Future Proofing, buying a new Processor with 64 bit support

If you are buying a new pc anytime soon you would do well to keep 64 bit support in mind. There is no fanfare but CPUs from AMD and Intel are already shipping and because they are still using a 32 bit operating system such as Windows XP SP2 or Windows Server 2003 the 64 bit benefits are played down.

In the next 12 months there will be major OS releases from Microsoft and others that support true 64bit performance.

To the casual user, these x64-compatible PCs are ordinary PCs. They run 32-bit versions of XP and are compatible with all the software and hardware that other PCs use. But these new PCs--which typically use Intel's confusingly named Pentium 4 630, 640, 650, or 660 series chips or AMD's more logically named Athlon-64 processor--contain the crucial x64 compatibility that virtually guarantees they'll have a longer shelf life than comparable 32-bit chips.

For example Dells April mailing offers contains a Dimension 8400 with an Intel Pentium 4 630 chip.