Win XP type for Phenom Quad 4 cpu?

[engrbill47]

I am about to invest in an upgrade for my home PC. The MB has croked and I want to improve the speed of operation. I have a legitimate copy of Win XP home ed and a 64bit beta(?) CD sent to me by MS Win (Also XP). Which should I install?

 

[Ijack]

I may be wrong, but I think you might find that the XP64 is past its sell-by date. Most Microsoft Betas are programmed to work only up to a certain date.

In any case I wouldn't go with the Beta. Maybe if it was an RC.

 

[engrbill47]

OK. But will using Win XP 32 effect my new Phenom's performance?

 

[Ijack]

You won't, in theory, get quite the performance that you could get from a 64-bit OS, but in practice it's more a question of 64-bit apps, rather than the OS. If you're not running 64-bit apps, and don't need to run more than 3 gig of memory, a 32-bit OS will be fine.