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patseguin

macrumors 68000
Aug 28, 2003
1,713
513
bob5820 said:
When using bootcamp to dual boot OSX and WinXP on a MacPro, is it possible to use XP Home, or do you need XP Pro. I'm just wondering how XP Home would handle 2 dualcore processors.

I thought Home and Pro were the same except for the ability to join a domain. I do notice that when I bring up the performance monitor, it shows 2 processors, not 4.
 

bob5820

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
They are basically the same. Besides the joining a domain the other difference as I understood it is that Pro can use 2 physical processors while home can use only one. A dual core CPU is still considered one physical processor in that it only uses one socket. This seems to be supported by what you are seeing. My concern was that the presence of 2 CPU sockets would prevent Home from booting at all. This does not seem to be the case.
 

patseguin

macrumors 68000
Aug 28, 2003
1,713
513
bob5820 said:
They are basically the same. Besides the joining a domain the other difference as I understood it is that Pro can use 2 physical processors while home can use only one. A dual core CPU is still considered one physical processor in that it only uses one socket. This seems to be supported by what you are seeing. My concern was that the presence of 2 CPU sockets would prevent Home from booting at all. This does not seem to be the case.

Yeah, well I guess I made a big boo-boo when I bought Home then since it is not using both processors. The other thing is that the hard drives run pretty slow and in PIO mode. I'll probably pick up a copy of Pro when Leopard comes out.
 

bob5820

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
It kind of depends on what you are using Windows for. If its just games then the fact that its only seeing one dualcore is not such a big deal. Open the performance monitor while your in Windows and see how much its even using the second of the two core it's showing. If Windows isn't utilising the second core there is not much sense in getting Pro just to have another 2 cores that are not going to be used.
 

tinydancer

macrumors regular
Aug 31, 2004
112
0
North Carolina
I'm using XP Home with bootcamp on my new MBP. It works just fine. I don't know how things would be different running Pro, but Home is doing fine.
 

CyberPrey

macrumors regular
Aug 10, 2006
209
0
IGH, MN
Windows XP Home supports ONE processer, REGARDLESS of the number of Cores...

Windows XP Professional supports up to TWO processer, REGARDLESS of the number of cores...

Thats one of the main differences between home/pro... that was taken from the FAQ on http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/highlights/multicore.mspx

IMHO, if you spent the bucks on a Mac Pro, spend the bucks on XP Professional to get full support out of your system.
 

rick98761

macrumors 6502
Feb 18, 2005
385
6
Kansas City, MO
CyberPrey said:
Windows XP Home supports ONE processer, REGARDLESS of the number of Cores...

Windows XP Professional supports up to TWO processer, REGARDLESS of the number of cores...

Thats one of the main differences between home/pro... that was taken from the FAQ on http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/highlights/multicore.mspx

IMHO, if you spent the bucks on a Mac Pro, spend the bucks on XP Professional to get full support out of your system.



Yes to confirm what he said, you need xp pro to use all 4 cores. I should know cause I accidently used Home the first time I installed. It only showed two processors in device manager. Now that I installed Pro I have 4 processors in device manager. Now if only I could get the HD running better so it doesn't take 10 minutes to load up a map in prey, fear, etc.
 

CyberPrey

macrumors regular
Aug 10, 2006
209
0
IGH, MN
If you get that part figured out, I have a feeling the ENTIRE Mac Pro userbase will love you to death....

I would personally buy you a case of beer (brand of your choice!!!)....

I'm pretty bummed that I can't run Guild Wars very well..... or anything else that I would dual-boot into Winblowz for.... And Neverwinter Nights 2 is almost out (for the PC, NOT osx... dang it!!)........

DMA Mode.. DMA Mode.. Where fore art thou DMA Mode......
 

bob5820

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
This is how I'm looking at it -
1. I already ahve a copy of XP home
2. I dont see any benefit in getting pro if all I'm going to use Win XP for is playing games.
3. I started this thread to verfiy that XP home even run on the Mac pro, I can accept only being able to use one socket in Windows. Thanks to those whop confirmed XP home will run.
 
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