upgrade 2 64 bit or not ??

[Guest]

Hi all
sorry if this question has been asked before.

I am thinking of soon upgrading obviously i would like to go to a 64 byt
system, but i have been told that much conflicting bulldust i don't know what
the heck to do ???

I am thinking of getting a........
gigabyte board ''GA-8N-SLI ROYAL'' with a pentium
''LGA 775 CPU INTEL P4 1GB CACHE 530/3GHZ/800MHZ'' as i dont really like amd's
but with buying all other things i am not going to be able to afford a 64 OS.
so the questions are :-
A) Will windows xp 32 bit OS work on the above ?
B) will al my other 32 bit software/hardware work with the above ?
and finally....
C) when i can afford the windows 64 XP OS, will my 32 bit software/hardware
work on that or will i have to buy all new ??

Many thanks to all who took the time to read & answer my questions...THANKS..

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

A) Will windows xp 32 bit OS work on the above ?

Yes

B) will al my other 32 bit software/hardware work with the above ?

It should. I'm running a number of 32 bit programs and hardware on 64 bit CPU's with no problems.

and finally....
C) when i can afford the windows 64 XP OS, will my 32 bit software/hardware
work on that or will i have to buy all new ??

Many 32 bit programs run fine on 64 bit XP, but for full compatibility, at some point, you'll have to upgrade. Hopefully your hardware manufacturers will provide 64 bit drivers for your existing hardware.

 

[Homer J. Simpson]

B) will al my other 32 bit software/hardware work with the above ?

It should. I'm running a number of 32 bit programs and hardware on 64 bit
CPU's with no problems.

That's a little overly optimistic Doug. The crux of the matter is drivers,
drivers, drivers--you cannot emphasize this enough when people ask about
migrating to a 64-bit OS.

Also, 16-bit apps won't run, and many 32-bit applications that would
otherwise run perfectly fine on a 64-bit OS cannot be used because they use
a 16-bit installer.

To the original poster:

IMHO, considering the state of 64-bit support from third-parties *at this
point in time*, if you can't at least determine in advance whether all your
hardware has 64-bit drivers available, and that all the 32-bit apps you
consider necessary for you are all fully supported, then don't move to a
64-bit OS "just because you can".

If you can't come up with a proper justification for moving, especially when
you have existing hardware/software to migrate, then I say you simply
don't...

That being said, I'm not trying to scare people away from 64-bit OSes...I'm
just saying that right now, it has to be justified. Spend a few days
lurking on microsoft.public.windows.64bit.general and get a feel for what
it's like...

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Buy your 64-bit computer. I love my AMD64 Athlon x2 4400+ system! I am
running XP Pro x64 on it. I have not tossed out my 32-bit system, though.
There still programs that use software drivers that do not yet have 64-bit
drivers (32-bit drivers do not work - by design). So for my favorite dvd
burning program I still use the old computer. There are several things like
that (and printing) that keep the old box around. What knocks my socks off
are the games I run on the x64 system. I have only found a few that do not
run (they have old 16-bit installers, otherwise they would run).

You do not have to run a 64-bit operating system on a 64-bit computer. XP
Pro SP2 and XP Home SP2 run just fine and all applications and devices work
just fine as they do on any 32-bit computer. 100% compatible. This is what
I recommend you do if you are not sure your present printer, scanner,
webcam, modem, etc have 64-bit drivers from the manufacturers. Only go 64
if you know your peripherals have 64-bit drivers available. That will take
some research. A good source for this kind of info is at the
microsoft.public.windows.64bit.general newsgroup and on PlanetAMD64 on the
web.

You can run both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows on a 64-bit computer
by dual-booting. Each OS must be installed to its own partition or drive
and the older edition of Windows needs to be installed first. There is a
small problem doing this because XP Pro x64 is not a retail item. It is OEM
and is intended to be preinstalled on a new computer. That makes
retrofitting the older edition of Windows a bit dicey. One solution is to
buy from a system builder like CyberPower and arrange with them to
preinstall BOTH editions of Windows. Just tell them what you want. If
Windows came preinstalled on your old computer, then you cannot move it to
the new one anyway and would need a new copy. Just a thought.