which windows is more stable ?

[10-Dee-Q]

hi , i just bought MBP unibody 2.4
anyway i want to install windows to play games and back up / sync my nokia handphones using nokia PC suites only.

so which windws is more recomended and stable?

vista or XP ?
32 or 64 bit ?

and also will 30 GB be enough ?
i dont plan on keeping any data on my windows partition though .

and i'm planiing to use it with boot camp + parallel/fusion

thx

 

[gumbyx84]

Based on my experiences, both x86 (32bit) and x64 (64bit) will run without stability issues. I would recommend against running WinXP 64bit as Apple's Boot Camp drivers do not support it. They only work with Vista x64.

As for the OS, I would go with XP. Vista is just a resource hog and isn't worth the headaches if you just need it games and syncing. I currently running the Win7 beta and I am really liking it. My apps run without any major issues and the one game I installed (Megaten: Imagine Online) runs without issues natively (Locks up entire system when running under VM), so you can give that a try if you want (thought it will only work till August if you have a key and some people here are saying they cannot get their drives to install).

As for the need for a x64 OS, I don't see the reason for it. XP x86 is enough for what you need, so I would just stick with that.

 

[fluidedge]

with all due respect if you're debabting about x86 or x64 you probably don't need x64. Unless you want to future proof yourself.

Try the Windows 7 beta - i'm loving it.

 

[dubhe]

Can't comment no Windows 7 but I personally run XP Home on my MacBook and it does all that I need just fine. I run it in VMFusion but before when I used Boot Camp I gave it 16GB and there was always about 10GB spare. Can't see why it would need as much as 30GB. But, once you choose your partition size you are stuck with it.

 

[digitard]

I'd say go Windows XP 32-Bit. Uses less resources, and since you're running under 4gb of total memory you don't really "need" to go to the 64-bit platform.

Really the only time I recommend 64-bit to anyone is if they're running 4+gb of total memory (RAM + Video) at which point they'll need to go to XP/Vista 64 to utilize the 4gb+ of RAM + video. 32-Bit has a 4gb total memory cap. So if you have 4gb of RAM, and a 512mb video card then you'll only have access to just under 3.5gb of your memory, unless you go to 64-bit which has something like 128gb or something crazy high like that.

Since you're running 2gb of system memory go with XP mainly for the lower resources.

**Edit: Wow. After re-reading that it's a cluster! lol. Short version
- Under 4gb of total system memory stay with 32-bit XP
- Over 4gb of total system memory (including video) go to 64-bit.

D.

 

[gumbyx84]

Can't comment no Windows 7 but I personally run XP Home on my MacBook and it does all that I need just fine. I run it in VMFusion but before when I used Boot Camp I gave it 16GB and there was always about 10GB spare. Can't see why it would need as much as 30GB. But, once you choose your partition size you are stuck with it.

what do you mean? You can easily delete a partition with Disk Utility and just make a new one with Boot Camp.

digitard, I'm pretty sure the RAM limitation on 32bit systems is only for the RAM. If you got proof otherwise, post it. I want to know if I am wrong or not.

 

[digitard]

what do you mean? You can easily delete a partition with Disk Utility and just make a new one with Boot Camp.

digitard, I'm pretty sure the RAM limitation on 32bit systems is only for the RAM. If you got proof otherwise, post it. I want to know if I am wrong or not.

Nope. It's total memory. With the price of RAM dropping to insanely cheap area's people are finding this out. You get 4gb of RAM, and a 512mb video card and check out the system properties in Windows you'll see it only reads you having like 3.5gb of RAM showing. It's total physical memory.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa366778.aspx

 

[gumbyx84]

Nope. It's total memory. With the price of RAM dropping to insanely cheap area's people are finding this out. You get 4gb of RAM, and a 512mb video card and check out the system properties in Windows you'll see it only reads you having like 3.5gb of RAM showing. It's total physical memory.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa366778.aspx

I only see physical memory listed at that link. Says nothing about "total memory" including graphics card". I see your point though, but wouldn't the graphics card mem be totally separate from main RAM? I just don't see how it would be included.

Well, just proved myself wrong.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=3124

That link explains it perfectly. Looks like I will be installing 64bit Win7 beta later tonight. I hope the drivers I have here work. : crosses fingers:

 

[digitard]

It's all good. Since it's the OS it's talking about all system memory that the OS identifies.

