Windows XP Home, Pro or x64? at DVinfo.net

Roger Rosales · July 7th, 2007, 02:13 AM

Hey guys!

I'm building my Core2quad rig and I don't know which OS to go with. Should I go with Home, save some cash or go with Pro or x64? x64 is tempting because I would love to add up to 8 gigs of system memory and have my OS ACTUALLY recognize it. Is it even worth it?

I still haven't decided on which editor to stick with. I don't know if I'm going to switch back to Premiere Pro or stick with Vegas. If I go premiere, it will definately be CS3, nothing old.

Vegas is still an awesome editor, I just never got quit comfertable with it like I did with Premiere. So I'm thinking of switching back. I'm going to download a trial version of CS3 before I make my choice (also a trial version of Vegas 7). It's one hell of a choice. In hindsight, I love Premiere's U.I. on the other hand, I remember the HELL that I went through (in the middle of a paying job) with my 24p footage with premiere pro.

Anyway, I remember editing on an x64 bit machine a while back (it was a friend of a friends machine) and I remember I had one HELL of a time with certain codecs that should come STANDARD with windows. I actually couldn't open MPEG video files! I had other issues with it as well, but I vaguely remember them, BUT the editing process was a BREEZE. I loved it. It was, as borate would say, "Very Nice".

Anyway, what's your take on which OS I should conduct my business under? Keep in mind, this is a Core2QUAD machine, not Core2Duo!

John Miller · July 7th, 2007, 08:12 AM

Not XP Home.

Between the others, depends a lot on your software. A 32-bit application can't make use of the extra memory, but if you have multiple 32-bit applications running, they can each grab more than they might on the 32-bit - but still with the 2GB limit for a given process.

The other main issue is compatibily of hardware (i.e., are 64-bit drivers available).

On a modern (or new) PC, it is less likely to be an issue. I installed x64 on this system and all the hardware was compatible.

To me, x64 hits the sweet spot of Windows. I've also got 64-bit Vista, but I'm not so impressed by it.

Roger Rosales · July 7th, 2007, 07:27 PM

John, did you ever experience those codec problems I described in my first post?

Cary Lee · July 16th, 2007, 07:08 PM

I use windows xp 64. It is a pain to find drivers for it but I find it very stable. I would forget about Home addition because it is very limited. As for Vista...I personally don't care for it because of all the extra security that was added by M$. I would wait till the bugs are out of it before investing into it. Eventually I would have to switch...but for right now I don't think it is a good investment for a video editing workstation.

Damon Gaskin · July 16th, 2007, 09:56 PM

Hello. I am running and have been running XP Home since I switched to editing and am running a Q6600 with CS3 Prod. Premium and it runs fine. It doesn't from what I have observed have some of the controls to tweek things like Pro, but at the time I was strapped for cash, and since it has worked for me since 2002, I have felt no need to change now. With Vista the way I have read it(sometimes, reading others struggles is enough for me), I will not be switching any time soon. But if I did not have XP Home and was starting from scratch, I may have a different opinion.

But depends on which way you want to go. XP Home will definately work, but for ram usage, you would be much better with 64, though, CS3 doesn't utilize it(its only 32 bit). I think though that Pro is pretty cheap these days, so you may want to check the price comparisons between home and pro versions of XP.

Damon

Bart Walczak · July 17th, 2007, 06:47 AM

Win 64 works for me perfectly well.

Jad Meouchy · July 17th, 2007, 07:07 PM

XP x64 going strong for 18 months, works with CS2 and CS3 no problem, and even runs noticeably faster than XP 32. I tried Vista 64 but had so many driver and performance issues that I gave up on it (again)

Scott Doyle · July 18th, 2007, 07:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John F Miller

... they can each grab more than they might on the 32-bit - but still with the 2GB limit for a given process....

If you're scratching for extra process ram, its worth trying the 3GB switch option. I use it for AutoCAD Inventor and it does help quite a bit. You may need to fine tune the exact amount a bit, I ended up allocating only 2.8GB as Windows would play up if i took any more than that.

If you want to go 64bit then check EVERY last bit of hardware and software that you will be using has 64 bit drivers/versions available.

Troy Fontaine · July 18th, 2007, 12:59 PM

Be careful recommending the /3GB switch! It is not something to played with lightly as it can cause serious problems (to the point of even preventing a computer from booting!).

Some drivers don't play nice with it and if you have a lot of gear hooked up, it could cause you some serious grief.

I wouldn't recommend running that switch on a production box, since it could possibly knock it out and then lead to downtime. As well, the 3GB switch is not recommended or supported by Microsoft and is not supported entirely by Adobe's software (some apps do, some don't) and I have no idea about any other software out there. There was a recent article at anandtech.com discussing the whole RAM addressing issue fairly clearly (http://www.anandtech.com/gadgets/showdoc.aspx?i=3034).

Stephen Armour · July 18th, 2007, 02:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Troy Fontaine

Be careful recommending the /3GB switch! It is not something to played with lightly as it can cause serious problems (to the point of even preventing a computer from booting!).

Some drivers don't play nice with it and if you have a lot of gear hooked up, it could cause you some serious grief.

I wouldn't recommend running that switch on a production box, since it could possibly knock it out and then lead to downtime. As well, the 3GB switch is not recommended or supported by Microsoft and is not supported entirely by Adobe's software (some apps do, some don't) and I have no idea about any other software out there. There was a recent article at anandtech.com discussing the whole RAM addressing issue fairly clearly (http://www.anandtech.com/gadgets/showdoc.aspx?i=3034).

Listen to him guys! I spent several days last week recovering a system from exactly that prob! New quad, 4 GB mem...wanted to use more of it....WHAM! No boot. Finally had to take out the boot drive and access it with a USB gadget on another system and edit the boot.ini to remove the /3GB switch! Nothing else would work.

Scott Doyle · July 21st, 2007, 04:13 AM

True, you've gotta fiddle with it a bit if it gives problems, but i've been using it in an AutoCAD production environment for the past year without any problems once I fine tuned it to 2.8GB.

There's no harm in trying it, just make sure you leave your original boot settings line in the boot.ini file and select it at boot-time if you have to.

If worse come to worst, just boot using BartPE or UBCD and modify your boot ini back to what it was (or restore the backup of it you would have made before you mucked with it :).

And true, the app must support it also, but if it does, it can make a big difference.

July 7th, 2007, 02:13 AM	#1
Roger Rosales Major Player Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 254	Windows XP Home, Pro or x64? Hey guys! I'm building my Core2quad rig and I don't know which OS to go with. Should I go with Home, save some cash or go with Pro or x64? x64 is tempting because I would love to add up to 8 gigs of system memory and have my OS ACTUALLY recognize it. Is it even worth it? I still haven't decided on which editor to stick with. I don't know if I'm going to switch back to Premiere Pro or stick with Vegas. If I go premiere, it will definately be CS3, nothing old. Vegas is still an awesome editor, I just never got quit comfertable with it like I did with Premiere. So I'm thinking of switching back. I'm going to download a trial version of CS3 before I make my choice (also a trial version of Vegas 7). It's one hell of a choice. In hindsight, I love Premiere's U.I. on the other hand, I remember the HELL that I went through (in the middle of a paying job) with my 24p footage with premiere pro. Anyway, I remember editing on an x64 bit machine a while back (it was a friend of a friends machine) and I remember I had one HELL of a time with certain codecs that should come STANDARD with windows. I actually couldn't open MPEG video files! I had other issues with it as well, but I vaguely remember them, BUT the editing process was a BREEZE. I loved it. It was, as borate would say, "Very Nice". Anyway, what's your take on which OS I should conduct my business under? Keep in mind, this is a Core2QUAD machine, not Core2Duo! __________________ -Roger Rosales www.rogerrosales.com

July 7th, 2007, 07:27 PM	#3
Roger Rosales Major Player Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 254	John, did you ever experience those codec problems I described in my first post? __________________ -Roger Rosales www.rogerrosales.com

