Brian Frank

Well, I'm thinking of going to a dual system on my test box. I've been reading up, but I'm still a bit off on all of it. Mainly I'm concered with the stepping. I've heard the Abit VP6 has to have both cpu's as the exact same stepping. Does this apply to all dual cpu mobo's or not, cuz I'd kinda like to keep my P3 667 if possible. I'm considering these motherboards: Abit VP6, MSI 694D-Pro, Tyan Tiger 230. I want a stable, and realtively cheap setup, and any words of wisdom. If the VP6 is cheap enough, I'll go that route, but if not, I'll skip it. The MSI 694D-Pro is a strong contender, because I can get it locally for about $150-170, plus it's got some good options. But I'd like to make this a good setup in the end. BTW, I've heard the PIII 700 is a good overclocker; can anybody confirm this?

Well, now I need to get either a cB0 stepping or cC0 stepping, because I really don't want to have to buy two new P3's. Does anyone know where I can track down a place that will give me the exact stepping I want/need? I need a P3 667. BTW, go the MSI board today...boots up, and then I left it at that for the time being, no reason to get pissed this soon.

Yeah, WinDVD is great. I liked PowerDVD better, but WinDVD runs flawlessly.

Done some more research on the MSI board, and it seems to be on the money for me. Now I just have to track down a 667MHz P3 with either cB0 or cC0 stepping, hopefully cB0, but according to that Intel spec sheet (thanx DosFreak!) the cC0 cpus will work just fine. Hard OCP and Club Overclocker both gave it good reviews and it seems to be exactly what I want. Now just a little question with the stepping: Im assuming that the order of stepping, from oldest to newest, goes like this: cA2, cB0, cC0, right?

I'm beginning to lean hard toward the MSI board, just because of some of the tweaks, like voltage and cpu FSB for each CPU. Plus, I can get it cheaper than the VP6. Plus, even with different versions with extra goodies (Firewire, on-board sound--->lol!). Not to say the VP6 is out yet, but MSI has some very impressive boards from what I've read. Not to diss Abit, but MSI seems to be a good board for what it's worth. Can't afford the two cpu's though, unless I can find the exact same stepping for it as my current P3 667, I will have to. But I'm gonna try to sell this cheap little system that I haven't done jack with first... *sigh*. Thanks for all the info so far. Boy, there's a ton of stuff I still need to research yet on dual cpu's...

Make sure the RDRAM is PC800 not PC600. That will kill the performance. Yeah, definitely go look at it first and make sure it's a good name: Asus, Abit, MSI, Iwill, or Tyan. Better yet, make sure you can see the name on the mobo, it should be between the PCI slots. It does look like a good deal, but still, tred the waters carefully...

I know there's a registry setting, but since I use X-Setup, I really can't remember how. Look under HKEY_LOCAL MACHINE, somewhere, probably under the Microsoft-->Windows key, look for a file called Startup. I don't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure it's somewhere under HKEY_LOCAL MACHINE.

I don't know if this will help any, but here's a link to try: http://www.voodoofiles.com/3928

I've had problems running the manufacturer's doctored drivers so I just use the nVidia reference drivers. I've had the best luck with the 10.80 Detonator drivers.

Well, sort of. Somethings, the Kryo II was near the GF2 Ultra, sometimes not. Check out Anandtech and look for a preview/review of the Kryo II.

Which ones? The only ones that run under XP are the 1.04s for Win2k.

The Radeon cards would be great, but the drivers, especially under Win2k suck so hard it's not even funny. If ATI would get some good drivers out for Win2k, I actually might have one. But they don't. My Voodoo 4 4500 AGP ran better than a Radeon under Win2k. ATI hasn't really had what I would consider to be great, or in some cases decent, drivers under Win2k. They can run pretty well under Win9x, but that means jack to me. While the video quality is excellent, 2nd only to Matrox cards, that matters didly squat when it has horrible performance elsewhere. I have a friend who hasn't had any good luck with his Radeon. Benchmarks are great, but some magazines don't mention it's weaknesses. Benchmarks are crap with real world tests. ATI keeps failing on this. The only thing I can think of that's worse than ATI cards are video cards based on SiS chipsets. 32-bit color is nice, but not if you can't play your games. As ThC said,"Radeons suck under 2k." No joke.

I'm not worried, as I'm using a legal copy.

Whaddya think?

Ive looked in the registry, and I cant find the blasted thing. Is there an entry I can change? Does TweakUI work here? I hate Autoplay!!!Grrr

Alright! Someone else knows when the millenium really started!

What's your opinion?

I was thinking more along the lines of gaming. And I liked 3dfx. I'm hoping Nvidia will use their technology with future chips. Matrox never crossed my mind. Apologies to the Matrox only crowd.

I'd like to see if everything actually works this time, instead of "Will this work or not" game.

Hey, pimpin, how's the system coming along?

Maybe I'm wrong here, but didn't AOL 6.0 screw up some computers? Anyway, clutch, it's good to see I'm not alone on not going to XP. I've found it to be sub-par to Win2k. Just the way things are in XP just turns me off. I have a friend who stuck with 95 for the longest time, and my dad finally convinced him to go to 98 for better hardware support. Now he's stuck on 98, and probably will be for a long time. Rehash of what I said earlier: XP seems to be geared toward newbies, but it doesn't have that feel for a power user. I just get bad vibes off of XP in general. + AOL...EEEEEEEEWWWWWWW!!! 8) *shudder*

I was just recommending it if he wanted to get a new card. However, seeing as this is the only time I've seen someone have a problem with a TNT2, and an Ultra no less, I was thinking it had to be with the drivers. Unfortunately, I can only use my GF2MX as a reference, so the best drivers for my card may be totally wrong. I should've been more clear on the video card thing. A better comparison would be my Voodoo 3 3000 AGP. That runs HL just fine, so CS should be running smoothly on that TNT2Ultra, because it's closer in performance to the Voodoo 3's. I don't see why the TNT2 cards don't run CS fine, since HL is based on Quake and Quake II, and Voodoo 3's were out well after Quake was, so the technology is there. Sorry if I confused anyone. The TNT2's should be more than enough to run anything based on HL(CS, OpForce, etc.). So try the drivers David suggested, since he has a TNT2 card, and he's stated how well CS (right?) runs with that.

If you're in the market for a new card, a GeForce 2 MX-based card is good enough, and you can find ones for $100 or less easily. Open GL is supported by Win2k, and that's good, because HL and all Sierra games based on HL have a black screen when I exit the game, so I have to use Open GL. I can't say for sure, but the later 6.xx and 7.52 Det's are supposedly good for the TNT2's. For my GeForce 2 MX, I have had the best luck with the 10.80 Det's.

Man, I hate to think how this will end up. Another reason to consider Linux right now. I'm not sure what's worse: this evil alliance or the activation crap. Here's the dark side of the force: Microsoft + AOL. I'm beginning to think MS isn't targeting any of the power users anymore and just Joe Schmoe the first time computer user. I'm not saying it's a bad thing to make Windows easier to use, but it seems that this is at the expense of power toys. If this is the route MS is going with Windows, then hello Linux!

Compaq does not make the motherboard, so you may be able to find out who makes it. Look between the PCI and ISA slots to find out. If you can get this info, you should be able to get better info that what Compaq is giving you.