Windows XP x64 on modern PC

There's an OEM for it for $100 on eBay. (AUD, 72.91 USD) I don't have a paid OS yet (Win10 IP, planning on Linux Mint) I'd like a retail copy of 7 at some point, so I've always got a transferable licence for future systems.

 

Basically the plan is to have Windows 7 retail dual-booting with XP x64.

 

But I don't want to waste $100 on XP64 if it's not any good. I love XP, and to be able to use it with a 64-bit CPU and 8 GB RAM is enough to make me want to buy this. I'm just not sure if there will be any major problems with the OS that make it no better than the 32-bit version. (I know of the little glitches already)

 

So basically, is XP64 worth buying at $100?

IMO XP is not worth $100 plus it is no longer supported by MS so no updates leaving it vulnerable, I would move to 7 which has support until 2020.  That will give you time to think out your next step, 7 can be bought for about the same $$.

IMO XP is not worth $100 plus it is no longer supported by MS so no updates leaving it vulnerable, I would move to 7 which has support until 2020.  That will give you time to think out your next step, 7 can be bought for about the same $$.

 

I couldn't care less about support. And there's always the POSReady hack. And Malwarebytes.

 

I plan on getting a Windows 7 retail disc at some point anyway. I was more concerned about performance, and whether XP64 would still allow me to take advantage of majority of my hardware, even if not as much a 7 (but at least near to it)

 

FX-8350 4.0 GHz

8 GB RAM 2133 MHz

EVGA GTX 950

SSD

You could have problems finding 64bit XP drivers for your hardware. 32bit XP should work fine but it would omly access about 4GB of your RAM. XP does not include native SATA drivers on the install disk. You would need to slipstream them to the install disk using nlite. Make sure you can get 64bit XP storage drivers for your MB chipset.

But I don't want to waste $100 on XP64 if it's not any good. I love XP, and to be able to use it with a 64-bit CPU and 8 GB RAM is enough to make me want to buy this. I'm just not sure if there will be any major problems with the OS that make it no better than the 32-bit version. (I know of the little glitches already)
 
So basically, is XP64 worth buying at $100?

 

Windows XP 64 is completely different from Windows XP 32-bits, the kernel used is based on Windows Server 2003. Besides everything already posted, unless you want to run a very specific application that take advantage of XP 64 you will find that many programs (free Antivirus, etc.) don't work on XP 64 because many manufactures only stared adding 64-bits support to make the programs run on Windows Vista x64 and above.

 

But I don't want to waste $100 on XP64 if it's not any good. I love XP, and to be able to use it with a 64-bit CPU and 8 GB RAM is enough to make me want to buy this. I'm just not sure if there will be any major problems with the OS that make it no better than the 32-bit version. (I know of the little glitches already)
 
So basically, is XP64 worth buying at $100?

 

Windows XP 64 is completely different from Windows XP 32-bits, the kernel used is based on Windows Server 2003. Besides everything already posted, unless you want to run a very specific application that take advantage of XP 64 you will find that many programs (free Antivirus, etc.) don't work on XP 64 because many manufactures only stared adding 64-bits support to make the programs run on Windows Vista x64 and above.

 

 

Oh I see. So more RAM would be the only benefit. Thanks. I might buy it one day then, but probably not for $100. If I see one for a really low price then I'll probably buy it.

 

How much difference is there performance-wise comparing 32-bit to 64-bit applications?

 

And by the way, SP3 for XP 32-bit seems to have SATA drivers. (I just installed it a little while ago actually on an old PC with a SP3 disk and it's fine (As far as I know this PC is using ATAPI)) so I'm assuming XP x64 SP2 has them too? The disk on eBay is SP2.

Edited by Karzahni, 27 December 2015 - 07:20 PM.

Oh I see. So more RAM would be the only benefit. Thanks. I might buy it one day then, but probably not for $100. If I see one for a really low price then I'll probably buy it.

 
Unless you want to have it for Historical reasons, Windows 7 64-bits is a better OS.
 

How much difference is there performance-wise comparing 32-bit to 64-bit applications?

 

I think it's only noticeable if you are using some heavy application that uses more of 2GB of RAM and a lot of processing.

 

And by the way, SP3 for XP 32-bit seems to have SATA drivers. (I just installed it a little while ago actually on an old PC with a SP3 disk and it's fine (As far as I know this PC is using ATAPI)) so I'm assuming XP x64 SP2 has them too? The disk on eBay is SP2.

 

I doubt it the original Microsoft CD's have many drivers missing for newer hardware, in some cases it works depending on the Disk controller mode set on the BIOS.

 

The latest Service Pack for XP64 is SP2.

 

I know SP2 is the newest XP 64, so I assume it has SATA drivers like XP 32 SP3 does. (Assuming 64's SP2 = 32's SP3)

Edited by hamluis, 28 December 2015 - 08:18 AM.
Removed unnecessary quotebox - Hamluis.

Several years ago I purchased Windows XP x64 (I believe it was SP2 as well), and I quite liked it, though I only used it from time to time as I had Windows 7 as my main OS, and several other operating systems installed too. There is less software available for it than for the 32bit XP, though I managed just fine finding applications to meet my needs. It also received less attention from Microsoft than XP 32bit so some updates were buggy. Overall it was a good operating system.

