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"64bit processors"

Do 64bit processors, such as Athlon 64 3400+, need a 64bit OS, such as Windows XP 64bit edition?
Or is 64bit edition OS the colour or something?

Please help me.

Do 64bit processors, such as Athlon 64 3400+, need a 64bit OS, such as Windows XP 64bit edition?
Or is 64bit edition OS the colour or something?

Please help me.

64bit processors do not need a 64bit OS to operate.

Although they don't need it, they should in theory run faster on it. In reality, it depends how stable the OS is. The experimental version of Windows XP-64 bit is nowhere near as fast as XP Pro on my machine. Lack of drivers, 32-bit emulation, and it still being experimental are all reasons for this.

So if i was to buy the Athlon 64 whatever version, and use winXP Pro, would it be faster then an Athlon Xp?

Erm, probably slightly, though that's more likely to be due to a higher low level cache - 1MB on the XP3200 64-bit.

The real difference in speed will come with XP 64-bit though.

Is it advised to buy a 64 bit processor?

Yes they are blisteringly fast

Yup! Fantasticly fast for a small price premium - though I still have the Socket 754 board rather than the new 939. :(

wow, so if i was to buy one, what ram and mother board should i get, (easy prices please) And some links would be much appreciated!

Ok the best board at the moment is: ALBATRON K8X800 Pro II
£99.58 unc vat

With the RAM it doesnt matter much, the performence difference between the most expensive and the cheapest is only about 2-3%, try and match the FSB of the A64 with the speed of the ram, eg DDR333 etc

[URL]http://www.albatron.com.tw/english/it/mb/specification.asp?pro_id=79[/URL]

[URL]http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ALBATRON+K8X800+Pro+II&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&meta=cr%3DcountryUK%7CcountryGB[/URL] for prices