64-bit Windows XP

[groovin]

i run win2k on an amd64 machine at home and it works fine. at work i was thinking about picking up an opteron64 machine but was wondering if i should go with win xp 32 or 64... not sure if there is a big difference in performance. not only that, but i wasnt sure if i would run into any compatibity problems between win xp 64 and apps such as adobe illustrator, photoshop, autocad, etc.

any thoughts on this are appreciated!

 

[NogginBoink]

You should not encounter any appcompat problems. The 64 bit OS has a 32-bit emulation layer that's designed to take care of this for you.

Driver support is a different matter. You WILL need 64-bit drivers for your hardware, and vendor support is currently rather spotty (but getting better).

 

[DBSX]

Some applications won't work on the 64bit Windows, mainly things like your current utilities (Anti-Virus, firewall, drive utilities, etc). Of course there are 64-bit versions available or soon will be. Most "regular" applications should work without a problem. As was said, drivers are likely to be the bigger issue, if you have any uncommon hardware. Most common stuff has 64-bit drivers available. Personally I am skipping on x64 Windows. Just because I don't need it, and would rather wait until Vista to shell out more money for an OS. By that time, 64-bit drivers will be more common, as well as aps (though 32*bit will still be fine for most things).

\Dan

 

[groovin]

thanks guys... not too worried about drivers since this will be purchased from HP and I dont plan on changing the hardware ever. right now, i dont see any benefit of going with win64 then...