Need Help With Deciding on a New OS

[e46m]

Sorry if this is the wrong section for this type of question; I'm ok with a move if it's a appropriate. The efforts are in attempts to better my multi-boxing experience, though!

I'm not very computer-literate, so I need some help upgrading from a 32-bit OS to a 64-bit OS. I have a 64-bit processer in my computer, but I'm running Windows XP Media Center Edition, which is only 32-bit. I purchased 8Gigs of RAM, and eventually figured out it won't support more than 2.5Gigs, hence the reason I'm upgrading.

Is there a publicly available 64-bit version of Windows XP Professional, or do I have to get Windows Vista? I've searched on Google, but all I can find is a "system builders edition". Could someone with more experience please give me a link to a site that sells Windows XP Professional 64-bit Edition, or Windows Vista 64-bit Edition, if neccesary.

Thanks a bunch.

[e46m]

/whistle

[Tynk]

While research is always a good place to start, I will throw this out there.
There is a version of windows XP 64. It is not well known and even less distributed though as the implementation of choice was an attempt at a conversion from XP 32 to XP 64. While admirable, this was a very daunting task and Microsoft failed at it. The driver implementation did not go well, many hardware manufacturers would not make new drivers as they knew Vista was on the horizon, so the devices that did work in XP 64 generaly were not using the 64 bit capabilities, the same would go to the applications.
The memory management for the OS was deffinately functional but ran into the same issue as the hardware that most app writers were not bothering to code 64 bit XP apps when they were told a complete rewrite would be needed for Vista.

So unfortunately what it comes down to for 64 bit Operating systems is, you are either stuck with Windows Vista, need to buy new hardware (read entirely new computer) and go with Mac OS X, or dive into the deep end with a 64 bit Linux Kernal (with your statement of "I'm not very computer-literate" I would not recomend 64 bit Linux.

[entoptic]

I just upgrade from Windwox XP 64 bit to Vista 64 and OMG I take everything back that I ever said about Vista.

Not only does everything run WAY better but my blue ray player will not work with Win XP 64 bit. That was the main reason for upgrading.

I fully support Vista 64 bit now. (I can't believe I just said that)

It's totally seemless and if you can get over the hand holding vista has then you will see a solid O/S

[Freddie]

Vista 64 is much better than XP. I have to use both for work, booting back and forth from one to the other, and I feel like I'm wading into knee deep mud when I leave Vista and boot into XP.

[krum]

Vista 64. Make sure to get at least 6GB of RAM in the machine, preferably 8GB.

[wowphreak]

win xp 32 supports up to 4 gigs.
if yer gonna get more then 4 gigs go with vista64

At this point getting xp64 wouldnt be worth the hassle

[Zakalwe]

If you're after what the different versions are try here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/compare-editions/default.aspx

I've run Vista Business 64-bit since April and have not had nay issues with it at all, its great!
Things have definetely improved since the release of Service Pack 1 and it's totally different since it was first released.
Driver support is now almost a non-issue unless you have very old hardware and you get to take full advantage of all your physical memory.

So yeah, get Vista 64-bit! 8)

[e46m]

It warranted a new thread because this is a forum, not my personal blog.

The questions posed in the two seperate threads were totally different, thus they warranted unique topics.

Maybe you could just try and assist me with my problem instead of lock my attempts at trying to get help :/

[Harem]

Not to invoke the wrath of the mods but...

New thread because it is a different topic.

[Naysayer]

List your specs in detail.

[e46m]

Since the mods felt it was appropriate to close my other thread, which was dealing with a completely different topic, I guess i'll paste it into here:



Here is the preface: I know little to nothing about the technical aspect of computers, please refrain from laughing :[

The title says it all, really. I bit the bullet and bought Vista Ultimate today, which "unlocked" 5.5G of RAM, yet when I quad-box I see no preformance increase what-so-ever, maybe even a slight decrease.

I am EXTREMELY annoyed, seeing as I bought Vista Ultimate, 8G of RAM, and a quad-core, yet I still run 20 fps on my main when quad-boxing.

Is there something I am doing wrong? My system specs are:

Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6700 @ 2.66GHz 2.67 GHz | 8.00 GB of RAM | Vista Ultimate.

Also, I have (2x) NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX.

Please, if anyone has advice, share :[ I've searched and found people with similar problems, but the answers are almost always too complicated, or too basic.

Is there anything I need to disable, and how do I get to it? Anything I need to update, and how do I do so? Please, help me out!

