP other than the different window styles. Clicking on icons is hard.
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That's exactly it. They don't launch IE to get into it, they launch SAP and it executes some sort of IE shell. I'm not an SAP programmer so I'm at the mercy of the SAP group. If someone with some brains could re-write this system running hundreds of thousands of users, that would be great!
 
TechieSooner said:
You run the iexplore.exe file... There's really no instructions.
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You've lost me completely. On all the machines I put windows 7 on, it came with IE8. Iexplore.exe, at least on the two sitting in front of me, executes IE8, not IE6. How did you get it to run 6?
 
Run firefox, lol... anyway this isnt for my clients, its for me.

Im in the process of installing Windows 7 right now..
 
ibdoomed2 said:
You've lost me completely. On all the machines I put windows 7 on, it came with IE8. Iexplore.exe, at least on the two sitting in front of me, executes IE8, not IE6. How did you get it to run 6?
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Yea I figured that you knew it didn't run IE6 out of the box... Just copy the files from an XP install or something and you've got a standalone version of IE6. Granted it won't run plugins but it's good for checking compatibility, which is all I use it for.
 
Welp im in Windows 7 right now... so far so good... seems pretty smooth, granted its more "flashy" then windows xp that is. The true test will be when I run photoshop and try processing multiple HDR files from RAW format
 
Adam said:
Welp im in Windows 7 right now... so far so good... seems pretty smooth, granted its more "flashy" then windows xp that is. The true test will be when I run photoshop and try processing multiple HDR files from RAW format
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Hope ya got plenty of RAM... and if so, get some RAMdisk software and put the scratch file on it... way way faster. Not even the fastest SSD hardware comes close... ;)
 
I have 8GB of RAM

So far programs are intalling REAL quick. It took about 20-30 seconds to install Norton AntiVirus. Office 2003 (i like 2003) is installing very fast as well.
 
Oh god oh god oh god, get rid of Norton, fast... seriously... I don't care if it's the newest one, get rid of it. :D

Personal opinion, of course, but many share it and will agree, get rid of it and save yourself a shitload of potential hassles. Get Microsoft Security Essentials from here (get the appropriate version, x86 or x64 as required):

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/Microsoft-Security-Essentials.shtml

Install it, update it, then hit Windows Update and grab the latest updates for it (they'll appear after the installation) and be safer and better off with less resource issues than Norton could ever dream of.

Just a suggestion, of course... and with 8GB of RAM you could easily set aside 4GB of it for a RAMdisk and make Photoshop stuff literally 2 to 5 times faster, or more. Seriously.
 
I like norton though... it doesnt use a lot of resources. Im running 2009, works fine.
 
Adam said:
I like norton though... it doesnt use a lot of resources. Im running 2009, works fine.
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That's like saying "But my house isn't burning down right NOW, Backwood Larry's International House of Shrimp Homeowners Insurance is fine."
 
I havnt had a problem with norton, and its protected me just fine. In the year i've run its various products, nothings ever gotten through...

Im gonna go back to windows xp x64 i think. W7 installed fine... but.. its just too FLASHY for me. I like plain jain os's. I dont like the start bar and how i have to click ALL PROGRAMS or what not... and i dunno some of my older programs don't work right.

I use a REAL old version of AIM with DeadAim, it ran, but the sounds don't work, kinda bugs me, small detail, but bugs me.

Also it does eat up some of my precious memory i bought in order to actually run windows7. It requires extra memory to run, which means that my 8gb isnt being used more by my programs, but w7 takes a chunk outta it. It looked like anywhere from 1.5 to 2gb was used outside photoshop
 
Adam said:
I havnt had a problem with norton, and its protected me just fine. In the year i've run its various products, nothings ever gotten through...
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How would you ever know that without running a decent AntiVirus client?
 
Ive never had a problem with norton. I know a lotta people don't like it, but i work in a business that deploys symantec antivirus servers all over, and i use their products a lot. Thats not what this threads about anyway, my antivirus preference.

Im still torn between XP x64 and W7 x64.

Im running W7 x64 now, and it works. I know it has advantages on using multi core processors and what not, but still the extra FRILLS i don't like.

I worked on a clean XP machine today for a DVR im building, and i prefer using the xp interface over the W7 interface.

XP x64 supports the processors, and the extra memory, thats why its a 64 bit system... so i think i might go with that. I'll probably install it and see how it runs and then compare it to my W7 experience... and see which made me happier.
 
Adam said:
Im still torn between XP x64 and W7 x64.

Im running W7 x64 now, and it works. I know it has advantages on using multi core processors and what not, but still the extra FRILLS i don't like.

I worked on a clean XP machine today for a DVR im building, and i prefer using the xp interface over the W7 interface.

XP x64 supports the processors, and the extra memory, thats why its a 64 bit system... so i think i might go with that. I'll probably install it and see how it runs and then compare it to my W7 experience... and see which made me happier.
Click to expand...

You probably only like the Windows XP interface better because you are used to it. If you'd actually use Windows 7 for a few weeks, not days, not hours, you would probably find XP hard to go back to. You have to really learn a new OS before you can actually appreciate it.
 
I think the OP has made his choices/decisions quite clear, let's let this thread just die, shall we?
 
Joe: Why let it die? We're taling, if you don't wanna take part, dont.

Dan, yeah i see what yer saying about a new OS... i thought bout that "its new, gotta get used to it"... im having some compatibility issues, same issues ive had with Vista... regarding VNC. I use VNC because its a big preference of mine. But it doesnt seem to work properly with 7... i have vista x64 issues, and now use logmein, but now im having same issues with W7... it lets me login, but then doesnt accept my password.

I tried using it at lunch, and said "ugh i miss XP"
 
After using Windows 7, going back to XP is like going back to old, tired, ancient system. It's simply outdated.

What issues with VNC are you having? I've got no problems with anything. Granted I don't use VNC anymore (RDP is superior... And LogMeIn doesn't require port forwards).
 
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