Audacity 2.1.2
xp pro
1900MHz single-core
2Gb
Is it worth going 64 bit for Audacity?
Last I checked, Audacity was a 32-bit application. I think 64 is on the drawing board.
Koz
XP is obsolete, so it’s definitely worth updating your operating system.
64-bit operating systems tend to be more demanding on computer resources, and only work on 64-bit hardware, so if you are wanting to use an old computer it’s probably better to stay with a 32-bit operating system.
7 needs a dual-core, which my motherboard won’t take. My cpu is 64 bit. I could run x64 xp but I hear your advice. Everything works; I’ll leave well alone.
You could try Linux. If your computer has a CD drive, then there are "Live CD"s available for several versions of Linux that run directly from the CD without writing anything to the hard drive. Running from a CD is rather slow, but it’s a good way to try out Linux to see how it works. It’s also possible to “dual boot”, which means that you can keep XP while you become familiar with Linux, and when your boot the machine you choose whether to boot into XP or into Linux. Setting up dual boot is easiest, quickest and safest if you add a second internal hard drive, but a second hard drive is not a requirement.
You should definitely be thinking of getting off XP sooner rather than later, especially if you use the machine on the Internet, because of the increasing security risks.
Maybe Linux is the way to go. I never take my PC online, so no risk at all. Thank you for the advice.
If the computer does not go on-line then you could just stick with XP until it becomes so outdated that it won’t run programs that you want to run. Audacity still works on XP (provided that you have SP3, and the computer has SSE2), but XP support won’t last forever. Desktop Linux really works best with a broadband connection because programs are usually distributed via on-line repositories, as are system updates.
In that case I’ll keep with xp until audacity no longer works with it. All I use my PC for is DAWing.
I go online with my HTC. Downloads are not a problem.
If you mean Windows 7, that is simply untrue. Windows 7 (and more so Windows 8 and 10) have optimisations for dual core but do not require it.
Gale
Okay. My mistake. My single-core won’t even install Windows 7. It might not be the cpu. Whatever, my system won’t take Win 7.
I bought an “almost new” 64-bit Windows PC back in late Nov and asked the vendor to DOWNGRADE the OS (from Win 8.1) to Win 7-64 and add an extra 8 GB or RAM. The idea was to edit graphics in 64-bit software. That didn’t work out however, and is off topic. The i7 CPU (eight-core) exports FLACs 10x faster than the core two duo CPU in the old system.
One advantage of the machine is… the integrated AUDIO subsystem is 64-bit. Or is that not necessarily so?
-Ed
The drivers are probably written in 64-bit code, but the handling of audio data will still be a maximum of 24-bit integer.
I’ll keep to 32bit XP until my hardware goes down beyond help.