Re: New machine, setup advice sought

[Hurf Sheldon <]

Some notes:
Check on VMware under Vista Ultimate x64 if it works
that might be the best way to go.
Some issues with 64bit winders in general are that few vendors
are up to speed driver-wise; as a result there can be some frustrating 
moments.
If dual booting or access drives from both 32biit & 64bit the 32bit 
version will
have a problem with the file system because of the dynamic headers in 
the 64bit files. There is a simple fix - I can't seem to find it right now.

You can add a switch to 32bit WinXP boot.ini
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/platform/server/PAE/PAEmem.mspx
to enable 3gb processes. I don't know if a 32bit app running on 64 can
get at 4gb or if 32bit on VMware under 64bit can access more than 3gb 
either.

USB Wireless adapters might have better support in Linux & Windows than 
PCI cards would.

sounds like fun anyway you go...
hurf


Jason Slack wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I have a nice HP Media Center m7320n PC. I plan to use it as my software
> development machine.
>
> I would like some thoughts on how to best set this up for my needs.
>
> Here are the highlights of the systems specs.
> Pentium D 920 processor
> 4GB of RAM
> 300 GB HD
> DVD-RW and a DVD-ROM
> Wireless card
> NVidia 6600 256mb video card.
> all the tv tuner and controls all media center PC's come with
>
> Here is what I see as options:
>
> 1. Run Windows Media Center (XP, not vista) as the host operating system.
> This would provide me all of the native functionality of the Media Center
> PC.
> - I do have 4gb of RAM, so I dont think Windows will see more than 3GB 
> with
> PAE turned on. So I loose 1GB of RAM, correct?
> - I can then run VMWare Workstation instances for a Windows 
> Development and
> a Linux Development environment. (I dont like to 'infect' my host OS 
> with my
> development needs, thus running a version of Windows in a VMWare
> Environment)
> - Can I upgrade the Media Center that is installed to Windows Vista 
> Ultimate
> Edition? (which I own an upgrade version)? Would this be wise? I think 
> the
> 920D is a 64 bit processor, so I could use the 64-bit version that 
> came with
> Windows Vista Ultimate and then Windows should be able to see all 4GB of
> RAM, correct?
> - I can use the wireless card as Linux does not have the best wireless
> support.
> - Much easier to add a second large hard drive in the extra bay and 
> have it
> used for network storage (in my opinion, I dont have experience adding 
> hard
> drives to linux systems)
>
> 2. Run a distro of Linux as my host operating system.
> - This would not give me the native Media Center features that the PC
> offers...
> - Support for the PCI wireless card would not be there.
> - Can still run a linux and a windows VMWare instance for development
> purposes.
>
>
> So I am trying to decide.
>
> Any thoughts would be appreciated.
>
> Jason