disadvantages with keeping the Windows XP 32

I have been running X1 on a Pentium D 3.2ghz and 4 gigs ram for ... well ever since X1 came out.  I have been able to run as many as 32 tracks of stereo using this setup as long as I keep the effects load low.   Usually I don't run into a problem.
 
During Black Friday, I 'impulse purchased' a Phenom II X4 945 quad core, gigabyte MB, and 4 gigs 1600 ram.  So why should I upgrade to Win7/Win8?  I realize I will be stuck with X1, as X2 isn't XP compatible, but isn't that a Roland corporate blunder, since HALF of the world's PCs (millions and millions) are still on XP?  I have over a hundred plugins and softsynths, and these things represent a SUBSTANTIAL investment.  I've read all the posts regarding operating system upgrades, and more than a few folks have run into this and that no longer working.  That would suck.
 
I can't for the life of me see how running X1 under my XP license would be anything more than WAY SO MUCH MORE better, and X1 already was working like a champ. 
 
What would I really get performance-wise for moving to Win7/8?  And is that performance jump worth risking a few thousand dollars for hardware/software that will no longer work?
 
My laptop runs Win7 and I don't see any great performance jump in applications like video-recoding to go on a DVD.  The Win7 machine is a 'bit' faster, but it is also a quad-core, while this DAW XP machine is running on an obsolete duo.  My take that moving to Win7 is not worth the risk.
 
 

OK, thanks, Chief!!!  I have to admit that I refused to migrate off of Windows98 until my DA card died.  I think I was running ProAudio 7 back then.  So will likely stay with XP for now.  When I do this upgrade to my hardware, I have a clone of my drive and intend to move my old hardware and all my toys to a junk case/power supply.  I'll get my hands on a Win7 upgrade install, and then experiment with what works and what doesn't after that.  If that turns out to not be a mess, then I will move my studio DAW to Win7.  That might be the safest smartest way to approach this.  

As to my other post about 'freezing', this has only been a problem with this acoustic project I am recording because of all the effects, V-vocal, and autotune. 

X2 is probably not XP incompatible, rather Cake wont supply official support for it. Staying on 32 bit means you will be limited to 4gb ram, no chance of upgrade. There should be no risk upgrading to 7. Only issue is if you have a legacy soundcard, you may have trouble finding drivers. I have come across no software that wont run on 7 that I used with XP. 7 is a much better windows experience, i wouldnt think twice about upgrading.

According to data published on the market share of OS's, there were almost twice as many Windows 7 users as there were XP users as of October 2012. 

People upgrade their computers to handle newer software technology. And in the process, they usually upgrade their OS too. Of course there are many XP holdouts....virtually every hospital still uses XP on their computers, for instance. 

DAW users are a different story. While it's true that there are those who insist that  "I will keep XP on my DAW till the day I die," the fact remains that audio production is evolving, requires more and more processing power and the corresponding upgrade in hardware will more often than not be accompanied by an OS upgrade as well. 

Any software company with a finite budget (i.e. all of them) have to make decisions about what they can and can't continue to support. Sooner or later the 12 year old OS is going to get passed over in favor of development for new OS's. They're not only thinking about the present, they're thinking about the future as well. And XP is not the future. 

I would just upgrade. Windows 7 has a smaller footprint and surpasses XP in many benchmarks - amazing considering how much more advanced it is in terms of features. Don't worry about compatibility. If you're worried about your old 32 bit plugs then just upgrade to the 32 bit version of X2. Although you're limiting yourself in terms of available memory. 

Win 7 smaller footprint?

What do you mean by this?  I noticed that as far as taking up disk space, Win 7 64bit is way bigger then XP.  I've uninstalled some uneeded stuff (games, outlook etc) on my DAW PC and am happy with Win7 64bit but still wonder what all those GBs of stuff are inside the Windows folder itself.

spanky


I recently put XP forever on the shelf and went to Windows 7 64 bit. XP was solid as a rock for me, and so is Win7. I am glad I made the change. The only thing I had to change was my sound card because Emu did not have drivers for windows 7, only a beta--and I wasn't going to chance it. Other than that the transition was smooth and painless and now I am finally in 64 bit land! OP you might want to consider making the jump.

Hey, Spanky, I just ran through a bunch of tests for that beta driver for Windows 7 x64, and it works great.  My buddy has an E-MU Tracker Pre audio interface, and is happily running 24-bit audio recording at 48K with no issues whatsoever.  I too was cautious in that beta driver, but I was given the opportunity by the owner of the computer to give it a shot, and it tested out well, and he loves it in his new Windows 7 x64 environment with the X2 Producer he just picked up.  He upgraded from Sonar 8.5.3 Producer Edition, and loves the new interface.  He is a guitar player, so complicated things like anything in life outside some sort of modal scale are close to impossible, but he is functional in X2 where he struggled in 8.5.3 - (kidding, please do not hate me any of you guitar players - kidding).


Bob Bone

Indeed yes but curious.  Why all those xtra GBs on disk space?