[Kaynin]

So, if you want to be on the safe side.

New hardware, go vista 64-bit. Old hardware, go XP pro 64 bit. In a nutshell. (Note: This is in no way the absolute truth, but does in general count as truth.)

I'm very happy with Vista myself. Good performance and very stable.


I am EXTREMELY annoyed, seeing as I bought Vista Ultimate, 8G of RAM, and a quad-core, yet I still run 20 fps on my main when quad-boxing.

Is there something I am doing wrong? My system specs are:

Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6700 @ 2.66GHz 2.67 GHz | 8.00 GB of RAM | Vista Ultimate.

Also, I have (2x) NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX.

What video settings do you run your wow instances with (mainly: maxfps and maxfpsBK, view distance, resolution.)

Also, how many dirs do you play wow from, and do you know if you run wow on a seperate harddisk (physically) or not?

Thirdly, any idea if you use CPU core assignment or not?

[e46m]

I am EXTREMELY annoyed, seeing as I bought Vista Ultimate, 8G of RAM, and a quad-core, yet I still run 20 fps on my main when quad-boxing.

Is there something I am doing wrong? My system specs are:

Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6700 @ 2.66GHz 2.67 GHz | 8.00 GB of RAM | Vista Ultimate.

Also, I have (2x) NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX.
What video settings do you run your wow instances with (mainly: maxfps and maxfpsBK, view distance, resolution.)

Also, how many dirs do you play wow from, and do you know if you run wow on a seperate harddisk (physically) or not?

Thirdly, any idea if you use CPU core assignment or not?

My main has tried settings maxed, and the 'medium' macro found in the wiki. My three others run all settings on the lowest possible level.

I have my alts at 800x600, and my main is at something in the 1200x???? range. (I'm not at home).

The maxfps and maxfpsbk for all characters are 45 and 15, respectively. The view distance is standard; I haven't messed around with it.

I play my four characters from four seperate directories, and each window is assigned to a different CPU. I am almost postitive I don't run WoW from a seperate harddisk, as all the WoW folders are on my desktop.

Thanks for paying attention to me, Kaynin :]

[Multibocks]

make sure you maxfps for the foreground and background aren't swapped (for some strange reason background comes first in the order of the GUI /boggle) Also I will second the suggestion that when going vista64, just buy a new computer. I fiddled with vista64 on a 2 year old mobo and it gave me fits. I finally gave up and bought a new computer and it hasn't crashed once(other would crash daily.) Also running 5 clients I would suggest all details to minimum and bring in the draw distance on the slaves. It may not look pretty but it will run well.

[Kaynin]

Alright then. Running four seperate dirs from one drive will put a lot of strain on your HD and is I think the most likely cause of your problems.

Try running all four from one directory* or symlink your directories and do some tests. Alternatively you could run your main in one dir and your alts from a second dir, if you use different resolutions and settings for main and alt, this is best. And symlink these two directories.
(*: this might mess with ui's so it is best to test it in a seperate dir. For information about symlinking, search this site.)



Also make sure view distance is minimal on your alts. It eats FPS to have it higher then neccesary. And having your main with decent enough view distance should be sufficient.

[e46m]

Well I think I pretty much fixed it. I changed a couple of things all at once, so I'm not sure what the real problem was.

I tured off Windows Aero, turned off V-Sync on all boxes, set my mains video settings from high to medium, zoomed in the view on clones, and used a pre-made maximizer setup.

This has made my main stay at a capped out 45fps (sometimes dropping to 40-44), and made swtiching between boxes using PiP almost instantaneous.

I still don't think I should be dropping fps at all with this setup, but for the time being this is a big improvement.

Edit: Kaynin, you said "Running four seperate dirs from one drive will put a lot of strain on your HD and is I think the most likely cause of your problems." Would buying an external HD serve as a good solution to this problem, or should I buy another HD for my computer, and get someone install it? Also, would size matter in this case, or is there any particular brand you reccomend (cost effective balanced with quality, please)?

[Zakalwe]

Would buying an external HD serve as a good solution to this problem, or should I buy another HD for my computer, and get someone install it? Also, would size matter in this case, or is there any particular brand you reccomend (cost effective balanced with quality, please)?External HDD would be bad, transfer rates alone would be rubbish.
An internal one would be the way to go, although in your case you might want to try symlinking your WoW directory's.

PowerShell script to create symbolically linked (mklink) copies of WoW ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=4854') check that out!