Worth the upgrade?

[Tuktuk]

Hi,

I found out I can get a free version of XP Pro 64 from my university. I am currently running XP Home edition. With my 2.0 ghz Turion 64, would this upgrade be worth the effort?

 

[Tuktuk]

Oh I forgot to add that I can get Vista for free in a month but I only have 512mb of RAM here so I was thinking of sticking with XP

 

[postmortemIA]

It is more of a downgrade, in best case everything will run as on XP. In worst case, you will not have half of drivers.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
It is more of a downgrade, in best case everything will run as on XP. In worst case, you will not have half of drivers.

Any of those options are an improvement over XP Home.

XP x64 PROBABLY isn't worth it with your current specs. Driver support isn't the best yet either. I would wait a month until Vista is ready and then upgrade.

-Kevin

 

[Tuktuk]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
It is more of a downgrade, in best case everything will run as on XP. In worst case, you will not have half of drivers.

Any of those options are an improvement over XP Home.

XP x64 PROBABLY isn't worth it with your current specs. Driver support isn't the best yet either. I would wait a month until Vista is ready and then upgrade.

-Kevin

Sorry to turn this into a "Should I switch to Vista" thread, but are you sure that would be a good idea with my low amount of RAM (512mb)? I guess I could do a dual boot and see how it works out.

 

[Lemon law]

To Tuktuk,

What is not clear is what your limitations are---you can get xp pro 64 bit but could you get xp pro 32 bit? And can you get a free xp pro and a free vista a month later? And why the resistance at upgrading ram to at least 768 MB and maybe a GB. The other unmentioned factor is your video card or on board video.---but you better have at least 128MB on the video to use aero.

You can also download the free vista upgrade adviser and see what it says about your hardware and software.

I have systems with both xp pro and home---and in MHO, the main advantage of pro is having limited accounts and a software restriction policy for computer security.---but I see no advantage to having xp pro 64 bit unless you are running over 2 GB ram.

 

[Tuktuk]

Lemon law,

I can get Pro 32 bit as well, but when I saw what the advantages to having pro are they really aren't that useful for me. I am on a laptop and as the sole user most of the extra features wouldn't be worth an install. I was just wondering if it would improve my performance significantly. I have a Turion 64 2.0ghz and 512mb of RAM, the video card is whatever standard one that Compaq throws in. From what you are all telling me it seems XP 64 is out of the question.

I am a poor college student and after spending all of my money on this laptop a couple of months ago, it is hard to pay $110 or so and throw out 512mb of perfectly good ram (2x256 with only 2 slots). I wish I would've just payed the $50 while customizing, but hindsight is 20/20. I've always been cheap when it comes to RAM and I have the feeling when I finally buy more than enough I'll see what I've been missing out on.

I'll try that Vista adviser you mentioned, thanks.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: Tuktuk

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
It is more of a downgrade, in best case everything will run as on XP. In worst case, you will not have half of drivers.

Any of those options are an improvement over XP Home.

XP x64 PROBABLY isn't worth it with your current specs. Driver support isn't the best yet either. I would wait a month until Vista is ready and then upgrade.

-Kevin

Sorry to turn this into a "Should I switch to Vista" thread, but are you sure that would be a good idea with my low amount of RAM (512mb)? I guess I could do a dual boot and see how it works out.

Hey its your thread

512MB may be pushing it a little bit, but I wouldn't worry too much. A lot of the performance requirements is marketing hype (The same as power requirements). I probably wouldn't use Aero, but I don't think it will tank the system to run Vista.

-Kevin

 

[tatteredpotato]

You should be able to run Vista fine, although just turn off Aero. It'll look just as good, if not better than XP, plus u get the added stability. I'd consider a 64 bit version of Vista though.

 

[Tuktuk]

Looks like I'm actually able to get Vista Business today. I'm not sure if its 64 bit or 32 bit but I think I'll give it a shot. The upgrade advisor said it couldn't find info on a few of the Nvdia components, but the laptop was advertised as Vista capable so I'm just going to try it anyway. Thanks for the help.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Stay away from xp x64 unless headaches and no driver support are what you are longing for. lol

 

[dwcal]

Originally posted by: Puffnstuff
Stay away from xp x64 unless headaches and no driver support are what you are longing for. lol

:thumbsup: For a desktop. no performance advantage from x64 and a lot of missing driver support. Just stay with 32 bit Windows.

 

[Lemon law]

To Tuktuk,

Advice is cheap but its you and only you that take the risks. In terms of win XP of any flavor, you see a dramatic decrease in boot time when you upgrade from 256 MB to 512MB memory. But after that, its always a diminishing rate of return. But for gamers and those running high end apps like photoediting and the like, 512MB of memory is positively wimpy. But if you have no such memory needs, I would advise you to stick with what ram you have.---because like you say---as an impoverished student, money is always a limiting factor.

But when you are faced with absolutely free OS upgrades, money drops from the equation, leaving only risk and time as considerations. But I would somewhat advise you against an immediate upgrade to vista because of both stability and memory problems. Somewhat standard advice with any new OS is to wait six months or so for them to work the bugs out---and I also fear XP with 256MB memory will be like your 512MB memory with vista.---and then with more normal memory needs, you again will be behind the eight ball.