Currently I have this: P4 Prescott 3.0gHz 2GB PC3200 RAM ATi X800XL 256MB AGP 8X I just upgraded those components (well, they haven't arrived yet) to: AMD 5600+ Dual Core 4GB DDR2 800 Kingston RAM nVidia 7950GT PCIe 16x 512MB Couple of questions... 1) When I get everything set up, do I need to reinstall Windows XP Home or is that just a myth? (this question is really what prompted me to start this thread in the Windows forum) 2) Will Windows XP Home recognize and utilize all 4GB of this RAM? 3) How much of a difference do you feel I will notice with the above upgrades?
xp will not be able to use all 4 gigs. if you want that then you will need to run vista. you will see probably a big difference in gameing because of the processor and video card upgrade but not much in just web browsing or basic stuff like that.
1) You will more than likely have to reinstall XP, even if it wasn't required it is still a good step to take when adding major hardware like this. Now if you were just swapping out processors I would say you wouldnt need a new install but since your current board is a Intel and your switching to a AMD then it is safe to assume that you got a new motherboard. It is also fairly safe to assume that since you got a new motherboard the chipsets will be different and thus warrant a reinstall of XP. 2)Since windows is a 32 bit OS natively it can't handle all 4 gigs. There are methods to get around this but they could seriously screw up your rig. 3) The performance boost you see depends on waht you do. If you just email and surf the web it is more than likely that you will not notice much if at all of a difference. But for gaming and video encoding you will notice a huge difference.
if you want to use all 4 gigs you could also use windows server edition 2003 and set it up as a workstation http://www.msfn.org/win2k3/index.htm it has a 32 gig limit for the 32bit version. so you would be able to take full advantage of your ram
If I decided to upgrade my OS (since I have to reinstall anyhow), would it be better to use Windows XP x64 since it has been out longer and presumably has more driver and software support?
i would not upgrade to the x64 XP. all that i have read about it has been bad. it has poor driver support and cannot run many things that alot of people use in the regular version. games will be hard to play because installers alot of times use 16bit code wich makes it impossable to use. you will not be happy with the x64 version.
dont use a 64 bit windows. use windows server 2003 data center or enterprize edition. they are basicaly the same as xp but can support more than 4 gigs or ram. you can disable many of the server features and just use it on your desktop like you would xp. use the link above to turn the server edition into a workstation and here is a link that shows windows memory limits http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa366778.aspx
ok, what are you going to be using the computer for. if its for games then you will not want a 64bit version.64 bit processors allow for slightly faster processing but will not be noticeable in every day use. but if you really want a 64 bit os then use vista ultimate 64.
I do play games occasionally (FEAR, Oblivion, maybe RS: Vegas)...but for the most part I do video encoding and burning and a ton of multitasking. Games are not the major purpose of the system though. Besides, could I do a dual-boot with XP x32 for games?
a dual boot would work fine. just remember that it is hard to find working drivers for 64bit vista. but there is a hack that allows unsigned drives to run on it.
Generally speaking, since most if not all software today is programmed in 32 bit code there is not point in investing in a 64 bit OS. The support for 64 bit isn't there yet.
