WinXP Home Edition take advantage of Athlon X2 processor?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Brian
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Brian

Hi all,
I recently upgraded to an Athlon X2 3800+ dual-core processor. I am
currently running WinXP Home Edition with SP2 and all patches. How can I be
assured that WinXP Home is taking advantage of the dual-cores? Task Manager
does show 2 graphs under CPU and the My Computer Properties does "see" the
new processor, but I was thinking the computer would perform much faster
(opening Windows Explorer, launching Photoshop, etc. etc.)

Would upgrading to WinXP Pro. gain me anything?

Thanks much!
Brian
 
Brian said:
Hi all,
I recently upgraded to an Athlon X2 3800+ dual-core processor. I am
currently running WinXP Home Edition with SP2 and all patches. How can I be
assured that WinXP Home is taking advantage of the dual-cores? Task Manager
does show 2 graphs under CPU and the My Computer Properties does "see" the
new processor, but I was thinking the computer would perform much faster
(opening Windows Explorer, launching Photoshop, etc. etc.)
Click to expand...

The actions you've mentioned don't benefit from parallel execution too much.
Suppose you are a poor Bedouin with just two wifes.
Can you have a baby in 4.5 months?
No, you still need 9 months - but then you get two babies.
Would upgrading to WinXP Pro. gain me anything?
Click to expand...

Pro is definitely better than Home edition.
Then you'd be a well doing Bedouin, with a herd of camels,
and license for two more wifes :)
Thanks much!
Brian
Click to expand...

--PA
 
XP will only take advantage if the software you are using (besides XP) is
"dual processor" aware, which most as still not.
 
Only XP Pro supports SMP and can take advantage of multiple or dual core
processors. Your HAL would also need to be upgraded to a multiprocessor HAL.
For any apps to take advantage of both processors they would need to be
multithreaded. Processor Affinity can then be managed through task manager.

Brian P.
A+, Network+, MCP
 
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