XP Home with Dual Core?

[Shifty52]

Overhearing three guys argue this point out and figured I'd ask a larger audience.

If you go with a processor that has a dual core. Is it imperative that you also upgrade to XP Pro in order to take advantage fully of those capabilities? I'm sure if I stayed in the room I could have witnessed a fight between these three guys.

Guy 1 thinks that XP home will run the Dual but won't take advantage of it fully so youy might as well update to Pro in order to use it as much as possible.

Guy 2 thinks that XP home won't recognize the dual core properties of the chip at all so it's a waste by buying a dual chip without Pro

Guy 3 says that It doesn't matter Either Home or Pro will work the same way and the only difference between Home and Pro is that pro deals with more with server settings and therefore either will work....

So, who's right? I have no idea on their own technical expertise. It was just a passing arguement I was listening to in a computer shop. It was just lucky for me considering I am about to buy a dual core, and have XP home. So I might as well see what yall have to say about it.

S

 

[Lord AnthraX]

Guy number 3 is right...

XP home can run dual cores fine

 

[Shifty52]

Thank God.. He was the guy behind the counter.. Makes me feel better..Whew!

 

[bryan64]

I run XP Home at it recognized my FX-60 no problem. When I look at system specs it says two cores and when I look at the task manager performance window, it gives me two graphs. Peachy keen.

 

[infiltrator7]

I run XP Home at it recognized my FX-60 no problem. When I look at system specs it says two cores and when I look at the task manager performance window, it gives me two graphs. Peachy keen.

yeah same here. i have an x2 3800 and it works fine in xp home.

 

[m3incorp]

Guy 3 should have just asked Guys 1&2 what they thought were the differences between XP Home and Pro, and then of course mentioned Win MCE. Guy 3 seems like the smarter one in this case.

 

[Nitestick]

actually that is wrong. the core of XP Home doesn't have SMP support until you have installed SP1 or SP2 (i think its included in SP1 but i'm not sure). there is a difference. XP Pro has SMP support by default.

 

[alexsabree]

so technically two of them are right. But now all Windows OS should support it... Right?????

 

[Nitestick]

win 2k already has SMP support, so does everything else except XP Home. once SP1/SP2 are installed it has SMP support. that means a new windows xp home disc bought will work as it should be bundled with SP2 but older discs may not work properly until after SP1/2 are installed

 

[fr34ky]

OMG they have know idea what they were talking about.If I was there I would of pulled out my laptop and settled it right there.Anyways I have a 4800x2 on Media center and it kicks A$$.I love all dual cores except for the Fx60