Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2C 64-bit for System Builders - OEM

Pros: Without a doubt by far the most stable version of XP I've ever used, Windows XP x64 is probably the pinnacle of XP in all of its uses. I've been using it myself for nearly two months now, and without skipping a beat, I manage to find all of my drivers for it, (For rather exotic cards as well: The Asus PhysX card, along with a 9800 GT) As well as a humble card reader. The only driver I couldn't find was for an elder NAS that is about to be replaced anyway. x64 bit computing is without a doubt more stable and feels almost twice as fast. This system was built new fom the ground up, but its Snappier thanks to XP x64. The jump from x86 (32 bit) to X64 isn't as big as I thought. I can see all the ram I could ever need now... All 8 gigs, nevermind the extra 512 MBs in my graphics card.

Cons: Internet Explorer 64-bit is nothing to Minefield 64-bit (Firefox), but without compatible flash both are somewhat lacking... Finding A Firewall and Antivirus was somewhat of a challenge for awhile, but a quick google search liquidates all worries. (I'm using Avast Anti-virus, and Comodo Firewall) Graphics Cards Monitoring software (Ntune, And the ATI Equivalent) don't seem to function but Riva gets around that. Crashed for about a week until I noticed my Graphics card was too hot, and Riva fixed that rather quickly.

Overall Review: Without a doubt, my most iffy part of the purchase of a new computer, I now don't regret it for a second, and don't ever wish to go back to x86 (32-bit). Searching for 64-bit programs is fun, but if you can't find them, simply get the 32-bit one, it will almost certainly work fine. It will be a dark day when I can't find something to get around any sort of trouble this Operating system is supposed to give users. I've heard more ill-will versus Vista and Especially Vista x64 then this x64.

Pros: Does run faster then windows xp 32 bit.

Cons: Drivers can be a pain to a point.

Overall Review: I re-installed Windows xp 32 bit. You can get AVG free anti-virus for this operating system. For me, not enough programs in the 64 bit mode to make it worth while.