Going to buy iMac. Want to use WinXP on bootcamp for games; need a few answers.

[qor1979]

Do I need to buy the full Windows XP home edition or can I buy the upgrade edition for half the price? I assume I'll need the full edition for $200. Is windows xp going to run fine on bootcamp? What problems should I expect since I'm using it on Mac? Do I need the additional program for $80 that allows me to use both windows and os X at the same time? How are the windows based games on bootcamp?

I'm going to buy the 3.06ghz 24" and upgrade it to 4gb with memory from macsales.com. Will this setup run games like Call of Duty 4 and Supreme Commander and the like fine? Will it be too choppy to play? What difference would I notice between the Aspyr port of Call of Duty 4 and the original Windows XP version? Will I be fine with XP or will I need Vista for some of the newer games?

Thank you for your time answering me. I hope I was specific enough.

 

[chainprayer]

as long as you have xp with service pack 2 and a valid key everything should run fine. when its in windows, it doesn't know its on a mac.

 

[sickmacdoc]

In answer to your first question NO an upgrade disk will not work. That was designed for folks upgrading from Windows ME etc but will not work as a Boot Camp compatible installation disk. A quote from the Apple Boot Camp Installation Guide is as follows (under the "Things You Need" section)--
"Important:
You must use a single full-install Windows installation disc (Service Pack 2
is required for Windows XP installations). Do not use an upgrade version of Windows
and do not install an earlier version of Windows XP and attempt to update it later to
SP2. Use only 32-bit versions of Windows." BTW- a disk with SP3 will work fine too, even though the quote above only mentions SP2.

What will work just fine though is what Microsoft calls a "System Builders" disk- which most people refer to as an OEM disk. It is a full install disk without the retail box. It comes in a padded manila envelope with the required activation key included within.

While a retail XP Home will cost roughly $199, an OEM version will sell for less than half that-- or even lower than an upgrade disk in a retail package.

Newegg has both XP Home and XP Professional OEM disks that work fine:

Home Edition for $89: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116511&Tpk=32-116-511

Professional Edition for $139: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116515&Tpk=32-116-515

They also have Vista OEMs as well if you are interested- just go to the site and search for Windows Vista OEM and the multitudes of them will come up.

Hopefully you have downloaded the Boot Camp Installation Guide from Apple and will follow it! It is the second entry here: http://support.apple.com/kb/index?page=search&src=support_site.home&q=boot camp

As far as using Fusion or Parallels (which are the main two ways to run Windows in a virtual environment along side OSX) no they are not required. Note that many games will NOT run correctly under them too, so most people that are into gaming will just run Boot Camp with Windows which seems to alleviate a lot of those problems. You should do some reading at Apple's Boot Camp discussion board for specifics- http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=237

 

[auto123]

I'm a windows maniac (except for my g3, the only reason I registered here) and I can tell you that windows benchmarks well on imacs. but have you considered vista? it runs great on machines that are capable of it (unlike the celeron starting models that people complain about a lot)

but that's my 2 cents

 

[qor1979]

Alright now that's what I'm talking about. Ask the right questions and get the right answers. Thanks all.

Now regarding Vista, when you say "machines that can run it" are you referring to Dual Core Intel chips like the one inside the 3.06ghz 24" iMac? I'd be willing to consider Vista if you say it will run fine under bootcamp and on the aforementioned iMac.

My only use for the Windows OS will be for games but some of the ones I want to use are older games. Specifically, I've been waxing nostalgic for the old Sierra Adventure games, Space Quest, King's Quest, Hero Quest and possibly even Police Quest. From what I understand the first two are available as a single disk now for Win XP and I would be very happy to get my hands on them again. Space Quest holds a special place in my heart as it was the first real video game I was exposed to as a child and I've been addicted to gaming ever since.

So if Vista will run well under bootcamp and also run older XP software, I'd be willing to purchase it so I can start reliving some of my old PC gaming days.

-Mac Cube G4 400mhz (Rockin' it old school!)
-Xbox 360 Elite HDMI Monster Ultra 1000 Equipped (xbl gamertag: qor)
-40" LCD 1080p 120hz

 

[sickmacdoc]

Since you primarily want to run older Windows games (which will blow your mind how well they will run in BootCamp! ) be sure to check with the publishers/distributors to make sure they do indeed have Vista compatible versions- or if the single version is Vista compatible before you make your Vista/XP decision. While they most likely are you still need to check! They will of course be fine on XP (assuming they are not old DOS games! ) and you have to ask yourself what you would gain by installing Vista instead of XP if you are mostly going to run games.

I have Vista Home Premium running on a PC laptop but for the little I use it (web browsing and the occasional game) I'm not seeing the advantage.

Good luck however you choose to go. BTW- I would probably feel different if you were planning to run Windows fulltime. If that were the case for me I would probably run Vista too if for no other reason that the eye candy of Aero as it does look nice. Still Windows though, so don't plan to do that in this lifetime.