i7 Core and XP Pro SP3 32-bit?

Since my attempts thus far to salvage my broken P4 XP Pro system have all failed, I am investigating the alternative option of building an entirely new computer. I may end up being forced to do this whether I want to or not, as I need a functioning PC.

ALL of my existing software is 32-bit. To have a new 64bit machine and 64bit OS I would have to purchase any and all newer 64-bit versions of my software at an additional cost that I simply do not have the budget for at this time. On the other hand I don't want to spend money on building another 32-bit CPU based machine to replace the one that transformed intself into a door stop six weeks ago. As I feel it would be a stop gap machine that I'd only use for about 1 year or so.

Can anyone confirm as to whether or not I could build an i7Core 920 2.66Ghz machine to run Win XP Pro SP3 32-bit? And therefore be able to run all of my Adobe and Macromedia 32-bit software on it?

The plan would be to run the 32-bit XP and apps on the i7Core 920 machine for the next year or two. Then when I am financially able, to purchase the newer 64-bit versions of my apps and create a fresh install using a 64-bit Windows OS (either XP 64 or Vista 64 or something newer that may be out by then) to run them.

The downside is that I will probably end up buying three 2GB DIMMS for the i7Core mboard for a total of 6GB of RAM, but I guess the 32bit XP OS will only recognize and use 3GB of that RAM. Therefore, I would not get the use of the full 6GB of RAM until I upgraded to the 64bit OS and Apps.

All this because my old and what used to be trusy P4 refuses to install XP...

 

All the current CPUs from both Intel & AMD are 64 bit. You can install either 32 or 64 bit OS/software on them without any problems.

Regarding RAM, buy a motherboard with 4 RAM slots & buy 2 x 2 GB RAM modules for now. In future just buy more modules & add [if the current spec. RAM is available then ]

 

No idea about that Pete. It was a general suggestion.

 

I'm assembling a PC for heavy scientific computing. It seems like a good plan to get 64-bit hardware and run Vista-64, even if I'll still be running 32-bit software for a while. But with a 64-bit OS, how much will that complicate getting drivers for everything? I don't want to make this any more complicated than it has to be.

 

Thanks for your help!