Multitasking helped by Win64 for Smithfield 820

[JakeDeez]

Hey-

I can't figure this out, do I really need to upgrade to XP Pro 64 to take advantage of my new Smithfield 820? Mostly I am wondering if I need to use it to run most of the background tasks and current threads using the different cores.

Thanks

Jake

[ewitte]

Hey-

I can't figure this out, do I really need to upgrade to XP Pro 64 to take advantage of my new Smithfield 820? Mostly I am wondering if I need to use it to run most of the background tasks and current threads using the different cores.

Thanks

Jake

It can definately be improved. I've had a few instances where my computer hung for 10 seconds or so when I clicked on a realtime task with affinity set to CPU2. The first CPU was not even being touched.

Eric

[JakeDeez]

It can definately be improved. I've had a few instances where my computer hung for 10 seconds or so when I clicked on a realtime task with affinity set to CPU2. The first CPU was not even being touched.

Eric

But I mean, will xp pro 64 help with that? Or do you already have it?

[ksuohio]

Hey-

I can't figure this out, do I really need to upgrade to XP Pro 64 to take advantage of my new Smithfield 820? Mostly I am wondering if I need to use it to run most of the background tasks and current threads using the different cores.

Thanks

Jake

The OS will handle the threads for you. As long as Windows is seeing the multiple cores, then you have nothing to worry about.

[rock]

The 64-bit architecture and dual-core architecture are two separate features of that CPU. The dual core will work in anything but XP Home (for now), but you need a 64-bit OS to take advantage of the larger addressable space and to run 64-bit apps.

So the short answer is: Upgrade to x64 if you want, but you don't have to. You should be plenty happy with XP Pro and that processor.