I'd love to chop it down even further but will leave well enough alone if needs be.  ;>

Another thing to check is that drivers are available for older equipment. When I went from XP Pro to Win 7 x64, I found that some peripherals were no longer supported. Bob's recommendation with the RAM is a good one. I personally only use 8Gb of 1633 RAM, and it runs about 50% even keel with a fairly aggressive load on it. I also admit that I kicked and screamed before I knuckled under and got Win7, but am glad that I did... then again, I am primarily a guitar player, so maybe Bob's other point has validity with me :D

You'd be raving mad to run XP on a new machine, and If you want to use memory over 4gb you have to go 64 bit.

Go Win8 64 bit.


PS XP was a great operating system unlike Vista, but its time to move on. Win 7 wins on XP hands down for instance in pretty much every way.

Alex, if your profile pic is the Fawlty Towers flavor of John Cleese (one episode the sign said Farty Towels), then that ROCKS.

Bob Bone

moffdnb


Indeed yes but curious.  Why all those xtra GBs on disk space?

I'd love to chop it down even further but will leave well enough alone if needs be.  ;>

One of the things Vista and Win7 do is when installed they unpack and put on the drive a whole bunch of stuff that may not be enabled by default (e.g. the tablet PC stuff, assorted games, telnet client, drivers, all kinds of stuff). In earlier versions of Windows you had to use the install disk to install stuff later if you found you wanted/needed it. With Vista and 7 you just tell Windows to enable it and it does.


It does take up a very few gigs of hard drive, but means you very, very rarely need the install disk again.


My personal view is that XP Pro was very good, but post service-pack 1 Vista 64bit was/is better in many ways (not least the aero interface, which is handled by the processor on the grahics card, not the cpu, hence it's smooth, fast and no noticable drain on cpu resources). 7 has much in common with Vista, but feels smoother and uses fewer resources. I wouldn't even contemplate going back to XP.


If you ever want to use solid state drives you need Win7 or 8 (no TRIM in earlier versions of Windows).

There are "guides" to stripping stuff out of 7 around on the web, but for what you space you save, not to mention unforeseen problems later.... 

I think the major take-home point to be made concerning XP is, it's just fine if the setup on it (Sonar, plugins, drivers) stays the same - meaning relatively stable. You could just disconnect that PC from the Internet, refrain from adding new devices and plugin-ins, and be assured the thing would run forever.

Unfortunately, the moment something is added to the XP setup, the risk is run that something will break. Granted, most plugins available,  and most existing interfaces available will work. As time goes by, however, newer products won't bother with XP compatibility specifics, and this could be a problem.

How stable would one's XP setup be, and how much of a problem will it be if something newer doesn't work out on it - these are the factors that weigh on that decision.

My personal choice would be only to keep XP as long as I had viable older hardware and I didn't plan on adding much to it at all in the future.  Newer hardware has already been shipped with Win 7 for some years now and it's quite acceptable. I wish I could comment on Win 8, but I really don't plan on buying it other than a new PC purchase, or have a good reason to do development work on it.

Well here is a reall kicker.  Microsoft has a deal right now to upgrade from XP etc. to Win 8 Pro for $39.99.  I ran their 'win8 testing compatibility' app, and all my important hardware (video, DA card, midi interface) are all supported in Win8.  this deal is a short time thing, so that "s-e-e-m-s" like a good plan. 

I am a recording engineer/singer-songwriter.  Some of my stuff I recorded of myself using X1 is out on www.fflynet.net/greg_graves.  I love music; I hate screwing with computers ... other than turning them on and having them do exactly what I want them to with no f-ing backtalk.

There is some learning curve with Windows 8 (weeping and gnashing of teeth, mostly).  Win 7 is quite stable, will remain serviced for quite some time, and is an easy transition to functionally coming from XP.

Win 8 works fine with all of my software and hardware, but I did my homework on that first.  The biggest thing with Windows 8 for me is just dealing with the whole active tiles thing with their new user interface.  I just bypass it and go to the desktop, with most of my common applications pinned to the task bar.

In Windows 8, since there is no longer a start menu, you can get to your applications by hitting the Windows key, then just start typing the name of the application you want to run, and it will automatically present search results.  From there, you can decide if you want to just run it, or you can pin it to the task bar, or you can make it an active tile and find it there.

I do not know of any major performance benefits or costs between Win 7 and Win 8, so choose based on homework results for drivers and such, and choose based on a sense of how you will like dealing with the changes that Windows 8 brings.

Compared to XP, Windows 7 is like a race car versus a bicycle.  Stable at speed and a joy to drive, versus getting passed by everything and wondering if you will fall off at the next turn.  (And I REALLY was a die-hard XP fan).

Bob Bone

Metro pretty much blows - in my opinion, but it is so easy to bypass and ignore that I didn't let it get in my way at all, and the the rest of Windows 8 is fine.

I think it takes more time to get to applications than using the Start Menu approach, as a desktop user, particularly for the lesser used ones.

Bob Bone