Windows 64 Bit ?

You hit the nail on the head with the single biggest issue for 64bit - the drivers... Try it out, some companies have been good, while some others will just laugh you out of town for even thinking of using there product with 64bit

The best thing to do is try. My friend used Windows 64-bit last year; he ended up with major problems and an RMA to Newegg for Media Center.

Drivers were a problem a year ago, but XP 64-bit is getting pretty mature. I've been running it for over a year and haven't had any "show stopper" driver issues in over 6 mos.

BTW, free is a very good price!  

I have had 1 good computer and 1 bad computer with x64 bit.. But one friend knew how to use a computer.. The other didn't. So if you know your stuff. Windows XP x64 is the better route.. the emulator for 32-bit makes programs run a milisecond slower.. so you can still use all your 32-bit drivers for video card/sound card/everything else.

i would suggest 64-bit as my second choice..

first choice would be XP Home because it is the cheapest.. and just wait til Windows Vista comes out.. (but if you dont plan to go Vista.. go x64 bit)

u cant use ne 32bit drivers on xp 64bit. thats the big problem, where u get that info from

u cant use ne 32bit drivers on xp 64bit. thats the big problem, where u get that info from

That's a "it depends" type of things. The emulators on XP 64 Pro can use 32 bit drivers for some thing, but other things just don't make it. None the less, most of the new hardware and programs now have 64 bit drivers available, so there shouldn't be any problem. I myself have been thinking of making the jump to XP 64 Pro for one of my office computers. I had expected to have Vista earlier this year when I bought the machine, so didn't install it then. Now I wish I had.

i tryed xp 64bit for 4 hours and didnt like it my tv card didnt work and my 2nd most important app didnt (itunes) so back to 32bit i went and thats where i stayed

That's a difference. As I said, the XP 64 Pro was for a business computer, not one for itunes or tv cards. For my gaming computer, XP 64 wouldn't work as well as XP 32 would in some areas, but it would still do a fair job now that more drivers are coming out and more hardware is 64 bit capable.

As far as spending 4 hours to set up a O/S, taht's not very long. I often spend a few days getting everything tweaked just right. But once I'm finished, I have very few problems.

The biggest problem i have running X64 edition is not being able to run older games... the driver support is poor. Its Also poor from ATi, i always get crashes with the catalyst control center.....

I'd stick with home if i were you.

Did you read what I wrote? The XP64 Pro was for a business computer, not for itunes, nor for TV cards, not for games. I have three computers and will be getting a forth within a year. Only one computer is for games, the others are for business. I don't need CCC on the business computer, so whether or not it would crash doesn't matter.

I was agreeing with you.

Ok, then I misread what you wrote. Sorry about that.

Hi

I have a conroe E6600 system using X64. The only problems i have encountered are for antivirus / firewall and webcam. I have to use windows firewall and i have found only 1 antivirus software (its called avast and its free for non commercial use) which seems to work ok. have not found any drivers for the webcam at this stage but thats ok as i have put that back on my old computer. I also run Everquest and Oblivion (i have a nvidia 7900GT card) and they both seem to run fine as well. Apart from the above i have had no crashes. No problems with my printer, video or sound (audigy 4) as they all have 64 bit drivers.

Cheers

I used Win Pro x64 for the first time on my previous build, earlier this year. The only problem I had was with my MSI 7900GTX video card. MSI didn't have a 64-bit driver. But I went to the nVidia website and downloaded the correct driver and it worked like a charm. So I did not hesitate to use x64 for my C2Ex build, because I wanted to get equipped for the launching of Vista. So far, so good.

I have had no problems with using 32-bit drivers.. any program running in 32-bit just has a (32) in it.. showing that its 32 bit.

a 32 bit program running in emulation mode has nothing to do with 32 bit drivers running in x64 windows; they don't work. Period. End of discussion :roll:

Edit:
edited for crankiness!

64 is a pain and probably not worth the gains for the extra headaches. Oh, and uhhh, that OS is hardly worth mentioning and a bunch of nonsense. Not sure why anyone couldn't point that one out directly by now... The straws people pull for something huh?

I've been running x64 for about a year now and it works flawlessly. Games run great, all my programs run good (iTunes included), and the system is stable. I'd just double check that there are drivers available for your hardware before you commit to it. As long as the drivers are there, you're golden.

Yeah my brother runs it and it works pretty good. There are drivers out there now for just about anything essential, including HP Printers, Logitech devices, vid cards or course. The only cons I'd say is we couldn't keep using the ATI TV Wonder USB 2.0 and also antivirus is hard to come by.

Does anyone even know if this OS is very succeptible to viruses? Like are they written in all 32-bit and able to be emulated? I would think that if there was a bunch of new code needed then virus-makers wouldn't fool with such a small area of the spectrum. Of course I could be wrong.

Windows 64-bit is a pain (Vista will be a pain for some time too). But personally I've been using 64-bit Linux for a year, it's, well, fast - and driver support is good: it has detected at boot-time and installed instantly any new or swapped hardware.
In 64-bit mode, hardware support is vastly superior in Linux than in Windows.

my opinion, is go for 64 bit. no use buying 3 licenses now, and then in a year or less going to vista.

64bit computing will only become a reality once vista has been around for a while. because no body will write new 64bit drivers for an outgoing OS. they are going to HAVE to make drivers for vista, if they wanna keep up.

if ur offered a free copy of xp 64-bit accept it !! Don't let the offer fly away!!!


Though i would wait for vista to come out and do the upgrade when vista is out. And as some one said it not worth buying xp pro now.

and if for some extra bucks u can get a new rig, i would go for a new rig

Right, now for my first post in ages...

If you want 64-bit Windows, be prepared to shop around for the right stuff (peripherals, software, etc) that can work 64-bit. There are benefits, but in order to get the most out of the OS, you have to be careful what you get for the system. Stuff with 64-bit drivers or are compatible with the 32-bit emulator within the OS is a must, and concerning firewalls and anti-virus, I have AVG 7.1 plus Firewall working perfectly fine on my system, though it sometimes hiccups when being forced to protect a dial-up connection, however, with high-speed connections it works just fine. I discovered though, that to install my ATI gfx card, I had to download the 64-bit drivers off the ATI website, so getting into the routine of checking for 64-bit drivers on websites is also a must. Apart from that, the OS is sound and works magnificently, providing you make sure everything works with it.

another good AV solution is NOD32, its heuristics are excellent, it has a very small footprint and catches a lot of things Norton/Mcafee/Etrust miss.

Tiny firewall is ok (I still miss being able to use ZA), but may be a bit overkill at $99

I dual boot my home PC with WinXP pro and X64 and I generally only boot into 32 bit windows for some of the games I play (Far cry and UT 2004 have native 64 bit support), and a couple of other apps that don't seem to play nice.

X64 can be a headache, especially getting everything up and running the way you want it (reminds me of Linux a little bit, because of all the little idiosyncracies.

Planetamd64.com is a great resource (non amd specific); I'd highly recommend perusing their forums to see other users' experiences, setbacks, and solutions.