XP Home or XP Pro in bootcamp?

[jonesjb]

Hi,
I have the option of purchasing XP Home or XP Pro for me to run in Bootcamp. I will be running some games on my new Macbook Pro (via Windows). I understand Pro can use dual processors, while Home cannot. Will there be any performance difference between Pro and Home? Pro is $100 more, so
I'd prefer not to pay more money if there is no benefit.

 

[balamw]

I understand Pro can use dual processors, while Home cannot. Will there be any performance difference between Pro and Home?

The MBP has one processor, so Pro will not give you any performance benefit for games unless you have a Mac Pro.

B

 

[MacBookDan]

Where did you hear that XP home doesn't work with dual cores? Home will be fine and where are you purchasing these from? $100+ for XP is harsh, I'm sure it's like £40 now.

 

[Bengt77]

If both can utilize two processor cores, then there's indeed no reason to go Pro. On the other hand, I think it's a tad silly to buy Windows XP in 2010. It's a ten year old OS. Sure, it's gotten better with the service packs that it got, but it's nothing compared to either Vista or Windows 7. Both can run DirectX 10 and 11, while XP is stuck with DirectX 9. Do you really want to invest in largely obsolete technology?

 

[MacBookDan]

If both can utilize two processor cores, then there's indeed no reason to go Pro. On the other hand, I think it's a tad silly to buy Windows XP in 2010. It's a ten year old OS. Sure, it's gotten better with the service packs that it got, but it's nothing compared to either Vista or Windows 7. Both can run DirectX 10 and 11, while XP is stuck with DirectX 9. Do you really want to invest in largely obsolete technology?

XP is the OS for gamers and programmers. I used to game every day, got to high/pro level, I switched to Vista and the mouse acceleration and mouse precision was so annoying. I lost my aim because of it. Also the mouse hz was capped at 125 whilst I NEEDED 500 minimum. I use XP still till this day for programming and working on a mod.

Sometimes you can't beat XP, Windows 7 is where it's at though tbh, the automatic updates are amazing... stability is good as well, although it didn't like my Q6600 @3.6, Windows XP was fine though.

Win7 > XP > Vista
Mac > all

 

[balamw]

Where did you hear that XP home doesn't work with dual cores?

This is what causes confusion: http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/about-licensing/multicore-processor-licensing.aspx

Windows XP Professional and Windows XP Home are not affected by this policy because they are licensed per installation and not per processor. Windows XP Professional can support up to two processors regardless of the number of cores on the processor. Windows XP Home supports one processor.

To turn that around: Windows XP Home supports one processor regardless of the number of cores on the processor.

So for any Mac other than a dual processor Mac Pro. Home is fine.

B