Win XP 64-bit edition - any good?

[Paulie Phonick]

I am about to get a notebook - most probably an Athlon XP 64 based Acer Aspire 1501. I was just wondering if it would be a good idea to run it under Windows XP 64-bit edition - anybody tried that? Are there any general problems/stability/compatibility issues? Has anybody experienced problems with VST(i) plugins and hosts?

There's a paragraph in WinXP 64 installation notes saying it's not compatible with the .NET framework and apps with 16-bit installers - do you know of any hosts/plugins that could be affected by that?

[ericj23]

I thought the problemw ith 64 bit OS'es is that they need 64 bit drivers for your PCI cards - and while there is 64 bit betas for graphics cards doing the rounds Ive not heard of anyone doing one for soundcards quite yet.

But im quite willing to admit im speaking out of a hole in my neck.

[Guckli]

I use the s/p-dif out on my a mobo going directly to my ews88mt in my xp32-box, so that's not the problem here. But you're right in pointing out that particular pitfall. That said some 'legacy' 32-bit drivers will actually work ok under xp64 (in 32-bit mode of course), but I don't know of any compiled success/failure list anywhere, especially not for soundcards, so you're basically down to trial and error.
I recommend Suse Linux 64bit, apps compiled for thiss platform seems to work without a hitch until now.

[Ixox]

I think it a very bad idea to use the windows XP64bits before it is officialy released and before you are sure all the drivers you need are OK with this OS.

[Miles1981]

And 64 bits is not useful for users now, as there are not many applications with native 64 bits code - since the drivers are not up to date, it's logical... -

And I don't own a 64-bits XP version.