Is there are good place for me to go investigate the pro and cons.

I have a home built PC.
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe, AMD 64 3000, 2gb dual channel RAM, several large SATA
drives, XFX 7800 GTX

I am curious about the new 64 bit edition but thought a bit of research was
in order before commiting to an upgrade. Any good place to read up so that I
can anticipate some of the land mines? Asus does support W64 for my m/b so I
think it will work for the most part but I would not want to find that Nero
doesn't work or something unpleasant like that.

Thanks,
Froggie

 

I got most of the useful info I needed right here in the 2 months before I
built my 64 bit machine. You can go from ignorant to fairly well informed
with a few questions to the users here. If you go into this with to your
eyes open you'll do fine...

 

Here is a quick run down:
Some things to remember from Charlies recent web cast:
The initial target audience for XP Professional x64 includes the following:
- Developers
- Gamers
- Graphics, audio and media artists
- Computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM)
- Enthusiast
(It is not recommended for casual users)

Also common issues associated with x64 when it comes to compatibility
include:
No support for 16-bit applications
All hardware device drivers are required to be 64-bit to work on x64
No support for MS-DOS applications
32-Bit Explorer extensions do not work

Others include:
No active desktop in x64
No Microsoft IntelliPoint drivers (popular one here in the ngs)
No firewall client for ISA, also no Novell netware client
Scanners and all-in-one printer driver support can be a problem
No imaging software support

More:
Limited AntiVirus support (supported ones are Avast Home 4.6, NOD 32, AVG,
eTrust 7.1 Trial, Symantec AV 10)
No Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2) in wireless
For NERO users have encountered uninstallation problems, limited and easily
resolved by re-running setup from the CD. (See the post Nero 7 doesnt
uninstall on Win x64 by Wad dated: 11/3/2005 3:44 AM)

So make sure your investment in Windows XP Professional x64 is worth the
possible trade offs, I think most would agree at least the ensure that the
computer is 64 bit enabled. You can give the XP Professional x64 Trial a
trial in a dual boot configuration with XP x86 to see if it really fits your
needs.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/64bit/evaluation/trial.mspx

Also check out the following FAQs by Charlie Russel:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/64bit/russel_x64faq.mspx
--
Andre
Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com
Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre
http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta
FAQ for MS AntiSpy http://www.geocities.com/marfer_mvp/FAQ_MSantispy.htm

 

Andre, eTrust AV 7.1 is not trial. I have been using the final release for
months. Just an FYI.

 

Consider dual booting with XP x86. That way you will not lose access to
programs and devices you need that are not yet supported by x64.

Andre covers the bases pretty well.

Spend the time reading the past postings in this ng and check out
PlanetAMD64.

Read any post or reply by Charlie Russell. Download and view his webcast
at
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=909753#XSLTH3138120120120121120120

 

Thanks for that correction Colin.
--
Andre
Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com
Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre
http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta
FAQ for MS AntiSpy http://www.geocities.com/marfer_mvp/FAQ_MSantispy.htm

 

So, you've got the hardware to do it. What other hardware do you use? What
software do you use? And, ultimately, what do you hope to gain? You're
definitely starting in the right way, by asking first. At this point,
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is not for the casual user. You should
be willing and able to "self support" yourself. For one thing, there is no
MS support, since there's no retail copy. OTOH, there's a really healthy
newsgroup right here, and we're all using x64 and liking it, and we're here
to help.

At the risk of self-promoting, I'd suggest you take a look at the
presentation I did this week.
http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?id=909753
It covers all the basics, I think.

 

Charlie,
I am comfortable "self-supporting" myself. It can certainly be frustrating
at times but it is rewarding too.

The PC in question has a pair of Western Digital Raptor 37mb hard drives in
a RAID 0 array as the boot drive plus a pair of Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300gb
hard drives in a RAID 1 array as the data drive. There are two optical
drives, a I/O Magic 16X Lightscribe Dual Layer ATA on the primary master IDE
and a Plexor SATA on SATA 0. There is a SOYO card reader.

The upgrade is so that I can test software compatibility on one of my rigs.
I have several PCs built on the same motherboard.

I have downloaded your webcast. It is an 'exe' file which was a bit
surprising.

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I generally do not care for dual
boot machines. I always seem to forget which OS I have booted in and load
the wrong software at some point.

I am using Office 2003, mIRC, Trillian (IM program), Maxthon (browser), Nero
6, and Roxio. There are a few utilities loaded too. Most of these are
modern programs but I am not sure how to determine if they are 16, 32, or 64
bit. I suppose I will find out by "hanging around" for a bit

Kurt

 

Darrell Gorter wrote:
How To Determine what version/platform files are

Filever.exe is a utility that allows you to determine which platform a file
is.
Filever.exe shows you the attributes of a file.
Filever.exe shows the file versions of each file.

