Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: Apache on July 11, 2002, 09:22:30 AM
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I currently run Windows 98SE for my gaming PC, mainly for compatibility issues with my Voodoo5500. It runs fine.
I was considering upgrading to XP but I'm a little leary because I'm not sure what it will do to my vid card. I'm aware there are 3rd party drivers available but if anyone here is running XP with a 3dfx card, I'm curious if you ran into any difficulties.
Thanks in advance
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Just FYI (http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=58403).
141$ in Pricewatch which btw is 70$ less than what that card cost here :/
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I'm running a system with Windows 2000 Pro and the Voodoo 5500. I wont go the XP route because I just don't think its the great OS is cracked up to be....at least not yet.
Anyways, I'm using the standard drivers (from 3DFX) and when I did a Windows Update a few months back, noted Microsoft had a new driver for the 3DFX card. Seems to work fine.
My system is a AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (1.666ghz) w/256mb ram (PC133) and a SCSI RAID hard drive(s). In Aces, I am seeing 79FPS with FSAA off, 39~65 FPS with FSAA x2. It works quite nicely. However, games that use the Quake engine are problematic at best.
If you've been following the other threads, my new system uses a GeForce 4 4600. Problem is the GigaByte motherboard is defective, so I'm on the old system until I get the new MSI motherboard (two gaming systems, isn't life good? :D ). You might want to consider a GeForce 4 4200 or 4400 and dump the 3DFX card altogether. I'm finding more and more games will not work with it. Even the 3D Game Studio software hates it.
Summary: Dump the 3DFX card in favor of a GeForce 4, and go Windows 2000 Professional. I bought a copy of Win2k at GoogleGear.Com for $138 last week.
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While Win2k is excellent and I really like it, I've found there are features I just really want that come with XP. Cleartext is the big one. I really like the UI upgrade as well. Other than that, XP is largely Win2k under the covers anyway.
Right now I also run Win98SE and a V5 5500. It still gets along just fine. However, I want to go XP for the features it brings, so I've upgraded. I've got a case, PS, Abit NV7-133R mainboard, and 512 MB of DDR Ram sitting here now ready to rock. Next week the drives (Dual Matrox 40 Gig quite bearing in RAID 1), the CPU, and the CDR get here. I'll dig up a floppy someplace for it. :)
But yep... Win2K rocks. So far XP has been 2K with some extra features. I run XP at work now on a couple of boxes, and now I really want it on my home box bad. XP has been almost as rock solid as Win2k. I had one weird little hitch with the shell sucking up 70% CPU, but I seemed to have cured that with some driver updates. Oh, and that was with leaving the workstation running 24x7. No crashes or reboots here.
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Win2000= NT 5.0
WinXP = NT 5.1
Both are good thought XP is having better support for games. My old W2k couldn't run all games but in XP they work like a dream.
btw I hate that colourfull UI in WinXP. Firts thing I did after installation I changed theme to old windows :)
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Big difference, which no one seems to mention, is you do not get stcuk with a subscription with W2K, and you do with XP.
Personally, I do not like to be told I HAVE to pay MS in 2 years just to keep my computer running.
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Originally posted by Skuzzy
Big difference, which no one seems to mention, is you do not get stcuk with a subscription with W2K, and you do with XP.
Personally, I do not like to be told I HAVE to pay MS in 2 years just to keep my computer running.
Hallelujah! Amen and pass the 2k brother!
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I'm with Skuzzy and CaveJ on this one, WinXP will never be on my system as long as Microsoft persists with product activation. Neither will any other piece of Microsoft software with it (Office XP).
Windows 2000 may be the last Microsoft OS I'll ever own. Once it's gone, I'll just switch to Linux.
