Windows XP 64 bit processor question

[SysAdmin05]

Hello,
I have a request to install XP 64 bit on some PC's. I do not have any experience with XP 64 bit, nor am I even sure that the PC's can handle it. What do I need to check? The processor's are as follows: Intel Pentium 4 @ 3.6GHz and Intel Xeon 5160 @ 3.00GHz.

Thank you for any help you can provide.

 

[cdogg]

Only some of the later Pentium 4 models were capable of running the Intel 64 implementation. Your P4 3.6GHz is likely to be a late enough model. You can read more here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64#Intel_64_implementations

The Xeon 5160 is based on the Core 2 Microarchitecture. All Xeons from this series support Intel 64. Here's a link that talks about that:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeon#5100-series_.22Woodcrest.22

You will need to check other hardware components to make sure the manufacturer supplies drivers designed to install/work in a 64-bit environment. If the hardware is less than 5 years old, chances are you won't have any issues.

~cdogg
"All generalizations are false, including this one." - Mark Twain
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[Sympology]

Processors are least of your worries. Driver compatabilty is going to be a million x's worse.

1st up, check the vendors website to see if there are XP64bit drivers for the pc. If not, stay away.

Robert Wilensky:
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.

 

[SysAdmin05]

Thank you both, for your suggestions. So far, most everything I have read about Windows XP 64 bit seems that it is a nightmare to setup and administer.

I'm not sure that we even want to go down that path.

 

[FredWagner]

I've got two machines running 64-bit - one Vista-64, and a laptop running Win7-64. Both were shipped that way. I suspect that if you try to add it to a machine that didn't have it in the first place, you may come to grief (driver issues, as mentioned by cdogg and sympology) . My two boxes - Vista 64 on an HP tower, cost under $500 3 years ago. The laptop with Win7-64 was $400 at Radio Shack on Black Friday. If somebody really wants 64 bit OS, just buy a machine that comes with it preinstalled. Save your self tons of grief.

Fred Wagner

 

[cdogg]

Right. If you're making the switch to 64-bit, make sure you are doing it for the right reasons. The main reason you would want to go 64-bit is usually memory size, when you need to have more than 3GB available to the system.

It hardly makes sense to go to XP 64-bit these days (besides I'm not even sure licensing is being sold still). Your best bet if you're serious about making the switch is to look into Windows 7 64-bit instead. You wouldn't want to throw it on a system that is more than 3 years old, but the system that has the Xeon processor should be OK.

~cdogg
"All generalizations are false, including this one." - Mark Twain
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