Brian Frank

Uhh...I dont mean to be an @ss about this Via thing, but I havent had problems. Ive heard about Via's problems in the past, but I think SiS and ALi put out some pretty sorry chipsets in comparison with Via. And Via is really the only choice for AMD cpu owners now, cause AMD doesnt have the greatest chipsets, and Intel, of course, wont make chipsets to support AMD. I really wish there would be a price war on video cards like the one between Intel and AMD.

Ouch!

Uhmmm...why would I want to do that. Thats a pcs job, y'know.

Well, Ive got a copy of Linux-Mandrake 7.1, but 7.2 supports the SB PCI, and Ive heard that LM 8.0 is in beta right now. I believe I'll wait for that version to come out. I know enough to just get around, but I can see where Linux wont become preinstalled on any new pcs for awhile. Its just fun to see how another OS runs. Id try the Mac OS out if I could run it on a pc.

Yup, I did that too. That bios flashing from within Windows was great.

Jdulmage, I agree that nVidia should use 3dfx's technology. I really think that would be one stellar card put out--providing its not exorbantly expensive like the GF3. nVidia has the raw muscle that 3dfx cards dont; 3dfx cards have much better picture quality that nVidias card dont. And if these would combine, and both weaknesses on either side were ironed out, that would be an awesome combo. Id really like to see it happen, but not if nVidia tes the market. ATI has some serious driver issues to work out, and fast. nVidia's and 3dfx's drivers are much better than what ATI has put out concerning Win2k or Win9x. The only thing ATI has going for them is the stellar DVD playback. Picture quality is pretty good too, but I still think 3dfx cards excelled in that area.

Uhh...Ive had no problems with nVidia's cards, or drivers. The ol Riva 128 ran fine, and so does the GF2 MX with nVidia drivers. Whatever works for you. If you dont do a lot of gaming I guess the Matrox cards would do you very well. ATI would be much better--if they would refine their drivers in general, especially under Win2k. But kudos to Matrox though for getting drivers out first for Win2k. Let me ask this: Who in their right mind would spend $600 for one component. I have yet to spend over $200 on one single piece of hardware. You can buy a new, albeit just a word processor and net surfing machine, for that price. Also, this is just the first GF3--plain GF3--just wait til the GF3 Ultra comes out. I think theres a point where some components prices are insane. Id take one if I won it, but I sure as hell wouldnt buy it.

Vmware is okay, and since you'd just be using dos, you wouldnt have to sacrifice a lot of resources. I personally would do a dual boot, since the OS's I end up running function much better that way. But Vmware should be just the ticket for you. You may want to up your ram a little if its 128megs, because VMware will take away some ram to run the os-but its whatever you define it as.

Cool. If I get any new version of Linux, the ISA sound card will go. I thought these specs would be okay, but just wanted to make sure.

Beat'cha to it! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah ahhhhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! (run around like a mad man, hahahaha, hee hee) hehehe, suckaz.

A N D A G A I N ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

In other Worthless news: We All have nO LifE ! ! ! ! ! ! YEaH!

Y' know, we're way off the original topic of "I dont mean to everyone off..." hehehe

Your on Igor.

Make sure youve got at the least a 250 Watt Power supply, but a 300 is much better. Also, do you defrag your hard drive? That could cause a lot of slowdown. Id also check around to see if any of your problems may have to do with the SB Live. Creative doesnt seem to have very good support. Check your ram if you have more than one stick, take one out at a time and leave the other ones in. If not, see if you can borrow a stick to test things out with-just make sure its at least 128MB, or you will be really slow. You may also want to make sure you have the latest virus definitions just to make sure you have the best defense against the viruses.

I agree with TheC 129. MS has to really get this one right, after all ME wasnt the greatest OS theyve put out. They're gonna have to make people really, really, really want to upgrade. The 9x line needs the stability jump more than anything, so that is definately a motivator on that end, but I think its going to be a little harder to convince the business world as easily. Windows costs big bucks, and not all businesses may upgrade just because, especially in the case of Win2K, it works like they like it to. Plus lets not forget time and guys that are paid to test the OS out for problems. Although I dont know why any huge business would run on Win9x, when you can run Win2k or even Linux. MS is gonna crash and burn if XP doenst fly. Sure there are a lot of features to motivate an upgrade, but I dont think everyone wants these features. I personally didnt like Media Player 7, the sound was horrible. I wasnt to fond of Movie Maker being installed. As for System Restore, good idea, but Im pretty sure that alot of people are a greedy miser when it comes to hard drive space. I sure am, and I wont use it if its just to big. I know you can limit the space it takes up, but still, if you have 40GB of stuff, thats a whole lot to restore. XP seems to be aimed solely at newbies, not power users like alot of people here. I like to do a lot of stuff by myself, I CD-ROM autoplay, I dont like anything executing without me doing it. Hopefully, this 9x/NT mix will be spectacular, but proceed with caution...and remember ME.

