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Bobinovich
01-Apr-10, 18:32
Not so much Technical Support required as moral!

I'm contemplating my first foray into 64-bit Windows and looking at putting together a nice self-build i7-920 based system. However, my trusty Athlon 3200+ XP system, while long in the tooth (close on 5 years old would you believe it!), is still doing everything I want it to do and at a reasonable speed.

The question I'm putting to myself is... am I going to see enough of a difference to justify the purchase?

Apart from a lot of design work (CorelDraw 11) my main uses are pretty much like everyone else - Office, Internet, E-mail, web design, etc. so nothing that's really going to tax the new beast. No video, 3D or games to push it at all.

I just feel that I should become more familiar with the new OS (having bypassed Vista for some reason :)) as it becomes more popular, and think it would be nice to have the power there for anything I MAY decide to do in the forseeable future.

I could opt for a cheaper pre-made i3 or i5 based system and would probably still see a good improvement, but what guy, given the option, doesn't like the feel of 'more power' lol

Any thoughts techies?

chiel
01-Apr-10, 18:45
when you say athlon +3200 do you mean a barton core one??

Bobinovich
01-Apr-10, 18:49
Aye it is indeed an Athlon XP 3200+ Barton core

chiel
01-Apr-10, 19:01
Bob. i had the same one,i still use the same Barton as you,now what i did was,d/loaded windows 7 when it was up for testing through MSDN,dual booted it to see the difference between X.P. and '7'.but obviously 32 bit,but it worked well ,not too much speed difference at all,compared to vista ultimate which is/was too system heavy,does this help?

Bobinovich
01-Apr-10, 19:09
Thanks for that - I was looking more for whether it was justifiable buying a complete new Win 7 PC, rather than contemplating upgrading my XP system, or running it as dual-boot.

From experience of previous change-overs (and the main reason why I don't change them too often), I would need a week or two crossover period with both systems running (through a KVM switch) so that I could customise the new system to feel like the old one, as I don't want to interrupt my current work-flow too much.

chiel
01-Apr-10, 19:15
Bob,understood,and to my mind more power etc,is always justifiable ;)

RecQuery
01-Apr-10, 22:04
The problem is Windows is new to 64-bit stuff, you'll need to make sure the hardware has 64-bit drivers for it before putting anything together.

Sun Solaris stuff has had 64-bit since the 90's and Linux has had it for a while... depends if the applications take advantage of it really. I've noticed improvements with server stuff but thats about it.

Bobinovich
01-Apr-10, 22:36
I've had a quick check and the most important item, my Xerox laser, is supported in Win 7 64-bit. My Canon scanner isn't but was inexpensive so can easily be replaced, same with my webcam (not that it gets a lot of use anyway). My Netgear NAS shouldn't be affected as it's network connected. That's pretty much it so connected hardware shouldn't be a problem.

However as you rightly say, the software I currently use is all 32-bit so there's no real advantage from that point. To make the most of the hardware I'd need to upgrade CorelDraw as it's my main power-use package and that would be a good few hundred pounds more :confused.

Still swithering...

dx100uk
02-Apr-10, 02:29
well i've got to say that even if the progs or old perifs are 32bit, most systems i've gone over to on 64bit have seen a vast improvement in performance & speed etc.

though you cetainly need the ram >4Gb too though.

if you wish to trial it bob, pm me as i've got legit 64bit ultimate OS discs & keys under bizspark for just that purpose.

yours

dx

Bobinovich
02-Apr-10, 09:50
Thanks DX but if I'm gonna go for it then I'll just go the whole hog. I'd need to buy in the components anyway, so the OS only adds a bit to that.

I'm going for 6Gb which should be plenty for what I do (yes, famous last words I know!) and seeing that the i7-930 is only a few pounds more I think I might as well opt for it too!

I know you're right about the overall speed increase making a vast difference, but hopefully as the programs catch up with 64-bit it'll be even more pronounced.

Just had a laugh though - looking at the respective CPU benchmarks for the two processors, my current Athlon XP 3200+ gets 470 while the i7-930 gets a staggering 5845. It will be most interesting to see the two running the same application side by side & comparing!

Thanks all - think I'm gonna go for it :D

Niall Fernie
09-Apr-10, 09:27
if you're gonna have a spare PC why not give ubuntu a trial and see how you get on with Inkscape, the closest match to CorelDraw that's out there although Scribus should be better for DTP. Worth a look, no better price than free.

Bobinovich
09-Apr-10, 22:56
Unfortunately I need to use CorelDraw and other programs for compatibility with customers, and genuinely don't have time to learn / mess about with a new OS, applications, etc. or I'd give it a go.

Good news is that all the bits are here including a sexy lookin' Thermaltake V9 case (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/191868) so I'll be making a start on the new build hopefully on Sunday. It's taking lots of will power not to get going sooner, but I have my kids this week so there's no time or peace to consider it until then!

Bobinovich
12-Apr-10, 00:13
Well the beast is purring away nicely in my workshop with everything running at a nice speed :D.

Had a few issues with the build. First was because the PSU goes to the bottom of the case while the 4-pin 12V power connector on the motherboard was right at the top, the cable on the PSU just wasn't long enough! Temporarily I've put a molex to 4-pin converter on but I'll add a wee extension cable next time I'm ordering. The other problem was that there were no 90deg SATA power connectors on the PSU so the hard drive wouldn't fit in the side-facing slots. However I was able to switch it round to the other side and it did then fit using standard straight SATA connectors.

Anyhoo, it'll take a bit of time to transfer everything and get the settings just right, but I'm looking forward to putting it through it's paces alongside my Win XP system for comparison.

Thanks to everyone for their input.