pvg

Can't beat my ZX Sinclair running CP/M for raw, down to the metal performance. them rubber keys are a real prodoctivity boost, you natural keyboard whippersnappers! -pvg tangra@#ntcompatible

You can get the files without the hoops of windows update here: http://www.microsoft.com/Windows2000/downloads/ You want the critical update: http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/downloads/critical/q253934/default.asp And the app support update: http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/downloads/deployment/appcompat/default.asp -pvg

I use a DPT RAID controller (the Decade), check out www.dpt.com. They were recently aquired by adaptec. DPT claims their controllers do more in hardware than Adaptec's. I don't know to what degree that is true, i went with DPT because the controller was more expandable and had far better support on various OSes (NT, win2k, win9x, Linux, FreeBSD). I run a dual disk raid 0 volume and am very happy with the performance. I got the RAID array to improve the performance of the machine in typical disk intensive sofwtware development tasks (compiles, running app-servers, rdbms'es, etc). The current DPT controllers are i2o devices, they work fine with win2k with an i2o driver provided by DPT. I've been running it with all versions from beta3 through to final. While you're shopping around, also check out Mylex at http://www.mylex.com. I used to pretty much default to Adaptec for all my SCSI hardware but a few suboptimal experiences made me look into the alternatives. The Adaptec controller may be the right choice for you but you it's worth looking into the other options. -pvg [This message has been edited by pvg (edited 14 February 2000).]

I've had the 'random lockup' problems when running q3a on my Guillemot DDR Geforce under win2k and NT ever since the AGP enabled drivers came out. I've finally managed to get it working reliably with the 3.75 drivers. I replaced my 275W power supply (which was inadequate for this machine even without the GeForce issues) with a 425 one - it can feed the 3.3 line with up to 40A. One of the characters from ABIT who posts on usenet claims the GeForce can draw up to 16A under heavy load (which is more than the 12 to 14A most psu's provide). The combined power output for +5V and +3.3V is 300W, compared to the 150W on my old psu. Again, posts by abit people indicate that 150W _minimum_ on 3.3V and 5V is required for the BP6 to operate properly. I still had problems after replacing the PSU but they were less frequent. I then moved the PCI card right next to the AGP slot to another slot to create more space and to improve cooling. I also pointed one of my case fans directly at the geforce. After that I was able to run q3a in smp mode (3.75 drivers) both on win2k and nt (latest reference drivers) without any problems. I've run at least an hour's worth of timedemos in various configurations without problems - my old setup would lock up within one or two demos max. I'll probably look for a better heatsink/fan for the geforce gpu itself to nail cooling completely and move my case fan to its normal position. Here are my system's specs: BP6, 2 Celeron 466, 66FSB 256MB PC100 ECC SDRAM GeForce 256 DDR SB Live Value 3Com 3C905 EtherLink 10/100 NIC DTP Decade Smartcache V SCSI RAID Controller two 9.1GB Atlas IV LVD SCSI Drive, RAID 0 Kenwood TrueX 72x IDE CDRom Castlewood ORB Drive, IDE Internal Generic floppy 425W PC Power & Cooling PSU I'm running NT4 Server sp5 and Win2k Server final. AGP Apeture size is 128MB. -pvg P.S. Hmm, looks like I picked the wrong icon for this topic... Was supposed to be a thumbs up. [This message has been edited by pvg (edited 14 February 2000).]