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MacPro support WinXP under bootcamp?


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Just wondering if anyone knows if the MacPro supports Windows XP under bootcamp? I am only asking because it uses the Xeon processor and I was not certain if XP was compatible. I am seriously thinking about placing my order, but I like my dual boot hackintosh.

Thanks!

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If I remember correctly, XP only supports up to two processors. Not sure if that includes two dual core processors.

 

 

Actually, since SP1, XP treats a physical CPU Chip as 1 chip.. So XP pro (that supports 2 Physical chips) will see 2 CPUs max with single core/non Hyperthreaded CPUs. If the CPUs are dual core or hyperthreaded, or both, then it will still allow max of two physical Chips, but it will see 4 or 8 logical CPU's total (depending whether or not it's hypterthreaded).. Remember can only do dual CPU with XEON...

 

XP Home is same concept, but only allows 1 physical chip. So literally you could have 4 logical CPU's if you have the P4EE 965 (which is dual core hyperthreaded), but why run XP Home on a CPU that cost 1 grand?

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Since the Mac Pro is 64-bit, it's very likely that even XP x64 can be used on it.

 

Well, technically no. It's EMT-64. Meaning it can handle some 64 bit instructions, but it's really a 32 bit processor. Now the upside for Apple is the instructions that it needs are (for the most part) EMT-64 instructions, so for all practical intents and purposes it is 64 bits on OSX.

 

From the vast majority of what I've heard, and in my own personal experience here at work XP x64 on EMT64 platforms is not that great. It works pretty darned well on AMD x64 platforms, but there's still a gap in driver support for both.

 

Of course either way if you're going over 4GB of RAM in one of these you should consider XP x64.

 

6 Month Free Trial of XP x64 straight from M$

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/64bit/facts/trial.mspx

 

Meant to add. For me, I'm going Server 2003 x64. But it's one of the pro's of my job, having a legit license just laying around.

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XP x64 runs just fine on EM64T, since EM64T is just intel's implementation of AMD64.

 

If it works good for you, then that's awesome! But for me, on the systems I've tried, it's been not so good.

 

There is a subtle differentiation though between AMD and Intel on the 64bits deal. Intel is 32 bit native with supplemental 64bit instructions and additional memory support. Whereas the AMD is 64 bit native with the ability to run "backwards compatible" if you'll allow me to use the term. From the user standpoint, you're probably splitting hairs. But it is worth noting.

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