IF you can get all your flight controls working, yes Win2K can be the best OS you've ever run.
The first thing to do is ask around if anybody is running your flight controls in Win2k to find out if there are any issues there. If that will work OK, you can move forward. Next, you must look at what video card you have. From what I have seen and heard, nVidia's Win2k drivers are pretty good, while ATI's for the Radeon for example, suck. Assuming you are OK here, lets talk about installing Win2k Pro.
First off, lets talk about RAM. Really, you will not see much improvement over about 256 Megs of RAM unless you are running some heavy stuff in the background while you fly AH. The law of diminishing returns kicks in at about 256 in Win2k, so while it will use more RAM, you don't likely NEED any more RAM, and won't see a difference. Unless you are editing video or running photoshop all the time, 256 should be enough. Spend the extra getting really good quality RAM like Mushkin or Crucial that is CAS 2 PC133.
Now assuming everything is in order, there is something you should do before you install Win2k Pro. Go into the BIOS on your mainboard and DISABLE ACPI. Trust me on this one. If it is enabled, Win2k will try to use ACPI and force all of your PCI cards onto one IRQ. Yuck. While this will work OK in most cases, gamers may have problems with things like sound cards that don't work as well as they should on ACPI. On top of that if you have problems, with ACPI there is NOTHING you can do to change it after you install. Once Win2k is installed with ACPI support you are screwed, and the only way to turn it off is to re-install the OS with ACPI disabled in BIOS. Save yourself a lot of potential hassle and disable ACPI before you install. You will have to plan your IRQ usage without ACPI, but if you need help ask on this board and myself and others will be glad to help.
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Lephturn - Chief Trainer
A member of The Flying Pigs
http://www.flyingpigs.com "A pig is a jolly companion, Boar, sow, barrow, or gilt --
A pig is a pal, who'll boost your morale, Though mountains may topple and tilt.
When they've blackballed, bamboozled, and burned you, When they've turned on you, Tory and Whig,
Though you may be thrown over by Tabby and Rover, You'll never go wrong with a pig, a pig,
You'll never go wrong with a pig!" -- Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow"
