XP Support in INY Bridge ? Options

[retiredfromlife]

I am trying to decide if I should buy a socket 1155 with an 2500K processor Z68 chipset or wait for the newer 2011 boards to come out with a good range and faster CPU's but I have read that after the Z68 chipset XP will not be fully supported. That XP will have to be installed in IDE mode what ever that is.

Does anyone know the extent of XP support in the newer chipsets.

I will be mainly using Win 7 but I want the option of of booting into WinXP for some applications that will not run under Win7.

One the article I read (Cant find it again) it indicated you would have to go into the BIOS each time you wanted to boot to XP and change a parameter.

Is this correct?

Regards MarkL

[tantryl]

Just use a virtual machine of WinXP instead.

If you've got an existing XP system with the software you want already installed, use VMWare Converter to create the virtual machine then install the VMWare Player on Windows 7 to "play" it. Both programs are free.

[retiredfromlife]

Just use a virtual machine of WinXP instead.

If you've got an existing XP system with the software you want already installed, use VMWare Converter to create the virtual machine then install the VMWare Player on Windows 7 to "play" it. Both programs are free.

I have tried VM Ware before and I can not get games to run under it, especially some of the flight sim controllers I use. Some of my older flight sims do not work under win7.

Also my knowledge of getting things to work under VM Ware and similar is very basic and I probably do not have the time to learn it properly. Much easier to dual boot for me.

Regards Markl

[osama_bin_athlon]

I believe it's time to bite the bullet, and forget those games.....I've found quite a few games won't run on Win7 Ult X64, and that virtual shit just invents some shitty card that you'd never buy, and games don't play
that sounds kinda suspect to me - why wouldn't you be able to run XP in AHCI mode? why wouldn't you be able to run a RAID array, nothin' wrong with IDE mode, but I can't see that XP wouldn't support AHCI
fuck that, I'd give it a whirl......what you got to lose?

[darklife41]

VMs are worthless for playing games as they don't load all drivers correctly.

I don't know how a hardware configuration could not support an operating system, unless they're saying XP drivers just won't be available for the newer boards - which is a strong possibility.

Edit: also, it's not just games that create the need for XP. I have Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra that I use for music in my car. The software won't work on Win 7/Vista, so any songs loaded to it won't properly display the artist, album, etc. So there's many (some quite expensive) reasons NOT to bite the bullet and just drop XP yet. :-)

This post has been edited by darklife41: Mar 10 2012, 04:28 PM

[retiredfromlife]

I cant find the original article that mentioned Ivy Bridge but just found this regarding future chipsets, trouble is I do not know what it means. Seems to indicate only partial XP support in the future if correct.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_X79

Partial support for Windows XP
The X79 chipset does not support installing Windows XP in AHCI mode for Intel's Serial ATA controllers as Intel won't release AHCI drivers for 32-bit Windows XP. [4] Windows XP can be installed in IDE mode but without SATA features enabled. For users that dual boot Windows XP with another operating system installed in AHCI mode, this means changing to IDE mode every time to boot into Windows XP or install the other OS also in IDE mode. For X79 motherboards with third party SATA disk controllers, Windows XP AHCI drivers may still be supported by the disk controller vendor.

The original article that I can no longer find mentioned the same lack of support in all ivy bridge chips. But is it correct?

Also I do not really understand AHCI versus IDE mode, or what the above really means in practical situations.

So what I am trying to work out is should I upgrade now using the X68 chip with full XP support or wait for ivy bridge, as it has some faster processors that interest me.

Regards MarkL

[aliali]

I have Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra that I use for music in my car.

No other software you can use to add music to the Zen?

[mudg3]

VMs are worthless for playing games as they don't load all drivers correctly.

A little bit of misinformation there unless the last time you tried using 3d acceleration with in a vm was more then 3-4 years ago which was when 3d acceleration gave you similar performance to geforce 3-4 cards. With workstation 8 for shits and giggles I installed crysis on a XP vm and it worked fine perfectly.

OP I wouldnt be picking up a 2500k at this stage as Ivy bridge CPU's should be out and about shortly.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5626/ivy-bri...w-core-i7-3770k 3770k was tested by anandtech the other day and it looks good.

This post has been edited by mudg3: Mar 10 2012, 09:14 PM

[darklife41]

I have Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra that I use for music in my car.

