Windows 2000 or Win 98Se

[gear02]

Hi guys! I really respect your opinions and I need some opinions about the following.

I currently have win98se and I'm think about switching to win2k. Right now everything works perfectly. To switch I have to make 2 hard drives, dvd drive, cdrw drive, sound blaster 5.1 platinum, dvd decoder, Geforce2 card, and ethernet card work in windows 2k and I'm thinking it might be hard or impossible do to. Also I play a lot of games so I'm concerned that win2k might not still be compatable for games, though I know most games do work perfectly. I do have the ME upgrade but when I upgraded as soon as it was released, a lot of my programs didn't work so I had to reformat to get rid of the ME upgrade.

Should I switch? What do I gain from it?


Thanks!

[hapoo]

i think if your configuration right now is perfect you shouldn't change it. "if it ain't broke, dont fix it!"
but i agree with chosenfool that win2k is way better than 9x. my only concern would be that installing it might F* up the configuration you have now, you know how those MS programs are

[gear02]

I'm not so concerned with the software as I am with the drivers for the hardware. Also if I use this NTFS file system (which I know nothing about) I do have to format both my drives right (40 gigs)?

[hapoo]

hey chosenfool,

do all your games run on 2k??
are Rippers the only programs that you have problems with??
I play a lot of Quake 3 and similar FPS's.
any recomendations for me???


I guess i'm really asking the same question as gear02, the only difference is that WinMe sucks so hard (crashes all the time) that my only options are to either move down to 98SE or up to 2k.

[hapoo]

are 3d games slower on NT??

[Jeffbx]

Jus to throw in my $.02 -

I also run W2K Pro exclusively (at work), and I've never had any problems w/games. I run Q3 & UT mostly, but I've never installed a game that didn't work under W2K. I'm running a 32MB GeForce 256, and I've never had problems with it. I normally run 3d games at 1024x768, and they're smooth as anything (750Mhz PIII). I never check framerates, cuz I don't care as long as it looks good to me.

W98SE is a solid platform, but if you're considering networking the machine or sharing an Internet connection, go with W2K.

BTW - if you want to upgrade your drives to NTFS, the W2K install can do that on the fly without formatting - it'll just convert & your data will remain intact. However, there's really no reason to switch to NTFS unless you want to use W2K's file encryption or file level permissions.

[gear02]

so some of you are saying that games in win2k are slower? This is weird, I heard games are faster in win2k...

actually, I want to switch because of the cool fading in and out menus...hehehe

[speedracer120]

If you want stability Win2k is the only choice if you're looking at a Microsoft product. Even though programs crash, as they are bound to do, it won't bring down the whole system with it. Even if you crash explorer.exe, you can keep running other programs while, explorer.exe is restarted.

[phlick]

As far as game compatablility I have several games that wont run on win2k... FIFA and Superbike2000 (both ea games) and Mechwarrior 3. (EA ?? Maybeee.. I forget)

Most other games run fine though in my experience. I believe its the REALLY older games that need to run in an emulated dos mode that will have the most problems.

W2K does consume more resources (way) than W98, but if you're running a healthy processor and plenty o ram (at least 128 although "256 is required for server"... bah)

As for crashes, keep it lean and mean (don't run Norton and have office and lotus suite and photoshop and 30 deleted demo games on your OS and a 40MB registry) on w98 and there isn't a better gaming platform.

If you want to dual boot, save yourself some headaches, install W2k FIRST, and then do a clean install of w98. Move all of your data over to your "data" drive, and then reformat system drive and install w2k on that, install w98 afterwards, then bring in the 2nd drive w/all the data. It will work much smoother and you'll save yourself a ton of headaches.
Simply You'll have to re-install all your apps, but you'd be suprised how many of them you actually use when it's time to go back and re-install them "all".

Definately check the Hardware Compatiblity List if you have any doubts. The hardest thing to get to comply is the CDRW drives for the most part. Plextors go in no problem, but there are other drives with issues, be something to look into before you went in blind.

As for the rest of your hardware, looks a lot like mine. No problems with anything else I can see.