 

One thing to keep in mind when installing legacy operating systems is whether your hardware has drivers available for that OS. My computer at the time did, but my current machine, does not, so I cannot multi-boot with it anymore. Now-adays I only have Windows XP Professional x64 in a virtual-machine, and I never use it.

 

I wouldn't suggest buying it (these days), simply because of how out-dated it is. If you do buy it, make sure it is Windows XP Professional x64 (it's for X86-64 CPUs), not Windows XP 64bit Edition (it's for IA-64 CPUs).

I have installed Xp64 successfully on many workstation class systems running core 2 quad or XEON. Typically i would install it only on systems of the LGA771, LGA1366 types

Some examples where i installed XP 64 successfully 

Dell PRECISION Tower 690 ( LGA 771, with dual Xeon 3 GHZ processors) 

Dell Precision Tower 5500 ( LGA 1366 , with solo Hex core Xeon X5670 ( but has 12 threads due to HT ) 

Lenovo Thinkstation S10 ( LGA 775, Core 2 Quad 9550 , no hyperthreading)  

 

I use it pretty frequently as it has little bloatware , and as long as you can download correct drivers from the manufacturers website , you should not have any issues

boots pretty fast ( I'd suggest use SATA SSD for the boot partition ) and most importantly CAN access upto a whopping 128 GB RAM . 

I also installed Office 32 bit and a few other 32 bit apps which run seamlessly , but 32 bit apps can only use upto 2 GB RAM 

 

Dell Supported XP till 2013 models , so i worked ina  company that had installed Xp 32 bit on intel core i 3rd gen ( COre i5 35XX) and dell had drivers for them . 

 

If you really want to use it along with Windows 7 , id suggest installing it Before you install Windows 7 , otherwise it can get tricky . 

There are downsides however , i and how it affects you is subjective

 

1. You need to configure your drives as SATA ( AHCI And Raid are problematic unless you have a way of customizing your install cd with proper drivers using nlite) 

2. Some workstations i had to physically rewire the drive as SATA instead of RAID ( Precision 690 !) 

3. Not sure if you still want to use Xp64 in 2016 now , but if you need to , i would suggest you get the Service Pack2 OEM Edition , as it has updated drivers 

4. You certainly need to install .NET Framework 4.0 , but you have to download and install Windows imaging component first ( WIC) 

5. Ensure you have downloadable drivers from the manufacturer for XP64 bit , otherwise it can be a gamble requiring you to invest more time to get correct drivers. 

6. Officially Firewire audio is not supported, but firewire is supported for other applications

7, Does NOT support Microsoft services for unix officially , so if you want to use unix programming - you can dual boot with Ubuntu or RHEL 

 

Pros: 
ONce installed Excellent support for legacy hardware like SCSI  , Firewire ( including firewire based ethernet) , parallel and serial devices, floppies ( some scsi devices may need drivers ) 

Can run 32 bit windows apps without frequently hanging or crashing 

Access upto 128 GB RAM !!!

As long as manufacturer drivers can be found , its preferable to Windows 7 for 64 bit PC's released between 2006 and 2010, but i cannot assure things will be fine in the future as XP is mostly dead now . 

Typical PC's

Dell precision 470

Dell precision X90 series towers

Precision X400 series towers/rack ( T5400, T7400)

Precision X500 series towers ( T5500, T7500) 

Lenovo Thinkstation S10, D10 

Dell optiplex 64 bit PC's : 960, 980 etc

Thinkcenter pcs with core 2 or core i 5/5 1st generation 

you can realize advantage only if you mobo supports > 4GB or RAM , otherwise stick it to Win 7 32 bit , since no advantages if your RAM is hardware limited

Can also think of doing XP in a virtual machine rather then dual boot. Honestly WIN XP 32 bit will just be fine in a virtual machine as it not really as heavy as the newer OSes are.

 

Also if it gets attacked, you don't have to worry about losing your whole hard-drive in the end since they are isolated from your actual OS.

Can also think of doing XP in a virtual machine rather then dual boot.
 
Also if it gets attacked, you don't have to worry about losing your whole hard-drive in the end since they are isolated from your actual OS.

Virtualization is certainly a possibility, however there will be a performance increase. The second part is fairly true, but i'm pretty sure you could prevent xp from mounting the other sector.

I've been dual-booting XP 32 and 7 64 for a while now, I use XP for games that aren't 100% compatible with 7. I honestly find XP runs as well or even better than 7. I had to avoid using the 3 GB RAM switch though as it was causing some unusual behaviour and slowness. There are XP 64 drivers for days for my hardware, and by the way I'm not worried about security. I'm pretty experienced with virus removal, and I won't really use the internet much on XP. If I wanted to just use a VM then I would. I already have NT 4.0, 95, 98, Neptune and Longhorn in VMs. (Next I'd like to try Windows 2000 Advanced Server, to use 8 CPUs and 8 GB RAM, but I'm having trouble getting it to work with my SATA controller, and my secondary RAID card doesn't allow booting.)