EM

Depends on what you are doing with your computer as to what the upgrade of choice should be. What is the fastest cpu your current board will support? Would it be wiser to use the board you have and just get a faster processor? Also keep in mind you can get a couple of PIII 700e's and an ABIT VP6 for less than $500 and most likely will be able to put those cpus at 1gig. If you run Win2k (after all this is NTCompatible) then you will see a definite improvement in the general "feel" of the system with two cpus. With the VP6 you can set your memory speed to run at 100 while the Cpus run at 133 fsb. Just a couple of options. Ed

Actually there is tons of tweaking info at the forums at www.2cpu.com I am not using my MSI board at the present time and am looking to sell it if it interests you. I have had no trouble with it running the two 800 chips and 2x128 RAM that I had in it. It is the Pro model without the ata 100/raid stuff. $85 shipped in US. edmarvin@hotmail.com if interested.

Slot 1 or Socket 370 ships? The P6DBE only officially supports 100 FSB so you will be limited to using the Slot 1 1Ghz chips unless you are willing to try overclocking two 750's but there are no voltage tweaks on the board at all. I have that board so I can say with all honesty that it is rock stable with my GeForce2 MX and my SBLive OEM running 600e's @ 800 at default voltage. (I feel a little lucky at that since from what I have read most chips take a bit more voltage to go as high as mine do) Ed

The Tyan Tiger 133 is actually a slot 1 board. There are three dual socket 370 via based boards that I am aware of: The MSI 694D, the ABIT VP6 and the Asus CUV4X-DLS. All of these have been reviewed or have links to a review at www.2cpu.com I have used both the MSI and the ABIT boards. Very stable and with tweaking have performance levels close to but not quite at BX levels. All of the performance differences are in the memory throughput test on Sandra 2000. Real life performance, or how it feels, is the same as my Supermicro P6DBE, a BX based dual slot 1 board. Advantages of the Via based boards are the ability to use 133FSB without overclocking, ATA-100 built in, AGP 4x and Use processors upto 1ghz (although I am supposed to be able to use 1ghz slot1 processors on my P6DBE if I could actually buy any). Just a few thoughts on the matter. Ed

$42 a month on average. Portland, Oregon with Gas heat, water heater, stove and dryer. Run the AC occasionally in the summer. 5 computers (inc. Firewall) running 24/7 with 5 people living in the house. No real way to find out what the "average" monthly bill will be since everyone has different living habits which can affect the end bill. Do you like the TV on all the time? What about the stereo? Big Screen or 19" TV? Warm or cool house? Ed

I visit www.2cpu.com only because I use SMP machines exclusively and sometimes there are problems and fixes that only affect dual machines. Ed ------------------ Supermicro P6DBE Dual PIII 600 @800 Voodoo5 5500 ,Promise Fasttrak66 IDE Raid, SBLive

You could try reading the forums at www.2cpu.com THere is a lot of info regarding dual processor machines and the hardware/software that works with them, troubleshooting etc. there. Ed

...my two Win98 computers won't talk to each other nicely but my two Win2k computers can talk to both. I have four computers total, two Win98SE and two Win2k. Each Win98SE machine can talk to both of the Win2k machines and can see the other Win98SE machine. But I cannot do any sort of file transfer between the 98 machines without a message coming up after a minute or so that the network resource no longer exists. Using TCP/IP and static IP addresses. Any thoughts? Ed

I was hoping not to have to do that since many games etc require tcp/ip for multiplayer. Much simpler to only have to deal with tcp/ip then to add all the other stuff and then hope it works. Anybody know how to fix this problem? Ed

No offense meant. My question about long-winded useless threads would stand if the moderator himself had started it. I guess that some people are quick to attack and even quicker to take offense. Sorry to have hurt your feelings. Ed And I didn't even call anyone names.

