Curious though, what is it you have that isn't supported?
Well, right now, the only CPU I have that will support it is a Semperon64 3400, in a third box that I put together because I was curous about AMD. A CPU I am not fond of, on a Nivida Chipset where I saw my first blue screen in years!
My OKIDATA color laser has partial support. None of my ATI TV/Capture cards are supported. MY HP Scanner isn't supported. I guess my 32 bit software will run OK. I would assume anything on a new high end board would be supported. I have only briefly thought of this and no little or nothing about 64. Is the issue only drivers? I just read an editors comment on Vista 64 bit in this months MaximumPC, and they are still warning readers away from it.
But I may try it out on my new media box. I typically install two versions of the same OS. One with everything, and one with just my TMPGenc software for editing and encoding. So I may install Vista64 for that purpose, once I get the Quad built.
I don't know how true that will be going forward. Intel's current trend seems to be to replace at least some of the EE chips with identical non-EE chips within one or two refreshes.
Not quite identical... they will be clock locked. And I have a suspicion you will probably end up needing DDR3 when they come out. From what I have read, Intel has been so successful in overwhelming AMD that they are purposely slowing down releases. They don't need to put them out so fast to be competitive with a staggering AMD.
Indeed, the QX9650 is set to be replaced in Q3 with a $500 Q9650, yes, at 3.0GHz.
yes, I know about this. I have been waiting since January and nobody has even mentioned a release date.
That being said, the 3.2GHz QX9770 may never see a non-EE version, but is it worth the $1500?
no.... I wouldn't spend that much. But I spent nine hundred something four years ago when I bought my Xeons. I could of saved 3-400 just by going with the 2.8s instead of the 3.06. Would I have noticed a difference... probably not. Four years later I am very glad I spent the extra dough then. If I had of gotten the 2.8s I would be looking now on Ebay for 3.06s.
Personally, I think I may just bypass the 45nm Core2 generation. Frankly, my Q6600 at 3.6GHz provides such incredible performance that there's not much the new generation can really offer me--even overclocked.
I am very happy with my four year old Xeons. It is still a fast setup. However, I do need to update my P4 3.4 media box to something with more power to handle HD stuff.
Four years from now, I don't expect (or want) any vestige of this platform to be within reach.
maybe, but when I look at my PCs they don't seem to me out of date for what I need to do. I am not much of a gamer, and while I like to tinker with new technology I got tired of tearing everything apart every year and starting over. This is why I started buying at the very high end which satisfies much longer then the new problematic stuff.
My primary computer is mission critical for my business and personal needs. It is carefully setup to be problem free, and work the way I want it to work when I need it to work. I can't afford down time, and so I design redundancy into my setups. Right now I know I should tear it down, clean everything, and put it back together, but I am reluctant to do even that.
