Admiral LSD

I can't remember if I had that update or not (was it rolled into a service pack at all? SP1? I remember having to uninstall SP1 once because APPCOMPAT wouldn't work properly with it installed) but I'm positive I didn't need it since after discovering APPCOMPAT.EXE I was able to install and run it under the release build of 2k without any hassles (save the registry tangles).

Hmmm... He mentions that once he gets the OS installed the card will work fine, that wouldn't strike me as a power supply issue since if it were wouldn't it screw up in the OS too? More likely is that the generic video driver loaded by 2k setup isn't fully compatible with the GF4.

Given that most dedicated servers don't load any of the games graphics code you really shouldn't need that much grunt at all. Anything around the minimum (and maybe a bit less depending on the game) requirements for the game should be able to handle it no problem.

Have you tried repairing the IE6 installation (under the IE option in Add/Remove Programs)?

Quote: Yes, it does support it and it's well worth it. How so? Unless he has already has a KT133 motherboard that he doesn't want to replace or can't replace theres little point in persisting with that POS.

Hang on, there was a fix for NFS3? I never recall that... In addition to ****ing around with APPCOMPAT.EXE to get the thing to actually install (it did the old "This product will not install on Windows NT" thing...) I still had to set the shortcut up to automatically run as a different user (which wouldn't be so bad if you could set up a password to use instead of having it prompt you each time...) because M$ locked down access to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE compared with NT4 and EA hardcoded NFS3 to get its keys from there. XP fixed the former resulting in NFS3 being able to install straight off the CD but the latter still bothers me although thats not entirely M$'s fault...

I don't blame them, I applaud the move. Killing off 9x is long overdue and quite possibly the best decision M$ have ever made.

Are 9x users, particularly 98/ME users, allowed to take part in this beta test? Will DX9 be released in a 98/ME version? Microsoft have made their intentions for that OS line quite clear and with stuff like IE6, DirectX 8.1 and Office XP and upgrade versions of Windows XP already refusing to install on Win95 they're showing that they mean business.

XP has patches for more software though doesn't it?

I think the latest versions of ZoneAlarm are fully compatible with XP but don't take my word for it (I've only installed it on my folks machine which runs 98 and even then only for a few hours which was how long I could put up with it's crap...). I think it's BlackICE that has XP issues. I've also heard good stuff about Tiny but have never used it.

XP has several more compatibility patches built into it than 2k so theres a possibility that the one for High Stakes won't be in 2k. Also you won't get sound in DOS unless you install something like VDMSound, soundfx2000 or a complete emulation package like Connectix Virtual PC.

Quote: There is one disadvantage going NTFS and that is loosing the ability to access the HD from DOS (-floppy). Yes, I know there is a recovery console, yes, I know there are utilities to circumvent this. Still, nothing beats a good ol' bootdisk when you want to tinker with things. For most home users the security, permissions and disk quotas are not really that relevant. In an office enviroment they might be, but at home ? So why do I find the DOS disk so important ? First of all, it gives you an opportunity to fix things in your windows install (check out all the threads on locked files, undeletable directories etc). Also, for some tasks DOS is pretty handy, for example the easiest way to defrag the page file is simply deleting it in DOS. Screw DOS floppies. Download yourself a copy of the tomsrtbt single floppy Linux and use that instead. Works for me. As for defragging the page file thats easily solved by making sure the thing doesn't get fragged in the first place by making it a constant size shortly after installing NT/2k/XP.

I fail to see why dual booting is such a big disadvantage... I've been multi booting various versions of Win9x, WinNT and Linux for years and never hesitated to not install them on anything less than their native filesystem.

Clutch: That's 2k Server isn't it? I could have sworn I never saw it in 2k Pro... DosFreak: I was aware of that. The new GUI interface is the worst part about it. It's made a whole generation of users who think making an NT OS run every piece of 9x software ever written is as simple as selecting an option in a Property sheet and in my experience thats hardly ever true.

Quote: It has always been recommended to leave the PageFile managed by windows no matter how much RAM you have. Mike Only if want a fragmented pagefile...

Quote: I don't quite follow on this one, as the permissions architecture in NTFS is the same (except the GUI looks a little different). If you want *real* control over NTFS permissions, use cacls.exe in the future. Thats the feature I'm referring to, I'm fairly certain it was never on Win2k.

Hmmm... Didn't M$ recently publish an update to try and solve a problem with a particular DVD (Snow White and the Seven Dwarves IIRC)? Maybe thats having an unwanted side effect... Another thing, do PC DVD-ROM drives use mechanisms that utilise single- or dual-laser pickups? In the latter case it's quite possible that your DVD laser is fuct but the CD one is fine but thats probably a long shot...

Quote: Cannot be accessed by DOS, Win9x Thats a bad thing because? Personally I see no logical reason for not using NTFS for at least your main NT/2k/XP partition.

The new compatibility patches are pretty damn good. Being able to install stuff like the Windows version of Descent 2 and Need for Speed 3 and straight off the installation CD with no ****ing around is great as is being able to play Half-Life with my desktop set to 32-bit colour. It's still not perfect, Final Fantasy VII still doesn't work 100% but what XP delivers is light years ahead of 2k. XP only crashes at the Chocobo races (and possibly the other sub-games as well), 2k used to crash just about everywhere. Permission handling is also much improved. Being able to force permissions down a directory tree is great. The new interface isn't too shabby either. The old GUI just looks boring in comparison.

IIRC (and I'm not sure I do, it's been ages since I used VMWare...) the VMWare tools should be somewhere in the installation folder.

My current board, an AOpen AX6BC, has yet to give me any serious trouble.

If money was no object whatosever then I'd go with the GF4 Ti4600 but since it isn't I'd have to go with the GF3 Ti500 or the Radeon 8500. Why? Because these cards strike the right balance between price and performance in the long term. The GF4 Ti's have no short term benefits over the GF3s and cost 3 times as much. There is no way in hell that I'm payin AUD$800-$1000 for a video card that isn't going to see its day for at least a year.

Quote: Final Fantasy 7, just a shame it wont work fully under XP. I second that...

I voted EpoX because that's the company I'm most likely to buy my next motherboard from. Their dual Athlon board, the M762A, appears to be the only one to get around the USB bug in the AMD south bridge, plus their 760 motherboard was one of the best as was their KT266a board the 8KHA and their KT333 board, the 8K3A looks like a winner too. If they were on the list I would have voted AOpen since my current board, an AX6BC, hasn't given me an ounce of trouble the entire time I've had it and if they made a decent loking 760, 760MPX or KT266a board I'd buy from them again.

Seeing as you only have a 450Mhz CPU a GF3 or above would largely be wasted. A GF2 MX (or possibly even a GF2 Ultra, Ti or GF4MX when the prices come down) will be more than adequate. If you plan to upgrade the CPU at a later date then by all means consider a faster card but as it stands dropping a GF3 or 4 into that rig will have the same effect as dropping a Ferrari V12 into the chassis of a Pinto.