Thinking of upgrading my socket A PC to AMD AM2 X2 Dual core. Will probably sell my current PC but budget will still be tight. I'd rather not have to update the OS at this time unless absolutely necessary. I'm happy with W2k Pro and although XP does do some things better...I think W2k is actually a bit faster at times. At least compared to most XP systems I've worked on for friends...my W2K setup seems faster to me. Anyway...I know W2k will work with dual core CPUs although from what I've read...the workload is handled differently than dual cores running windows XP. QUESTION: Will I see much of a performance loss from a dual core setup running W2k Pro vs. XP Pro? New PC will most likely be AMD X2 5200+ with 1gb ram to start (will go 2gb dual ch later)and Biostar Tforce550 or Asus M2N E mobo (dont need SLI). Video nothing fancy 128mb PCI Exp (nvidia based). I'm fairly certain most of the drivers (mobo and video) will work with w2k but I'll check b4 purchasing to be sure. All opinions welcome and appreciated. Thanks Dave

I can't see that you'll experience any "performance loss". Especially since you've never run XP youself. You can't lose what you've never had. In my own experience with 2k, it was a great OS. However, I like to game and had to change to XP Pro since 2k isn't very good from a gaming aspect. Other than that one thing, I was very happy with 2k and it's performance. As to dual/quad cores, it's not going to make a huge difference. Unfortunately, there's still not a lot of software out there written to really take advantage of dual core....and none at this point for quad's. As far as I'm concerned, it's not even a consideration. Go ahead and buy a dual core, I'm sure it will run quite well in 2k. Once you have the system built and the OS installed, if all went well, you should see what appears to be dual CPU's in Device Manager.

I may be totally wrong an this but I don't think the dual core CPU is an issue. The issues you MAY encounter are installing a SATA drive, installing to a HDrive larger than 127GB, Installing graphics cards requiring DX9, installing USB 2.0 devices. All of the above issues can be resolved but it isn't a simple install. What sevice pack is integrated into your Win2000 CD? That question determine how the above issues will be handled.

Thanks for the replies. I wasn't so concerned about getting dual core to run dual core applications so much as freeing up system resources while running a video editor or converting codecs for my dvd home movies and astrophotography. Some apps like virtualedit use nearly 100% of my single core cpu now. I know XP and W2k handle dual core differently but I wasn't sure how much better XP wud be for dividing for allocating resources. Also, I know W2k doesn't allow hyperthreading and I don't know much about that or how much it speeds up apps so XP is a plus there but how much benefit I'm not sure. I'm running W2k Pro SP4 and socket A boards now so there are no issues with USB 2 or HDD size limitations. I have a 200gb HDD now and it installed with no probs. Running multiple partitions so with any luck all I'll need to do is install new mobo drivers to the OS partition to get me going, plus I'll save $ by sticking with my IDE drives for now. Only prob will be I'll need a HDD controller or USB to IDE adapter temporarily as most new boards only come with 1 IDE and I'll need that for my DVD burner. Anyone with any additional advice on W2k with Dual core AMD please jump in.

The SP you are now running isn't the issue. It is what SP is integrated on your install CD. The big issue is large HDrive support. All the other items mentioned can be worked around.