How To - Create a Windows XP 32bit Digital Audio Workstation (and installing on AMD Socket FM2+ hardware).

Part 1, Introduction.
This guide is being written for a Digital Audio Workstation but it can be used to build any type of Workstation, you can just skip the parts that do not apply to you. Because XP will be installed on AMD Socket FM2+ you can also use this guide to install Windows XP 32bit on Socket FM2+ hardware.

People are still coming to Win-Raid because they want to install Windows XP on modern hardware. I prefer to use XP as a Digital Audio Workstation(DAW) instead of Windows 7 and Windows 10 and my AMD A88X(Socket FM2+) motherboards and A8-7600(Kaveri) A10-7890K(Godavari) APU’s and 880K CPU have all official AMD working Display(for the APU’s) and Chipset drivers. For this topic i will be using the A8-7600 APU, Gigabyte-GA-F2A88XM-DS2P-REV-1.0 motherboard, a single stick of Crucial Ballistix Tactical 4GB 2133 DDR3 ram and a Western Digital Green 120GB SSD and a DVD-RW internal SATA drive to install XP. A very simple and inexpensive setup by todays standards but still more than capable for many tasks, something many people forget.

Windows XP responds very well on modern hardware with just a few simple tweaks here and there, you dont have to go mad removing things from it with nLite. KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid. I will be creating an nLite Last Session preset incorporating some basic essential tasks - see Part 4 below. There will be an Optional batch file that will be used after 1st Logon to disable services.

Note about CPU choice. The A8-7600 runs at 3.1GHZ, the A10-7890K runs at 4.1GHZ. Out of interest i want to see how much faster a faster cpu would render a 4 minute 16bit 44.1khz Wav file to 16bit 44.1khz 320mbps MP3. Using REAPER DAW with the LAME encoder with the same slowest(highest quality) settings for each run i rendered the wav file with the cpu at 100mhz steps from 3.1GHZ to 4.3GHZ(overclocked). There was a 2.5 second difference. A £60 apu was only 2 and a half seconds slower than a £130 apu. Not a big difference in rendering time but a £70 price difference and that £70 would cover the motherboard purchase. Overclocking is a waste of time, keep your cpu at stock speeds.

Part 2, Some hardware considerations.
Two very important considerations.

Windows XP cannot correctly partition Advanced Format(4K) hard disk drives when they are new. Windows 7 can so create the partition using a running w7 system or format the drive using a w7 setup disk during the XP installation part, create the partition then exit the setup. Once you have formatted a Advanced Format(4K) hard disk drive for the 1st time using w7 you can format it later on from XP.

Windows XP cannot correctly partition a Solid State Drive(SSD). This is well known. Use the same method above for Advanced Format(4K) hard disk drives. Best advice is always format SSD’s and Advanced Format(4K) drives using Windows 7. If you dual boot XP and w7 this will not be a problem.

Part 3, Getting everything ready.
As you are already at Win-Raid you will already have all the working drivers you will need so i dont have to mention drivers.
A Windows XP Pro SP3 iso or CD.
nLite v1.4.9.3
Any other required software like .Net and C++ packs.

Part 4 onwards will be added once i have finished the process and written it all up. Please do not post here until i have completed the guide incase i need multiple posts due to character limits. :slight_smile:

Part 4 will be the nLite part of the process(see this topic). This will include update and driver integration, some component removals, an unattended installation, various tweaks and iso creation. There are driver integration topics in the XP sub section of the forum so you can refer to them.

Edit - Part 4 will be done today and written up ready to post tonight. :slight_smile: