X64 on a newbies computer

jpom

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I'm building a gaming computer for a friend of mine. I don't consider him to be technologically competent. What would you suggest, XP or XP64?? I don't really want a call every second night because something isn't working on XP64, and wouldn't really trust him in a duel boot situation. On the other hand will XP64 make a huge difference in performance??

Any thoughts would be appreciated,
TIA

James
 
Stick with XP for the time-being. Wait until Longhorn is out before moving to 64-bit OS as then there will be a lot more 64-bit drivers available for hardware.
 
definetly stick with XP.....to many problems can arise with it at the moment.
 
Cool then I think that's what i will do. It will probably save both me and him a good deal of aggrevation.

Thanks All
 
I have no problems with x64 at the moment, but it is new ground and XP is pretty damn stable these days.
 
Chances are if you feel he is not that skilled he is gonna be calling anyways .. LOLOL
 
Electronic Punk said:
I have no problems with x64 at the moment, but it is new ground and XP is pretty damn stable these days.

Yes but you're used to your computer crashing all the time :laugh:

For stability/crashless existence, stick to XP for now :cool:
 
Electronic Punk said:
I have no problems with x64 at the moment, but it is new ground and XP is pretty damn stable these days.

Yeah, but if you're talking a complete n00b, best not to add to the headaches... Someone was correct, he'll probably be calling quite a bit anyhow. It'd sorta be like this one person a friend of mine was helping on b.net. The person needed essential hand holding to figure out how to create a game, how to them fast enough to get into a lvling run before it fills, which monsters to kill, how to equip items, why one shouldn't fall for scams. He needed help figuring out how to kill, how to click his mouse, umm just about everything :D Luckily this guy I play with was in the same house as him, as the descriptions didn't always help. He had to walk over and show him a lot of this stuff too...

I've had people call me for tech support because they weren't sure what a folder is, how to install a program, how to start a program, etc. Mind you from a few thousand miles away :eek: Any way to minimize these calls (one would be bound to get anyhow) and have them feel at least a bit more confident, I'd be all for :)
 
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xp64 is more stable than xp32. Period. :)

a n00b will have just as many problems with xp32 as 64 so it makes no difference

however some games have issues with how xp64 rports itself to installers and dont install/run.

Best to stick to xp32 to reduce install issues at the moment.
 
It's probably too late, but never build a computer for a noob. Life is too short and they are too stupid. I restrict my free support to:

-finding good prices on hardware
-advising second generation PC types on what and how to build
-directing people to OSNN

and I still get in trouble... :( :dead:

BTW You have already lost. If you go 32 bit he will blame you for being out of date within a year. If you go 64 bit he will blame every mistake he makes on the new, unproven OS you selected.

PPS If the comp is for a she not a he, it will be even worse, lol.
 
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The only crashes (2) on my x64 system where caused by the latest purevideo decoder, and I went straight to nvidia and moaned, then a new version came out.
 
Well it's true that he'll probably be calling me no matter what, but that said at least if he has 32bit XP then I can try and reproduce any errors or find fixes from home. I don't have a 64bit machine to play with so it would be harder for me to work over things without being infront of the machine I think if he had 64bit.

As for him being mad about being out of date in a year, his dad (My boss-kinda) a lawyer and makes good money (something in the range of a quater mil/year) so he can afford to buy X64 in a year or 2 when it is a little more widespread support. But I know what you mean Lee, you fix someones computer once and all of a sudden your suposed to be a 24/7 support center, on the other hand it's a little bit of extra money. And money is good.

I think I'll stick with 32bit as that seems to be the consesus for the most part, and I'll have to remember to put him in my called ID on my cell phone.

Thanks Everyone,
James
 

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