malau on 8/11/2009 at 04:14
I live in China, and am buying a new PC direct from Lenovo - now, Lenovo do NOT install operating systems on their new PC's, but they offered to install English XP for free because I am a stupid foreigner and they do not want to look bad - or Win7 for 600RMB - the FAMILY version (which sounded shite so I said no way)
I read that standard 32bit XP can only access 3.25Gb of RAM, which is no good for me as I will have 4gb (plus I want to to extend to 8Gb).
But reading on Wikipedia there are at least 2 versions of 64bit XP (Windows XP 64-Bit Edition and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition), which the heck do I need for an Intel quad core ??
Which 64bit version has the best support for multiple cores ?
Enchantermon on 8/11/2009 at 05:40
Your best bet is to go with XP Professional.
Honestly, Windows 7 is very nice. The "Family" edition is the Home Premium edition with three licenses, and is targeted for home users. You can see the differences between each version (
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/compare) here.
But if you're truly set on going with XP, then go for Professional.
bikerdude on 8/11/2009 at 12:16
Quote Posted by Enchantermon
Your best bet is to go with XP Professional.
Honestly, Windows 7 is very nice. The "Family" edition is the Home Premium edition with three licenses, and is targeted for home users. You can see the differences between each version (
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/compare) here.
But if you're truly set on going with XP, then go for Professional.
If the lenovo has good enough specs (2.5ghz dual core, 4GB ram, ati/nvidia HD3850/GF8600 or higher gfx) then to be honest Win7 is the way to go now as it fixes all the flaw that were inherent in vista. And while Xp is still usefull its getting old.
nb. There is is no point getting W7 family ed if you only own 1 pc, ask them if you can have W7 home premium or professional.
KoHaN69 on 8/11/2009 at 22:08
Just don't get Windows XP 64-bit. Stay AWAAAAAAAAY.
Win7 pro x64 OR WinXP pro 32bit
Bjossi on 8/11/2009 at 22:38
Quote Posted by KoHaN69
Just don't get Windows XP 64-bit. Stay AWAAAAAAAAY.
Win7 pro x64 OR WinXP pro 32bit
This.
Brian The Dog on 9/11/2009 at 11:31
Why? The only problem I've found is getting drivers for the hardware. If you've got fairly standard kit then it should be OK.
KoHaN69 on 11/11/2009 at 05:56
Quote Posted by Brian The Dog
Why? The only problem I've found is getting drivers for the hardware. If you've got fairly standard kit then it should be OK.
Windows XP 64 has been a dead operating system since it's anticipated release half a decade ago. It's dead. Many software companies don't support it at all.
Want 64-bit? Get windows 7.
Brian The Dog on 11/11/2009 at 08:06
Oh, OK. There's nothing inherantly wrong with the OS itself though, and Microsoft are still releasing patches and updates for it. Its x86 emulation works well and runs all 32-bit programs that I've come across, but you're right, manufacturers won't help you if you ring up with a problem and it's on a version of Windows they've never heard of.
For this reason I'd agree that if someone wants an x64 OS, then Windows 7 is the way to go. From our (empirical) testing at work it seems better with multiple-core CPU's as well, which is one of the things malau was asking about.
One thing you might want to take note of, malau, is that all Windows x64 OS's have removed the 16-bit emulation mode, so if you have any 16-bit applications then you'll need to run them in DOSBox (or something similar).