I would agree with Sandoval here. Yes it is called NTCompatible BUT it is the OTHER forum. Posting irrelevant matter has been tolerated in the past so why change the rules now? A question for Mr Jdulmage. IF the OTHER forum is for computer discussion only, can we kill the insane thread about pissing everyone off? It may have at one time been about something computer releated but has long since degraded to a useless post used only to increase the number of posts that sits next someones name and we know that number of posts does not make one any better than those with only a few. My thoughts as a member registered before most of the "Senior" members. Ed

You could try www.2cpu.com They have a great forum there including a section on NT, Win2k and Linux as well as Hardware, Software, Video cards etc. Ed

What kind of trouble are you having exactly? I have installed the Sims and the Livin' Large expansion on my compuer with no trouble at all. On my wifes computer it is a different story. I have found that I have to install the Sims in its default directory and then install Livin' Large in its default directory for it to work on hers. It would come up with an error to insert the Livin' Large CD even though it was already installed and had started up the program with autorun. Ed

One thing that you might check. My Supermicro P6DBE has an option in the BIOS to enable PS2 mouse. I know that if it is not enabled I get no mouse if it is on the PS2 port. My USB mouse would work though even if it was disabled. Ed ------------------ Supermicro P6DBE Dual PIII 600 @800 Voodoo5 5500 ,Promise Fasttrak66 IDE Raid, SBLive

Do you mean increase the amount of time you have to make a choice on a dual boot system? If that is the case it set in the startup and recovery section of the advanced tab under the system icon in the control panel for Windows 2k. Not being an NT 4.0 person, I am not sure where it is if that is the OS you are using. Sometimes a little info is great even if it makes your post longer than a single sentance. Ed ------------------ Supermicro P6DBE Dual PIII 600 @800 Voodoo5 5500 ,Promise Fasttrak66 IDE Raid, SBLive

Exactly. Ed

Any time I have exceeded the limits of my monitor the display is just a bunch of squiggly lines. If you can see the display clearly then most likely you have not gone past the manufacturers limitations. Most any recently manufactured monitor will do 120 hz refresh rate @ 800x600. Especially a 22" but I could easily be wrong. My KDS 19" Trinitron does 120 @ 1024x768 no problem. Ed

I would try letting the BIOS test all the RAM which will normally allow enough time for hard drives to spin up. My BIOS also has the options to try booting from CD, Floppy, SCSI etc and I would imagine that putting my C: drive as the last option to boot from would also increase the boot up time. Ed

https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 is the URL of Gibson Research. Don't know how reliable the info is but the site is quite informative. Ed

Great option except I already have 512meg. Should be plenty for any game out there. Ed

Exactly. I went to tools in Outlook Express, added my hotmail account and bingo - works great. Ed

Read this message forum and you will find a possible answer to your question. http://www.2cpu.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000643.html Ed [ December 30, 2000: Message edited by: EM ]

No, never used or needed the private message feature. I figure that I can post what I need to say or use email if I want it "private". Ed

USB on the BP6 I had required MPS to be set at 1.1 in the BIOS or else USB would not work. Ed

I have always been curious as to what a consumer is supposed to do if they do NOT agree with the EULA that Microsoft requires agreement with. I mean that I can't read it until I open the package, open the shrink around the CD and place it into my CDRom drive. Only then can I read the EULA. If I don't agree with it what then? I can't return it to where I purchased it since it is now "opened" software but I was not given the opportunity to agree or disagree with the EULA without opening it. Since I don't agree with the EULA I am not "allowed" to use the software. But I can't return it. And I can't use it. Get the picture? Seems like the EULA is rather unenforcable since my options are so limited. After all the retail price at CompUSA is hovering around $279 US for Win2k PRO and I for one do not agree with any EULA being unavailable on the package for perusal before purchase. Seems a waste of money to buy a product only to not be allowed to use it as I want but also not be allowed to return it either. My personal standpoint (which could be wrong) is that as long as they insist that I have to agree with their EULA but do not make it available on the outside of the package, then I can do whatever I want with the product after purchasing it. This has been a bit of a sore point for me since the beginning of "click here if you agree". (BTW my Win2k is legit, I won it from Microsoft in their launch drawing). Ed ------------------ Supermicro P6DBE Dual PIII 600 @800 Voodoo5 5500 ,Promise Fasttrak66 IDE Raid, SBLive