Windows XP Professional 64bit Edition $99.00

[topslop1]

Say you run a basic system without raid or anything of the like. Onboard ethernet, Audigy soundcard. Think I'll be covered for the switch? And is that x64 download link still available?

 

[Devistater]

Since this is a popular questionm here's the 120 day trial download link from MS so its legit:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/64bit/evaluation/trial.mspx

Odd, looks like the trade in program has expired?
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/64bit/upgrade/default.mspx

Originally posted by: topslop1
Say you run a basic system without raid or anything of the like. Onboard ethernet, Audigy soundcard. Think I'll be covered for the switch? And is that x64 download link still available?

Yeah, I dunno why bother though.

 

[Zim]

The option to trade in your XP Pro key for an XP Pro x64 key expired afew months back. I missed it by one day and I'm glad I did. Nothing but pain with no gain.

 

[shiznit]

thats too bad, i was considering trading my xp pro un to 64-bit in a couple of months. oh well, i doubt m$ is gonna support it after vista comes out. by the way, nice cpu zim

 

[Devistater]

Originally posted by: shiznit
thats too bad, i was considering trading my xp pro un to 64-bit in a couple of months. oh well, i doubt m$ is gonna support it after vista comes out. by the way, nice cpu zim

They will support it a few years afterwards (I think they still offer some level of support for winME and that thing is ancient). And besides there are many reasons to stay away from vista for a while.
1) MS has removed all the biggest features from vista and the biggest reasons to upgrade to vista.
2) There will likely be many compatability problems at first just as was the case with XP
3). And of course there's the whole "if your monitor (CRT or LCD) doesn't support encrypting the signal with HDCP, then you cant watch HD movies in HD res, we will force you to downsample to the sucky 480p res if you use Vista" we can do wtf we want to you DRM issue.

 

[masteraleph]

Originally posted by: Devistater
3). And of course there's the whole "if your monitor (CRT or LCD) doesn't support encrypting the signal with HDCP, then you cant watch HD movies in HD res, we will force you to downsample to the sucky 480p res if you use Vista" we can do wtf we want to you DRM issue.

As far as I'm concerned, that's not MS's fault. The same will be true of all standalone Blu-Ray players, and probably HD-DVD too. Not MS's choice, but instead Sony. Have an issue with it? Take it up with the people defining the standard, not with MS wanting to support new technology.

 

[Devistater]

Originally posted by: masteraleph

Originally posted by: Devistater
3). And of course there's the whole "if your monitor (CRT or LCD) doesn't support encrypting the signal with HDCP, then you cant watch HD movies in HD res, we will force you to downsample to the sucky 480p res if you use Vista" we can do wtf we want to you DRM issue.

As far as I'm concerned, that's not MS's fault. The same will be true of all standalone Blu-Ray players, and probably HD-DVD too. Not MS's choice, but instead Sony. Have an issue with it? Take it up with the people defining the standard, not with MS wanting to support new technology.

As far as I'm concerned it is. It might be true of the standalone, but often standalone also has things like macrovision. When was the last time you heard of a PC dvd drive with macrovision? You can get TV cards without it, or drivers that have it disabled. All computers output fine at 1080p (1920x1080) resolution as long as the card and monitor (CRT or LCD) support it. Its not a technical issue, they are just nerfing it. All CRT monitors will instantly be obsolete if you want to watch HD in native res (I'm aware of no CRT monitors that support this). And 99% of all LCD monitors as well (I've seen very few that support HDCP, mostly ones that double as TV's).

And if you stick with XP rather than with vista you wont have any of these issues. You can watch native res HD on all your current CRT/LCD all you want. So its certainly not a hardware requirement. Its just more of MS's ghey DRM (I'm sure the HD ppl asked them to, but they didn't have to cave).

So if XP can support blu ray and HD dvd drives without this stupid requirement, how exactly is it that MS is adding this in vista to "support this new technology" as you said?