windows 64bit

[banjosareunderrated]

has anyone tried the beta windows 64bit os? I'm considering installing a new HD and using it but I'm a little afraid that bugs will corrupt my files. any thoughts?

[banjosareunderrated]

1. it's not bad!

well, i burned the iso file and installed it on an old parallel hd that i wasn't using. i have to say, even though i'm a 2000pro diehard, it's nice. for general use, it's not supposed to make a difference---more for large data sets, large rendering and more ram than i can afford. however, there is a noticeable difference in almost everything offline-related. converting 30mb+ Acid files to .mp3 and .wma took about 2/3rds the time as 2000pro. Acid is a 32bit program, so i know it doesn't make sense but I tried it a few times and i swear, it was faster.

i saved a pcmark04 result that i ran in 2000pro and xp64 pro if anyone wants to see it. So far, i've only found 2 bugs: it doesn't work with dlink wireless pci cards, and itunes won't recognize a burning drive even though wmp and nero do. This is RC2 though so I expect those to be fixed.

I'm this/close to going with linux but this release is pretty good. The beta is free for a year and I've heard Longhorn will be out by late '05 (?)

[steve2470]

2. It works well for me. Just don't expect all 32 bit apps to work

under a 64 bit OS. It sucks, but what are you going to do for free ? LOL