64 Bit VS Media Center

[synapz]

Hi all, i havnt said this beofore but im a photographer and web deigner lol. Well anyway i currently have windows XP home edition and i was wondering if XP 64 bit or Media acneter wuld be the right way to go interms of what im doing. Im really into pc performance and graphics. Well anyway what do you recon, a new OS or just keep Home edition?

[Cevinzol]

Does your processor support 64? IF not then don't bother. For media center I don't know. this is what the MS wbpage says:
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 is only available pre-installed on computers sold by PC manufacturers

If you're Jonesing for a new O/S, I'd juat wait for Vista to come out.

[synapz]

sorry, i have a Athlon 64 x2

[DaveW]

Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 is only available pre-installed on computers sold by PC manufacturers

Well that's not true...you've probably heard of it, but here you can get "assemble it yourself" media centre kits. You get sent the parts. No pre-install of media centre, it just comes on a disc.

Can you imagine what the world would be like if you could only get an OS from a corporation? *shudders*

To Answer your question: Media centre is designed so that you can use a PC to control your music, photos, and videos, and interact with live broadcasts, etc. It's not designed for those of us who really know what we want our computer to do, it's a part of microsoft's vision for the computer to become an integral part of our daily life. Or is their mission to make lots of money then have the EU sue them for the most ludicrous things...i dunno, it's hard to image Microsoft as any kind of victim.

Sorry, sidetracked. 64 edition is notoriously buggy and has no support for 16 bit applications, in an attempt to stop people using them. So to be honest, stick with home, or give linux a shot.

-Dave

[Cevinzol]

yeah I did a little more reading on MS about media center. looks like its just a front end modification for file access, with a remote (oooh, aaah). It looks like its aimed and end (L)user couch potatos.

Synapz, I'm not sure what you use now but you can't go wrong with Adobe products (Photoshop, illustrator, etc) for Photo editing. For webdesign I use frontpage but I'm just a hack, I don't do anything fancy.

[Nagoshi]

Professional > Home, and probly the 64bit (maybe not if you can have a good hand on making it work nice) and MCE.

Personally, I havea Pentium3 550MHz overclocked to 787MHz with 392Mb RAM, and before having XP I had 98SE or ME... god knows why, my computer speed DOUBLED when I installed XP Pro.. I wont bother getting Home. If you have the choice between Home and Pro, get Pro. If you're one of those download gurus, then get BitTorrent, go to www.torrentspy.com and search for a Windows XP Pro working version (look at the comments on the bottom of the file page...).

[UK-Blade]

I've been using MCE for a while now and i've noticed 3 differences

1 - New skin (nice but nothing special - use Windows Blinds etc)


yeah I did a little more reading on MS about media center. looks like its just a front end modification for file access, with a remote (oooh, aaah). It looks like its aimed and end (L)user couch potatos.
2 - As Cevinzol says, a remote interface, for people who can't manage anything more complicated than a DVD player menu. ;)

3 - A couple of new fonts (whooopdedooo)

Overall dissapointing.

Save some money and stick with XP Home, Pro only really has more networking support, domains etc and a backup utility and MCE is only for remote control junkies.

[synapz]

I must be honest but i am not looking forward to the release of Vista. I may just stick with my XP home for the time being, although a year or so and 64 bit will be the way to go ;D