Tom_ZeCat
12-16-2008, 11:00 AM
If I understand correctly, you need to use a 64-bit Windows OS if you're building a machine with 4 or more GB of memory. Is this correct? If so, then I can use either XP 64 bit or Vista 64 bit, right? Or I can dual boot them.
I want to replace my current PC with a more powerful one. I have a home-built machine with an Athlon 64 3700 single core processor, 1.5 GB of RAM, and a 250 GB hard drive. I would like more power for the photography/image editing that I do. Some of the Photoshop plug-ins for things like noise removal, portrait adjustment, and light adjustment run somewhat slowly on this machine.
I don't want or need any of the new features Microsoft has added with Vista. I also will only use a Windows OS if there's some way to change the Ctrl and Caps Lock keys. In XP I use a keyboard driver named CtrlPlus. It's actually I Win 2K driver, but it works flawlessly in XP. My one and only reason for considering Vista is so that I can test software that I write to see if it works in Vista. However, I've heard that Vista only allows digitally signed drivers. Is this true? If I can't swap the Ctrl and Caps Lock keys, I don't want to use the OS. I guess I would have to set up a dual boot XP/Vista system and then only use Vista to test my software. Vista won't run Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, etc. any better than XP.
There will be one additional OS -- Ubuntu Linux, which will have its own hard drive formatted as Ext3. (Ubuntu Linux has a built-in method of choosing to swap the Ctrl and Caps Lock keys.)
I want to replace my current PC with a more powerful one. I have a home-built machine with an Athlon 64 3700 single core processor, 1.5 GB of RAM, and a 250 GB hard drive. I would like more power for the photography/image editing that I do. Some of the Photoshop plug-ins for things like noise removal, portrait adjustment, and light adjustment run somewhat slowly on this machine.
I don't want or need any of the new features Microsoft has added with Vista. I also will only use a Windows OS if there's some way to change the Ctrl and Caps Lock keys. In XP I use a keyboard driver named CtrlPlus. It's actually I Win 2K driver, but it works flawlessly in XP. My one and only reason for considering Vista is so that I can test software that I write to see if it works in Vista. However, I've heard that Vista only allows digitally signed drivers. Is this true? If I can't swap the Ctrl and Caps Lock keys, I don't want to use the OS. I guess I would have to set up a dual boot XP/Vista system and then only use Vista to test my software. Vista won't run Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, etc. any better than XP.
There will be one additional OS -- Ubuntu Linux, which will have its own hard drive formatted as Ext3. (Ubuntu Linux has a built-in method of choosing to swap the Ctrl and Caps Lock keys.)