A 64bit question. To be or not to be?

[CM786]

Hi guys,

 

I just rang Microsoft up to get some serial number for some new licenses we have bought. I was offered license codes for either 64bit or 32Bit versions of Windows and Windows Server.

 

I'd really like to try the 64bit version, but not sure if its worth the hassle.

 

This is for a small primary school ICT suite (15 clients - 1 server)

 

Server

Athlon X2 Dual Core,

2Gb DDR Ram,

Asus A8N-SLi

250Gb SATA HDD

Radeon X300 Graphics Card

 

Clients

Biostar IDEQ N1

http://www.biostar.com.tw/products/barebone/ideq/n1/index.php3

AMD Sempron 64Bit 2800+

1Gb DDR Ram

80Gb SATA HDD

nVIDIA GeForce 6100 Graphics

 

Their seem to be 64bit drivers for everything inc Printer.. Is it worth it?

 

The main software to be run will be Office 2003, Spark Island, 2Simple, SmartBoard software.

 

Any advice appreciated. I'm tempted, but will it just be not worth the hassle?

 

Thanks,

[indie]

Are there 64bit drivers for the Smartboards? Remember everything that needs a driver needs to be 64bit compatable. x64 will also not run 16bit code, be sure every piece of software you have works.

 

We've got 2 rooms of x64 machines, the only thing I can't get working is the USB towers for the Robolab stuff. Lego say they won't be supporting x64. We managed to work with Keep IT easy for the FlowGo drivers.

 

Other things like Adobe Acrobat Pro wont fully work as it's printer driver isnt 64bit, Flash Paper drivers don't work either, i'm sure there's lots more too!

 

To be perfectly honest I'd go with 32bit, I only went 64 because I couldnt get RIS to work on our new (at the time) Dell 370 Workstations, the SATA controller in them is weird and no matter what I tried I couldn't slipstream the drivers into the install image.

[pshuttle]

Why dont you try the free trial? I have been using it for a couple of weeks at home dual booting with 32bit XP pro.

 

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/64bit/facts/trial.mspx

 

Seems ok but not really massively quicker than ordinary XP. It is meant to be quite good if you have more than 2gb of ram though.

 

Pete

[pshuttle]

Also don't forget that not all programs are compatible with the 64 bit edition. Frustrating really - it is probably just better if you wait until Vista is released.

 

Pete

[CyberNerd]

Considering the FUD wrt drivers/compatibility etc on linux it seems ironic that 64bit XP is plagued with driver/compatibility problems yet all the 64bit Linux machines I've used have been hassle free.

[DMcCoy]

My recent experiences with x64 at home have mostly been unplesant ones. Its default install is broken for example.

 

Many dcom errors, then you have to go through the KB to change all the security settings on dcom components and services so that it actually works. Creative x64 X-Fi drivers are beyond broken creating a most disturbing crackle and time distorotion when using 4GB of ram.

 

Logitech x64 software is broken.

 

iTunes is broken (the cd recording drivers produce some wonderful errors in the event log).

 

There are some positive points!

 

It can see all my ram (xp only uses 3 of 4GB due to 32bit memory allocation issues).

Its boots very fast!

Feels more responsive (such a subjective point, but it did)

 

Don't forget x64 is built on server 2003, not a 64 bit version of xp, so it has a few quirks.

[Geoff]

I'd stay away from WinXP64 until at least the next service pack (which is likely to fix everything).

 

W2k3 64bit is worth the effort though. Just watch out for print driver compatability.

[Michael]

Going 64Bit is more hassle than anything at the current time. I see no real advantage upgrading to 64Bit, unless you have to address more than 4GB of memory. 64Bit will address upto 128GB.

 

I would consider using 64Bit on a server, as Windows Server 2007 I am sure will focus much more on 64Bit, in addition to Exchange 2007 which will be 64Bit only.

 

The majority of machines worldwide are still 32Bit only and without a doubt Windows Vista will sell in its 32Bit version much more than the 64Bit version.

[indie]

Yes printer's are still a sore issue for me. HP decided they weren't going to support out 5500 Colour Laser which was less than 12 months old until I wrote a nice letter to somebody senior. Again we had to work with them to get x64 drivers written.

 

To be fair we were very early adopters of x64, we've had it since last June, software problems that we did have are now sorted. I've not seen any of the DCOM problems and the machines do generally feel fast, they're loaded with software and haven't been reinstalled since last June!

[Geoff]

I suppose if you can justify it, your best off having a 32bit printer server. Perhaps by replacing an old box with a shiny new 64bit server.

[CM786]

Ok...I'm even more confused now! 8O

 

Would the general consenous be to go with Windows XP 32bit for the clients and Server 2003 64Bit for the Server? As you can tell, with 15 clients (for now) the server is hardly going to be pushed, whether it is 64bit or 32bit.

 

The printer (Konica Minolta 2430DL) has Windows XP64/Server 64bit drivers.

 

The SMARTBoard software should be fine (just rang and asked)

 

hm....

[indie]

I suppose if you can justify it, your best off having a 32bit printer server. Perhaps by replacing an old box with a shiny new 64bit server.

 

We have a 32bit print server, but it still needs to hand out 64bit drivers to the 64bit clients connecting to it!

[indie]

Ok...I'm even more confused now!

If all your server hardware is supported go with 64bit on the server, this way you can access over 4GB of RAM if you ever need to.

 

I'd stick with 32bit clients for now, you won't run into any of the x64 problems we've encountered.

 

I'm going to check that the USB smartboards do actually work with x64, i've learnt that not many people actually understand the differences between 32bit windows and x64. It took 12 e-mails (and i'll post them here for comedy value) for Fluke to understand that I needed 64bit drivers for my CableIQ tester. They just kept saying download the drivers off our website which or course were just for 32bit.

[CM786]

OK.. so I'll go with XP 32Bit clients and Server 2003 R2 64Bit.

 

Thanks for the help

[Geoff]

I suppose if you can justify it, your best off having a 32bit printer server. Perhaps by replacing an old box with a shiny new 64bit server.

 

We have a 32bit print server, but it still needs to hand out 64bit drivers to the 64bit clients connecting to it!

 

Sorry, I missed the bit about your 64bit clients. I had assumed everyone was still using 32bit clients.