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Lepaul which Motherboard do you have I wanted to upgrade to an Athlon XP System but I was afraid I would lose all my PC133 RAM since I thought DDR Ram was a requisite . Please I hope you did mean PC133 :eek: . If So, stability wise what chipset Etc :D
BTW XP Is great no crashes for me lock ups ETC . I have found though in my other PC that it is touchy with CD burning also some programs like Antivirus or Office 2002 might not work if you change from FAT32 to NTFS apparently the latter is much less compatible and may cause some programs not to install , I have heard. So far all games have installed in my system no problems with it and are very stable. It still has some quirks but stability wise is rock solid.
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So far, Windows XP Pro. has been awesome for me. Even more stable than Windows 2000 (for some reason Win2k is slow and crashes on my system) and its very fast.
I also dislike product activation. What I did was get a pirated version of the corporate edition wich you dont have to activate. I have not problem with this since I own a legit copy of XP Pro, and I dont give a diddly about Microsoft.
If they get more strict with the activation crap, I'll do as Skuzzy will: Linux. Wich will suck, becasue I really dislike Linux (I rarely use my Mandrake installation)
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Originally posted by Animal
I also dislike product activation. What I did was get a pirated version of the corporate edition wich you dont have to activate. I have not problem with this since I own a legit copy of XP Pro, and I dont give a diddly about Microsoft.
Me thinks yer in fer a surprise......
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What, I'm gonna get busted or something?
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Originally posted by Glasses
Lepaul which Motherboard do you have I wanted to upgrade to an Athlon XP System but I was afraid I would lose all my PC133 RAM since I thought DDR Ram was a requisite . Please I hope you did mean PC133 :eek: . If So, stability wise what chipset Etc :D
I have 2 Athlon XP Systems now. Both have MSI boards now.
One has the KT133 chip, which uses the PC133 ram (I have 256mb on that system) along with the Voodoo 5 and a SCSI hard drive/RAID 5 setup. The model eludes me at the moment but its a fairly zippy system. However the MSI KT3 Ultra board really is substanially faster.
System 2 uses MSI KT3 Ultra (not ARU). I have 512mb DDR 2100/ECC ram and a Maxtor IDE ata133 hard drive in that system, as well as the GeForce 4 4600. That machine just flies, its really sweet. Nominal price difference on the ram and motherboards, so I'd really suggest a DDR board.
Ask Bloom, we've been haggling this motherboard issue all week :)
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I love XP Pro
however in the not too distant future I will likely go to w2k for the reasons Skuzzy mentioned above
MSI K7T turbo 2
XP1800+ (@1900+)
512 pc 133 ram
sblive
gf4 mx
2 hdd's
SKurj
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Skurj,
The jump from a PC133 RAM system to DDR is quite something. Im running the Athlon Xp 2000 cpu and its well worth it
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Originally posted by Animal
What, I'm gonna get busted or something?
Originally posted by Skuzzy
If it is the corporate version, the time started when the license was acquired and is embedded in the installation key. Basically, if the company that purchased the license lets you go or goes under, then at expiration time you will have to purchase a new copy of XP, or whatever they are shipping.
You can read the license agreement from MS to find all this out, by the way.
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BD5... i can't justify the expense of a new mobo and replace all that ram... I hardly think the performance boost is worth the $300 canuck bux. And lookin at 3dmark scores... it sure isn't +)
SKurj
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Animal, all I can say is I hope you don't plan on installing Service Pack 1 when it comes out... ;)
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Computer with DDR is about 5-15% faster than one with SDR-ram.
I just built a computer with 1,2GHz AMD Duron and 256megs SDR-ram from "left overs" (Abit KT7a, Radeon 64 vivo, Terratec 512i soundcard). Not as fast as 1,51GHz TB with 768DDR but runs every game I tried so far.
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I absolutely love XP. Best OS I've run without a doubt.
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Originally posted by bloom25
Animal, all I can say is I hope you don't plan on installing Service Pack 1 when it comes out... ;)
Yeap, I know that in SP1 many stolen corporate CD-Keys will be blocked.
However, I already know a way around this.