Yeah, I have Vista 64 running on my Gaming PC (IE nice rig only used for gaming since its got more power than my MBP for gaming, but all that power is ONLY used to game now that I got my MBP) because of the 4gb threshold that I had in 32-bit XP. I chose Vista over XP 64 due to current support and so forth.

But yeah... I just got my Windows 7 64-BIT key from MS so we'll see how that goes on my PC first, and then my MBP.

 

[gumbyx84]

It's all good. Since it's the OS it's talking about all system memory that the OS identifies.

Yeah, I have Vista 64 running on my Gaming PC (IE nice rig only used for gaming since its got more power than my MBP for gaming, but all that power is ONLY used to game now that I got my MBP) because of the 4gb threshold that I had in 32-bit XP. I chose Vista over XP 64 due to current support and so forth.

But yeah... I just got my Windows 7 64-BIT key from MS so we'll see how that goes on my PC first, and then my MBP.

Nice. If you beat me to it, tell me how it works out. I planed on doing it tonight, but its late on this site of the map (East Coast). If I pass out before doing it, I will try it tomorrow morning. Hopefully you can post your "stability" report here before then? :hopes so:

 

[digitard]

Nice. If you beat me to it, tell me how it works out. I planed on doing it tonight, but its late on this site of the map (East Coast). If I pass out before doing it, I will try it tomorrow morning. Hopefully you can post your "stability" report here before then? :hopes so:

Probably wont throw it on til later this week. I'm going to toss it on my PC first, and my new 1.5TB HDD (my new media drive) wont be here til Tuesday so I wont have an extra "toss an OS on it" drive til then.

After I see how it in general runs I'll wipe my Bootcamp XP and then throw it on the MBP.

 

[gumbyx84]

64Bit install update

Probably wont throw it on til later this week. I'm going to toss it on my PC first, and my new 1.5TB HDD (my new media drive) wont be here til Tuesday so I wont have an extra "toss an OS on it" drive til then.

After I see how it in general runs I'll wipe my Bootcamp XP and then throw it on the MBP.

Well I installed it this morning and it works! Had a few issues with drive conflicts (think it was because I installed them through VM instead of nativley). The Boot Camp Vista x64 drivers work wonderfully, though you still need in manually download and install the RealTek audio drivers. I have to admit that it seems to run a bit faster on x64. Might be my imagination, but Firefox and Megaten: Online seem to launch faster then they did with x86.

One thing i will mention is that Win7 x64 take much more space then x86. With the same apps installed, I had about 9.5GB free with x86, but only around 2.57GB after installing x64. Not too happy as I like to have at least 10GB free when running an OS. For now I will deal with the ~3GB of space. If needed, I will again take space from OS X and add it to the NTFS partition.

: sigh: The more I mess with dual-booting my Mac, the more I want to get a bigger Hard Drive for my MBP. : sighs: Just dont have the money to buy a 500GB drive and then pay to get it installed...

 

[Nermal]

Nope. It's total memory. With the price of RAM dropping to insanely cheap area's people are finding this out. You get 4gb of RAM, and a 512mb video card and check out the system properties in Windows you'll see it only reads you having like 3.5gb of RAM showing. It's total physical memory.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa366778.aspx

Heheheh. One of my friends started to build up a system with 4 GB of RAM and a 1 GB video card. I told him that he'd have less than 3 GB usable memory due to the 4 GB limit. When I told him that VRAM is counted as part of the limit, he flat out told me that I was wrong and that it didn't apply to his system because it was a dedicated video card and not onboard.

A few days later once he'd received the parts, assembled the computer and installed the OS, I asked how much memory was accessible. 2.7 GB

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

x64 (64-bit) usually takes more space. I set aside a 20GB partition for Windows. Windows 7 Beta x86 (32-bit) took around 10GB leaving 9.xGB remaining. x64 version of the beta left around 5.5GB remaining.

 

[argos4000]

with all due respect if you're debabting about x86 or x64 you probably don't need x64. Unless you want to future proof yourself.

Try the Windows 7 beta - i'm loving it.

... How did you get the driver for Windows 7???