XP 32-bit on an i7 motherboard?

This is initially going to sound a bit silly; however please bear with me.

I am designing a high-end workstation for a client who has a recording studio. He's leaning towards a higher end i5/i7 build, but will consider a top end AMD system.

Now the catch: For at least a few months (until the company that provides his recording software launches its new version), it has to run XP Pro 32-bit.

I am aware of the usual 32-bit limitations (max. 3.5GB usable memory, etc.). My question is if anyone has run into BIOS or BSOD issues trying to install XP Pro 32-bit on an i5 or i7 build.

I've run into a few OEM boards from HP and Lenovo over the past few years that will not downgrade from Vista or Win 7 to XP due to BIOS issues, and I'm wondering if this is a risk doing a build using an 1155 board from ASUS, Gigabyte or MSI.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

 

I haven't tried to do that kind of downgrade but I have to believe there will be issues. The XP OS was built prior to some of the newer processor and chipset technologies so it probably won't know how to respond to them causing BSOD's or possibly even preventing the installation from the beginning.

I did do an installation last fall for a customer that was XP 64-bit on an i3 but the mainboard was specifically listed as XP compatible and even had the XP drivers on the CD. I think it was an MSI MB but I don't recall the model number.

 

well as long you can have drivers for all the devices then i do not see a major problem to install win xp to a new machine.
maybe you will need an external floppy to give the drivers for the sata if you decide to run it in achi mode
unless you decide to slipstream the drivers on you xp cd
may it will be more painfull but it will work
other consideration

another though is virtual machine
so you can have an 64bit os and run xp in a virtual machine
well virtual machine does not let you use all the devices on your real computer
so if your clinet is using specific cards check if they can been used inside the virtual machine if not virtual machine is no option.


posibility to run the software in winxp compatibility mode under win7??

good luck any way you go

 

Thanks for the tips.

My luck with Virtual XP installs has been about 50/50. Even though Microsoft claims it will work with legacy XP software, my initial testing of it a few years ago resulted in too many BSODs and failed loading of apps for me to consider it a safe alternative in this case.

I recently did a build for another client with the same type of software issue and was able to run XP Pro on a MSI 88G-E45 mobo with an AMD quad core (again, the system will be upgraded to either Win 7 or Win 8 when the new version of the client's software is released).

My thought now is to stick with what I know works and tell the client the AMD build is his best option. Since we're dealing with audio (not video) apps, it should do the trick and keep him happy for the next few years.

 

well
i bought a laptop hp pavilion g6 series with an i3-2330m
since i like xp i tried to install xp to them
winxp installed okey
i found drivers for the chipset
i found drivers for the wifi
and that was all
i manage to force the win7 drivers of the sound to install
but the sound did not work
and i had bad luck to install the graphics drivers of the igpu even if it was for winxp (intel has very bad drivers for the graphic anyway)\

so it is not impossible
just check carefully the mobos chipset and lan which chipset they have also sound
and then check if the add on card they have xp drivers i imagine they have
those tips apply the same to amd and itnel systems
considering to buy an add sound card on usb and give another try with the xp on the laptop lol

 

hmm

another option
D3DWindower-English
get this programm
install it at win7 and run the program inside that programm

i have an old game from the 1995 i try to play it at win7 64bit no luck
used all the compatibility options and still the colors were wrong
so i turn off compatibility mode
run this programm and run the game in a window not full screen
and it happened the games colors are good!?!?!?!?
now what is the diferense to run a game in window or full screen but it worked