Uhh... the CD-R's Ive seen have a blue back as far as the shiny, laser-read side. I'd say youve got yourself an illegal copy, there. Better report it to MS. Or smack the guy that sold you it. BTW, just buy a copy from the store that's in a box. No probs that way.

Thanks, but Ive fixed it. Applied the UDF latest version, and got nVidia's Det. drivers, and the problem went away.

Well, Ive run Det. 7.52 and 10.80, they work great.

Pimpin228, get Xteq X-Setup. Loads of tweaks, hidden features, also you can enable overclocking GF2's w/o extra programs. Works on a GF2 MX. 10.80 Det. right here. My PIII 667 with only PC100 running at 100MHz (performance hit right there) 192MB of it, and a Voodoo 3 3000 AGP can hit 2100's just by tweaking, and its under Win2k. My score on ME is closer to 3000's, but my main rig as it stands now has hit 4621, see sig line: (for the zillionth time in this post) ------------------ Whaazzzupppppppppp! Asus A7V Duron 800@912MHz 384 MB SDRAM PC133 Samsung 48x CD-ROM Toshiba 12x DVD-ROM Zip CD650 USB 4/4/6 Zip 100 USB Maxtor 20.4 GB ATA100 Hercules Prophet II MX (core:196MHz ram:197MHz) Guillemot Maxi Sound Fortissimo SIIG 3 port 1394 PCI Adapter D-Link DFE-530 10/100 NIC Creative Cambridge Soundworks FPS1000 MS Intellimouse Optical Kleer 17-inch @ 85Hz 1152x864x32 desktop Kiwi Orb Fan with additional CoolerMaster strapped onto one side HDD cooler pulling air in Dual slot fan to suck air out Case fan to suck air out Dual 80mm fans to blow on cards.

Cool.

Common rule: most people who screw stuff up on their computer are too stupid to know jack about keeping it safe. Kinda like people who see the nuke launcher button and go "I wonder what would happen if I pushed this?" Go to http://www.dumbentia.com and look for the StupidaMouse. It's for stupid users. BTW, we dropped AOL cuz they tried to double bill us. AOL and Rambus are 2 companies I will boycott. [This message has been edited by Brian Frank (edited 19 March 2001).]

I think XP LOOKS lame too, but Im not saying it IS lame. I cant justify the upgrade from Win2k, but from ME, Id say go to it ASAP! Right now there's nothing motivating me to upgrade. And Im also waiting to see what bugs pop up in the final release. Im assuming MS has learned from the failure of Windows ME. ME sucked, but that does not mean that XP will. If you dont like it, dont upgrade to it. Id like to test it out first. MS has some thing other than beta testers, like some pre-release deal...not sure exactly. I signed up for it, as it could be realtively cheap if its not the retail version, just for trying it out, Id probably jump at that. Ive got a machine ready to go with an extra partiton set for another OS. BTW, can XP run under a FAT32 filesystem?

Well, Cynan, looking at your specs, you probably dont have to worry, having a dual cpu setup. Norton does take some resources to run, and I ususally turn it off, but I leave ZA on. Im beginning to think that thats as big of a problem as I first thought, because my dad has a slightly slower pc than mine except he's got 2 7200RPM hard drives, and Im not sure if that contributes to his slight performance gain over mine. I really shouldnt worry, eventually the way nVidia's drivers are going, I should overtake him even with his 5.12 detonators. The best performance for me is 10.80. I'll snag the latest and greatest drivers as long as they dont have problems.

That memory will work fine with T-Birds with the 100MHz (x2 DDR). Go with whatever cpu is best priced or what you can afford. Just remember to invest in a good heatsink fan combo. If you do go with the Abit board, make sure that the HSF can fit on the board, as some larger ones cant fit due to components being too close to the socket. The Asus A7V and A7V133 have no problems with any HSF that Ive heard of.