No other software you can use to add music to the Zen?

I can add the lossless music with other software, but I can't label it without the Creative software which doesn't work on anything but XP with Media Player 9.

VMs are worthless for playing games as they don't load all drivers correctly.

A little bit of misinformation there unless the last time you tried using 3d acceleration with in a vm was more then 3-4 years ago which was when 3d acceleration gave you similar performance to geforce 3-4 cards. With workstation 8 for shits and giggles I installed crysis on a XP vm and it worked fine perfectly.

3D acceration was one issue that was troublesome and still is to an extent. Trialing a single game is hardly a test. While you're at it, load in some old DOS games that work perfectly on an XP install and see how they perform on your Workstation 8. If my information is wrong I'd sure like to know because I have plenty of games that have never worked on Win 7 or on a VM. :-)

[Jeruselem]

VirtualBox has experimental drivers for 3d acceleration. It's free to download.

[darklife41]

I cant find the original article that mentioned Ivy Bridge but just found this regarding future chipsets, trouble is I do not know what it means. Seems to indicate only partial XP support in the future if correct.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_X79

Partial support for Windows XP
The X79 chipset does not support installing Windows XP in AHCI mode for Intel's Serial ATA controllers as Intel won't release AHCI drivers for 32-bit Windows XP. [4] Windows XP can be installed in IDE mode but without SATA features enabled. For users that dual boot Windows XP with another operating system installed in AHCI mode, this means changing to IDE mode every time to boot into Windows XP or install the other OS also in IDE mode. For X79 motherboards with third party SATA disk controllers, Windows XP AHCI drivers may still be supported by the disk controller vendor.

The original article that I can no longer find mentioned the same lack of support in all ivy bridge chips. But is it correct?

Also I do not really understand AHCI versus IDE mode, or what the above really means in practical situations.

So what I am trying to work out is should I upgrade now using the X68 chip with full XP support or wait for ivy bridge, as it has some faster processors that interest me.

Regards MarkL

As far as I'm aware, there's no real disadvantages to installing XP in IDE mode other than the hot swappable function for ESATA. If you don't use ESATA, or if you do and don't mind rebooting to use the drives, then it's not a factor. AHCI enables ESATA to be hot swappable (basically seen as a removable drive connecting and disconnecting while running).

[mudg3]

I have Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra that I use for music in my car.

No other software you can use to add music to the Zen?

I can add the lossless music with other software, but I can't label it without the Creative software which doesn't work on anything but XP with Media Player 9.

VMs are worthless for playing games as they don't load all drivers correctly.

A little bit of misinformation there unless the last time you tried using 3d acceleration with in a vm was more then 3-4 years ago which was when 3d acceleration gave you similar performance to geforce 3-4 cards. With workstation 8 for shits and giggles I installed crysis on a XP vm and it worked fine perfectly.

3D acceration was one issue that was troublesome and still is to an extent. Trialing a single game is hardly a test. While you're at it, load in some old DOS games that work perfectly on an XP install and see how they perform on your Workstation 8. If my information is wrong I'd sure like to know because I have plenty of games that have never worked on Win 7 or on a VM. :-)

Considering I dont know what games you want to play why dont you test it? I've tested plenty of games but they would be considered main stream. As Jeruselem said go grab virtual box and give them a whirl you'd be surprised about how good it is now.

[retiredfromlife]

Thanks for the replies. From the above posts and a bit of internet searching I have a little bit better understanding of what Ivy Bridge brings to the table.

I was going to upgrade my old 3.1 gig dual core PC and ditch the old bits. When I looked into it I only have to spend $400.00 more and I can build a whole new PC, and keep the old box for XP.
Probably a better solution all round, and no need to be concerned about XP in the future.

Glad you all could make out what I was asking, just noticed how many typo's I have made including the topic heading. My typing skills are about as good as my PC skills it appears.

The games I have had problems with in Win7 are RedBaron 3D, Mechwarrior Titanium and similar from that age.

My web surfing box is an old P4 3.2, that I could get a better card for and use that for old games as well.

I think now for my next PC I will forget about XP, and leave to the old hardware.

Regards MarkL

[mudg3]

I can give Mech warrior a go in a Vm if you would like Retiredfromlife?