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Lepaul interesting since KT133 my Current MB has that chipset it's an Abit K7T-RAID motherboard do you know by any chance if it will run with XP CPUs or would I need another Motherboard entirely that has KT133 and is meant to Run Athlon XPs.
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I wouldn't install XP on my computer if you paid me.
Win98SE still runs everything I want and because I PAY ATTENTION to the hardware and software I put in/on it, it's quite stable. The only thing that causes lockups on my computer (irritatingly enough) are the latest versions of internet explorer, outlook express, and media player.
I've had uptimes in excess of a month with win98SE with no slowdown playing games at the end of that time. MS can kiss my ass. I won't buy any MS operating system beyond win98SE until they either drop the roadkill licensing scams or I finally come across some software I give a crap about that won't run on win98SE.
I haven't found one yet. In fact, the sooner they stop "supporting" win98SE, the better because the licenses attached to their "security updates" have clauses that give them the right to prevent your computer from running non-microsoft software and manipulating the data on your own computer.
I have yet to find any reason to upgrade past win98SE, so I won't support microsoft's efforts to dictate what I can and cannot do with my own computer.
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Glasses check the ABIT website...
I have an ASUS A7V 133a later revisions can take the XP cpu's earlier versions cannot..
and my MSI KT133 board can..
SKurj
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That's what I thought , TO THE Abit CAVE!!!
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Well Apparently my KT7 although it has channels or 266 apparently cannot handle XP CPUs with PC133 RAm well children give me some suggestions(sorry for hijacking :D )
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Glasses if your mobo is KT7a it should be capable to handle AMD XP's but if there's no letter 'a' there's no hope :D
If you need to buy a new mobo you should look these first:
http://www.tomshardware.com/mainboard/02q2/020509/index.html
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/index.html
btw here's my System (http://www.kolumbus.fi/staga/system.gif). My second pc is having KT7a and it could handle XP's too but it's just a server/storage pc so there's no need for power like that :)
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Oh no, the infamous Tom's Hardware review. Do NOT buy that Gigabyte board. It's got serious troubles with high power consumption video cards. GeForce 4 Titanium cards do not work well on it (even though it now includes a piece of paper that says "fully compatible" with them).
My new system uses an Asus A7N266-C board, which I'm very happy with. If you want a stable system and aren't too interested in doing any serious overclocking, it's a great board. (It uses the nVidia nForce 415 chipset.)
I haven't yet personally built a KT333 based system, but from what I'm reading the MSI KT3 Ultra is a pretty good board. AKWarp likes the Soyo KT333 based board, which seems pretty nice as well.
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Using an ASUS A7M266 with AMD761 and Via chipsets with athlonXP1600 256DDR windows 98SE , GF4 and the system screams. I've found personally that ASUS boards perform better then others with Athlon CPU's. Owned 3 ASUS boards without a hitch.
Hajo
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Well there's a little trouble with that Stag because I saw something that said the Mobo revision 1.3 of the KT7A does accept XP CPUs with a BIOS Update but apparently, don't know though, the KT7A I have since they were made before the XP CPUs were released in the ABIT FAQ said they are not useable,but KT7A v1.3 is.
Also in this article mentions the KT133A I would think I have a KT133 and a 686A South Bridge although the latter's new revision B only adds support for ATA 100.
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Bloom...
The word "Gigabyte" is now hereby forbidden and causes intense, ulcer-like pain :p :D
When I returned that Giga-Mmmphhh (can't say it...the pain!) to the dealer Friday, he chuckled that I'd head the advice of TomsHardware. He pointed out Tom has also reccomended some phenomenally crappy brands like EPOX, among others.
Tom's is good reading. But I had a great experience with my first MSI motherboard (K7 Turbo 2) and should've stayed loyal to the brand I liked. But Nooooo I wanted to have the biggest and baddest system, per the gurus, and man, I got burned.
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Originally posted by Animal
Yeap, I know that in SP1 many stolen corporate CD-Keys will be blocked.
However, I already know a way around this.
Do tell :D
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