July 16th, 2007, 07:08 PM	#4
Cary Lee Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Hollywood USA Posts: 128	I use windows xp 64. It is a pain to find drivers for it but I find it very stable. I would forget about Home addition because it is very limited. As for Vista...I personally don't care for it because of all the extra security that was added by M$. I would wait till the bugs are out of it before investing into it. Eventually I would have to switch...but for right now I don't think it is a good investment for a video editing workstation. __________________ Canon XHA1, SGpro,Flip,FF, RR Mattebox, Nebtek V-R70p-HDA with Canon, Nikkor Primes 24mm f2.8, 28mm f2.8, 35mm f2.0, 50mm f1.4, 85mm f1.4, 105mm f1.8, 135mm f2.0, and 300mm f4.0.

July 17th, 2007, 07:07 PM	#7
Jad Meouchy Major Player Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 663	XP x64 going strong for 18 months, works with CS2 and CS3 no problem, and even runs noticeably faster than XP 32. I tried Vista 64 but had so many driver and performance issues that I gave up on it (again) __________________ software engineer

July 18th, 2007, 12:59 PM	#9
Troy Fontaine New Boot Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Brandon, Manitoba, Canada Posts: 11	Be careful recommending the /3GB switch! It is not something to played with lightly as it can cause serious problems (to the point of even preventing a computer from booting!). Some drivers don't play nice with it and if you have a lot of gear hooked up, it could cause you some serious grief. I wouldn't recommend running that switch on a production box, since it could possibly knock it out and then lead to downtime. As well, the 3GB switch is not recommended or supported by Microsoft and is not supported entirely by Adobe's software (some apps do, some don't) and I have no idea about any other software out there. There was a recent article at anandtech.com discussing the whole RAM addressing issue fairly clearly (http://www.anandtech.com/gadgets/showdoc.aspx?i=3034). __________________ Canon XL2a \| RS-72U Filter set \| EDIROL R-09 & Accessories \| Portabrace CTC-3 & RS-XL2

July 7th, 2007, 08:12 AM	#2
John Miller Major Player Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Hillsborough, NC, USA Posts: 968	Not XP Home. Between the others, depends a lot on your software. A 32-bit application can't make use of the extra memory, but if you have multiple 32-bit applications running, they can each grab more than they might on the 32-bit - but still with the 2GB limit for a given process. The other main issue is compatibily of hardware (i.e., are 64-bit drivers available). On a modern (or new) PC, it is less likely to be an issue. I installed x64 on this system and all the hardware was compatible. To me, x64 hits the sweet spot of Windows. I've also got 64-bit Vista, but I'm not so impressed by it.

July 16th, 2007, 09:56 PM	#5
Damon Gaskin Major Player Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Auburn Hills, USA Posts: 217	Hello. I am running and have been running XP Home since I switched to editing and am running a Q6600 with CS3 Prod. Premium and it runs fine. It doesn't from what I have observed have some of the controls to tweek things like Pro, but at the time I was strapped for cash, and since it has worked for me since 2002, I have felt no need to change now. With Vista the way I have read it(sometimes, reading others struggles is enough for me), I will not be switching any time soon. But if I did not have XP Home and was starting from scratch, I may have a different opinion. But depends on which way you want to go. XP Home will definately work, but for ram usage, you would be much better with 64, though, CS3 doesn't utilize it(its only 32 bit). I think though that Pro is pretty cheap these days, so you may want to check the price comparisons between home and pro versions of XP. Damon

July 17th, 2007, 06:47 AM	#6
Bart Walczak Major Player Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Warsaw/Poland Posts: 716	Win 64 works for me perfectly well.

July 21st, 2007, 04:13 AM	#11
Scott Doyle Tourist Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Brisbane Posts: 2	True, you've gotta fiddle with it a bit if it gives problems, but i've been using it in an AutoCAD production environment for the past year without any problems once I fine tuned it to 2.8GB. There's no harm in trying it, just make sure you leave your original boot settings line in the boot.ini file and select it at boot-time if you have to. If worse come to worst, just boot using BartPE or UBCD and modify your boot ini back to what it was (or restore the backup of it you would have made before you mucked with it :). And true, the app must support it also, but if it does, it can make a big difference. __________________ DCS