Filever.exe ships in the support.cab on the Windows CD.
<cd-rom-drive letter>\support\tools\support.cab

Filever is 32-bit on 32-bit Windows and filever is 64-bit on the Windows
X64 cds.
Switches
filever [/S] [/V] [/E] [/X] [/B] [/A] [/D] [[drive:][path][filename]]

/S Displays files in specified directory and all subdirectories.
/V List verbose version information if available.
/E List executables only.
/X Displays short names generated for non-8dot3 file names.
/B Uses bare format (no dir listing).
/A Don't display file attributes.
/D Don't display file date and time.

The output shown for example: from running filever *.* /B
-rash W32i64 DLL - 5.2.3790.0 shp 9,728 03-25-2003
c:\windows\kbdhept.dll

The first section -rash shows the file attributes: (-rash )There are 5
positions for attributes ( Directory,read-only,archive,system,hidden) They
are always in the same position and multiple attributes can be shown.

The output is virtually the same for the 32-bit and for the 64-bit filever.
The 32-bit filever however is not aware of X64 files so the header is
displayed differently.
32-bit filever.exe will run on 64-bit Windows since it will run in WOW64.
64-bit Filever will not run on 32-bit Windows.

These are the headers in the second position: (W32i64)
Itanium File - W32i64 ( reported the same with 32-it and 64-bit filever)
X64 File - Wx64 (64-bit Filever reports the x64 file header as Wx64
X64 File - W32 (32-bit filever reports x64 file headers as W32 without the
i)
X86 (32-bit) File - W32i ( reported the same with 32-it and 64-bit filever)
16 bit file - W16 ( reported the same with 32-it and 64-bit filever)
MS-DOS - DOS

Type of file: (DLL)

Then there is the language section: (ENU)

The next section is the version of the file: (5.2.3790.0)

The next section shp(shipping) in this example is the shipping version of
the file as opposed to the dbg( debug version). This will be blank on
directories and text files for example.

File Size (9,728)

File Date (03-25-2003)
File Location (c:\windows\kbdhept.dll)


Examples of the various platforms for Windows files.
Both of these files are for the x64 platform files

32-bit filever.exe output for an x64 file
--a-- W32 APP ENU 5.2.3790.1830 shp 88,064 03-24-2005
c:\windows\notepad.exe

64-bit Filever.exe output for an x64 file
--a-- Wx64 APP ENU 5.2.3790.1830 shp 22,016 03-24-2005
C:\windows\rsdiag.exe

Directory, not a file so it's platform idependent.
d---- - - - - - 0 08-31-2005
[c:\Windows\inf]

Text based file so it's platform independent. Note this has the read-only
and archive attributes on as well.
-ra-- - - - - - 7,895 08-23-2001
c:\Windows\inf\1394.inf

This is an Itanium file. Note the file has the read-only, archive, system
and hidden attributes enabled
-rash W32i64 DLL - 5.2.3790.0 shp 9,728 03-25-2003
c:\x64ver\kbdhept.dll

This is a 16-bit Windows file.
--a-- W16 DLL ENU 1.7.0.0 shp 94,784 03-24-2005
c:\x64ver\twain.dll

This is an MS-DOS file:
--a-- DOS - - - - 39,274 8/23/2001 c:\windows\system32\mem.exe

Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

--
Andre
Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com
Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre
http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta
FAQ for MS AntiSpy http://www.geocities.com/marfer_mvp/FAQ_MSantispy.htm

 

Sorry about the format -- I don't control that, obviously.

So, you're going to need F6 drivers for the RAID, but that shouldn't be an
issue. (and by the way, RAID0 as a boot drive??? -- I would NOT do that. But
then, I hate RAID0, since it actually increases your exposure to
catastrophic failure.)

The SATA Plextor might be an issue -- I seem to remember some issues with
DVD on SATA in x64, but don't have the message to hand any more. And it may
be OK now. I'd double check with Plextor on it, though. The card reader may
be a problem.

Office 2k3 is no problem. Nero (except for the packet writing) works fine.
Don't know about the others.

 

Here is a Plextor site about the supposed compatibility of the drive, but
please note that they say the ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe has been reported
compatible but I have had a problem with the system freezing when the drive
is attached and one other here had the same problem. Numerous persons
posting on the NewEgg site cite a similar problem. Lots of boards not
compatible, but if it works on x86 it will probably work on x64.
Sample: I have an ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe with an Athlon 64 4000.
I give this DVD recorder 3 stars because its obvious it works well for
others.I tried updating the firmware.I flashed the BIOS..nothing works.When
i place a DVD in the Plextor,and attempt to access it,it hangs my whole
computer,windows task manager will not even work.
I read the warnings given here by others,but i failed to adhere to them.

 

Thanks for the followup. I thought I remembered problems with that Plextor.
Too bad, they've always been one of my preferred vendors. Well, hopefully
they'll get it all sorted.

 

No worries, I will swap out the Plexor into another machine.

 

Good. Hope it works on one of the compatable boards.