Brian Frank

I do know that Pioneer makes one just under $1000 USD. Unfortunately, I can't remember which issue of a magazine I saw this in. Otherwise I could tell you the number for it. I'd check their website and look around. I also think LaCie is making one--but they tend to make some pretty expensive models, and they're usually SCSI only, which is probably a good thing for DVD burners. Other than that, I don't think I've heard to much about 'em other than that these companies make them. I'm sure there are others, but I can't think of them right now.

If I don't need it, "I don't give a damn." I don't pay much attention to Java, but it seems everytime I get some patch regarding Java, it's always about protecting me from some nasty hacking hole in the system. Life sux.

Yeah, heat is bad dood. Don't forget to get some good heat compound between the heatsink and the duron core.

I just have a question: Why the hell would you run Win2k on a P200? Sure enough ram can make that thing run decently, but still...seems like a waste of time to me. Of course I like to be fast...

That man is an idiot, or uneducated, or both. He also had a good sales person, maybe Gateway--as they were telling some people I know that the P4 is the fastest chip out (it's not of course). I'd advise you to show him some benchmarks from highly reliable sources like Tom's Hardware or Anandtech or Sharky Extreme. He may not believe you still, but you can at least laugh at the ignorance Intel makes it's money from. All I can say to this is "There's a sucker born every minute." If you want a faster GF2, the Pro's are pretty cheap, like $150 USD--sometimes that includes tax! And the Pro's are pretty close to the performance of the Ultra's and you can always do some overclocking too.

ATI is horrible about support in general, and especially under Win2k. I had a Voodoo 4 4500 AGP that performed better than the 32MB DDR Radeon in Win2k. Any nVidia card will run better than the RADEON's, despite the benchmarks, the drivers make or break the hardware. My serious advice to you is get a GeForce 2. The Pro's can be found online for $150 easily, and sometimes that includes shipping. GF3's will run about $400, but it all depends on your budget. I would take that Radeon back and buy a card with good drivers--pick a GeForce ANY GeForce. Win2k may not be designed for games, but I have found that if you have a fairly beefy system you can run games just fine. ATI had better get crackin' on NT-based OS drivers as XP will be based on the NT code.

Oh let's see here: THE PENTIUM 4 IS CRAP RIGHT NOW! That "400MHz system bus" is pure crap. It's just got 4 pipelines running at 100MHz each x 4 but that DOES NOT make it a 400MHz system bus. RDRAM is expensive and really doesn't show performance increases over DDR or SDR SDRAM. Tell your friend he just got ripped off. Tell him he should've waited 6 months for the P4 to come out with DDR and SDR support. Better yet tell him to take it back and get an Athlon or Pentium III-based system, because he will get better performance and not be paying out the nose for crap. The P4 in it's current state is pitiful. If it had been in line with the orgininal plans, it could've been a killer chip. The L1 cache is a fraction of what the original specs called for, the L3 cache was going to be optional, but Intel dropped that. They also made the mistake of using the most hated memory *standard* as the sole option for the P4. Also, your friend is going to be stuck once Intel stops making P4's in the Socket 423 format for the microPGA socket 478 when the "Northwood" comes out soon. Your buddy just got screwed over royally.

Of course, it would be nice to see 10K rpm IDE drives ya know.

Have you checked your BIOS settings regarding the AGP parts? For the AGP Driving Value, I have my jacked all the way up to FF, and the AGP set at 4x. You also might want to snag the 1007 BIOS if you don't have that. It fixed problems I didn't even know were even remotely related to the BIOS. I'm running an MX and I get smooth framerates. Of course, once I get that GF2Pro in my duallie, things are gonna fly like hell:D Yup, check yer bios settings.

Yeah, I'd stick with Nvidia right now. My Voodoo 3 ran slick as ice in Beta 2, but since 3dfx cards have been dropped from XP, I had to get a GF2 card. The MX200 runs like hell--slower in Win2k, but runs flawlessly in XP. I'm probably gonna get my money back and get a regular MX tho. In case I don't get XP right away when it comes out, that is.

Okay, I've got my duallie rig set up with an MSI 694D Pro and a 300W Premier PSU. I just came home and found the machine didn't wake up, so I figured someone screwed around an locked up the PC. Wrongo! Now I'm lucky to see anything on the screen. No beeps, but the D-LED is all red, indicating it's powering up. Me thinks its the PSU, but I'd like to see what everyone else says first. Help...quickly...

Nevermind about the MSI. It crapped out and I got an Abit VP6 instead. Getting 2 800MHz P3's tommorrow.

NO MOTHERBOARD CAN RUN 2CPU'S ASYNCHRONOUSLY! The MSI 694D can run different steppings cuz of independent voltage control, but they MUST, absolutely MUST, run at the same speed. While yes, you can run these--theoretically--you'd have to run them at 750MHz, or overclock the 750 to 800, but that's going to be tricky without the independent voltage controls. You shouldn't have too hard of a time tracking down another 800MHz, just check to make sure you've got the same stepping.

I like using the 10.80 dets. I played with the dets up through the 12.10s, and they just weren't getting any faster, and the 10.80's were the fastest I've tested. That's what I'd do.

3dfx cards are getting dumped from XP. You'll have to stick with Win2k or get an nVidia card. Life sux.

I'm loading XP only on my duallie once I pick up my P3 800's tommorrow, and I'll let ya know how I fair. Just need to get the newest drivers here, and I'm all set.

Which one have u guys used. I just swapped my MSI 694D--that crapped out yesterday--for the Abit VP6, and am gonna run RC1 on it.

Hey, thanx man!

Yup, I agree with Dos. You really think any profession is totally free from any illegal operations? MS itself has done plenty of illegal things, but some of the accusations on the trial are more from people being pissed off than anything else. E-mail me with the RC2 patches, I want to try 'em out. I do have a perfectly legal copy from the XP preview program--RC1&2, so I'm not covering my trax. I just don't want MS stalking me.

Well the MSI crapped out under XP too. I'll see how it runs on a VP6.

It's highly unplayable because with the 12.41's, I move the mouse but the screen is so delayed, I can do a 360 before the screen follows. So I quit after about a minute; it's too unplayable like that. Which dets r u using? I've also had some issues with the motherboard on that system, but UT was running smooth as ice on the mx200 dood. I'm puzzled at why it wouldn't run well in HL but run soooo smooth in UT, as UT is obviously more graphix intesive.

I know the 12.41's WHQL ran UT fine, but they sucked *** when playing HL and that whole slew of addons. I've yet to try out Serious Sam, but if UT was any indication, its going to rock. And this was on an MX 200 with only a 64-bit path. It sucked so hard under Win2k it wasn't funny.

I have never ever had a good upgrade from an OS. Linux takes forever--I'm serious when I say it was a day--and Windows gets fouled up everytime I've done an upgrade. Seriously, save yourself the pain an agony of a reinstall later on and do the clean install now. Better safe than sorry... Don't say ya weren't warned...

Okay, I'm just gonna go with XP now. The new PSU fixed the power-up problems. I'll be hanging around the XP sections more now. I'll let ya know how the duallie goes, and maybe some overclockin' goodness:p

I would not use NetBEUI if it was up to me, but its not. My dad calls the shots on this, and I don't see it being a good idea to mess with the settings he wants. Otherwise, I'd be doing it with the IP addresses.