xp pro (32bit) or xp pro x64???

Well I just got my new computer (below) and it comes with xp pro 32bit!!??

What is with that... you would think Acer would put a 64 bit os on this thing!!!

anyway what is the diffrence bettween the 2 os's,
That is
Windows XP Pro (32 Bit) vs Windows XP Pro (64 Bit)

any help is apreciated.

 

The difference is that everyone tries their best to ignore the 64-bit version. Most notiably, many driver vendors do this. And if you can't get 64-bit drivers for your webcam or scanner, you may prefer to stay with 32-bit. At least that's what OEM's like Acer believe. Can't really blame them, I guess.

Anyway, there's no big difference, except:
- Drivers for the more exotic hardware may be unavailable for x64 (By exotic I mean printers, scanners, webcams, digicams, pretty much any "external" stuff. A lot of them do have drivers, but not all. For internal hardware, it's not a problem though.
- Similar with other kernel-level software (Antivirus, firewall, daemontools, anything that has to mess with the OS itself, *may* be tricky to find in 64-bit versions)
- In a few specialized cases, x64 is more capable. It can better handle huge workloads, so if you're working on a 3GB file, that may help you.

But usually? Makes no difference either way. I used to use x64 for a while, and didn't encounter any big problems. On the other hand, there were no big advantages either..

 

thanks alot! thats what i was thinking... great so should i even consider a 64 bit vista?

 

If M$ and vendors decide to offer better support it might be worth it. I would guess that Vista 64bit will be better than XP 64 in that regard simply due to the technology. When 64bit XP came out 32 bit was *much* more prevalent.

 

Great! question answered

Happy New Year everyone!

 

I'd expect Vista 64-bit to be better supported simply because it's more "official". It's the big new thing from Microsoft, that everyone are going to upgradeto (At least in theory), and 64-bit is supported from the start, and available to everyone.

x64 was more of a hushed semi-upgrade, something MS did just because they'd promised AMD, and which was launched with no publicity at all, and can hardly even be bought anywhere.

 

No. The only thing you'll get by going 64-bit are driver issues and no noticible performance increase.

Regarding 64-bit Vista, it's too early to have a firm opinion.

 

Wow... lot's of 64-bit hatred.

64-bit XP is primarily a workstation OS... it's based on Windows Server 2003 (not XP) and is VERY stable if you have drivers for everything you need. That said, it's neither marketed nor really sold to home users and never picked up great support.

64-bit Vista, on the other hand, should be the primary version of Vista within a few years. To be Vista-certified, hardware is supposed to have drivers for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. If Acer puts out 64-bit Vista drivers in time for release, I would highly recommend upgrading to that over the 32-bit version. The enhanced kernel protection alone is worth it, in my opinion.