I am building a new quad-core machine primarily for video editing. I plan to get 4gb of ram, and so this leads into the problem of windows xp not letting you use all 4gb...
Now, as I understand it Windows Server 2003 will let me use all of that ram. So my choices for an OS right now are either Windows Server 2003, XP x64, or Vista x64.
I have heard a lot of conflicting things about server 2003. I have heard some people say that it's completely compatible with windows xp, and pretty much anything that worked on windows xp will also work on server 2003. On the other hand, I have heard people saying that this is not the case--server 2003 is not designed to be a desktop operating system and I will run into problems if I ever wanted to play games on it or anything.
Then we come to XP x64 and Vista x64. Everyone says Vista is a memory hog. So to me, it doesn't make much sense to go to vista if its going to be cheating me out of performance gains. Why not just stick with 32-bit XP and not use all my ram? It seems like the outcomes would be about equal. And then as for XP x64, I hear that it's not widely supported, and it has less compatibility with software than vista does. Is there any truth to that?
Speaking of compatibility, that is an important point for me. I have heard that lots of video and audio codecs may not work on a 64-bit system. If true, that could be a dealbreaker, because that's the main thing I will be using the system for!
So it seems like I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. I need to go to 64-bit to use the large amounts of memory that my applications require, but in doing so I may not be able to use some of the software I need! It's looking like my main hope is with server 2003, but I can find hardly any information about using it as a desktop system.
Now, as I understand it Windows Server 2003 will let me use all of that ram. So my choices for an OS right now are either Windows Server 2003, XP x64, or Vista x64.
I have heard a lot of conflicting things about server 2003. I have heard some people say that it's completely compatible with windows xp, and pretty much anything that worked on windows xp will also work on server 2003. On the other hand, I have heard people saying that this is not the case--server 2003 is not designed to be a desktop operating system and I will run into problems if I ever wanted to play games on it or anything.
Then we come to XP x64 and Vista x64. Everyone says Vista is a memory hog. So to me, it doesn't make much sense to go to vista if its going to be cheating me out of performance gains. Why not just stick with 32-bit XP and not use all my ram? It seems like the outcomes would be about equal. And then as for XP x64, I hear that it's not widely supported, and it has less compatibility with software than vista does. Is there any truth to that?
Speaking of compatibility, that is an important point for me. I have heard that lots of video and audio codecs may not work on a 64-bit system. If true, that could be a dealbreaker, because that's the main thing I will be using the system for!
So it seems like I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. I need to go to 64-bit to use the large amounts of memory that my applications require, but in doing so I may not be able to use some of the software I need! It's looking like my main hope is with server 2003, but I can find hardly any information about using it as a desktop system.
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