Only question is do you REALLY want to spend the time and money on W2K? That is up to you.

[ChIcKeN_HaWk]

I'm running win2k and I use audiograbber for ripping Mp3's it works perfect for me and I can rip Mp3's up 320 or something bitrate. Of course you have to get the Mp3 encoder as a add on. But I haven't paid a cent for the program (freeware). The only disadvantge of the freeware version is it won't let you rip all the songs at once.

[ChIcKeN_HaWk]

I have my daughter playing all her games and alot of those games require 256 mode for the display. But what I've found is that after she finishs playing the display goes funky and the only thing I can do is reboot. If that helps I hope.

[hapoo]

unfortuantly my computer sucks to high hell. (p2 400, voodoo 3500, 128 megs) i'm afraid if i go to 2k it'll be slow. and i hate the fact that i would have to restart into 98 to play a game.

[gear02]

so norton systemworks doesn't work with win2k?

[speedracer120]

Nope.

[Jeffbx]

Originally posted by hapoo
unfortuantly my computer sucks to high hell. (p2 400, voodoo 3500, 128 megs) i'm afraid if i go to 2k it'll be slow. and i hate the fact that i would have to restart into 98 to play a game.

No way - with your config, W2K should be faster than 98 for general applications. For gaming.... your mileage will vary according to how good the video drivers are. With Voodoo cards, I've had pretty good luck. As I said before, I haven't yet met a game that doesn't run under W2K (with the exception of old DOS-mode games, like Duke Nukem3D and Doom).

I've run W2K on a Pentium 200mmx & it's fine. It takes up more drive space than 98, but it's not the resource hog everyone thinks it is. The minimum processor requirement is a P5-133 w/64MB RAM. With a P2-400 & 128MB, it'll purr.

[gear02]

p5? I hope you mean p2...

where's this hardware compatability list someone was talking about?

What's the cheapest price for a full version of win2k?

[Jeffbx]

No, I meant P5 - old terminology. There isn't a PII 133. It's actually kind of redudant, P meaning Pentium (5th generation Intel), and 5 meaning 5th generation Intel. I don't know why that ever caught on....

HCL is here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000...at/default.asp

Full version of W2K Pro is about $250, upgrade is about $200. I have an OEM upgrade (still shrinkwrapped) that I'd be willing to part with, if you're interested.

Originally posted by Jeffbx
No, I meant P5 - old terminology. There isn't a PII 133. It's actually kind of redudant, P meaning Pentium (5th generation Intel), and 5 meaning 5th generation Intel. I don't know why that ever caught on....

The P in P5 would stand for Pentium which is a fifth generation x86 processor. the original pentium chip could also be known as a 586. The 5 in P5 would mean its a fifth gen Pentium processor as in a Pentium 5.

Hapoo, i have win2k running on a celeron with 64 mb ram and an onboard ati rage lt 2mb. its dual booting on with win98se and it runs great. other than the fact that some games and progs dont work on 2k, its better than 98se. i dont know how it will run on a p2, but you can always try.

[hapoo]

Originally posted by TommyBoomfiger
Hapoo, i have win2k running on a celeron with 64 mb ram and an onboard ati rage lt 2mb. its dual booting on with win98se and it runs great. other than the fact that some games and progs dont work on 2k, its better than 98se. i dont know how it will run on a p2, but you can always try.

I might just do that
strange enough winME has been working better and better since i installed it

[Jeffbx]

Originally posted by TommyBoomfiger

Originally posted by Jeffbx
No, I meant P5 - old terminology. There isn't a PII 133. It's actually kind of redudant, P meaning Pentium (5th generation Intel), and 5 meaning 5th generation Intel. I don't know why that ever caught on....

The P in P5 would stand for Pentium which is a fifth generation x86 processor. the original pentium chip could also be known as a 586. The 5 in P5 would mean its a fifth gen Pentium processor as in a Pentium 5.

Right, today it does. That's why I said it's old terminology....

[SPODIGZ]

I don't know why I keep reading that ME sux so bad. I absolutely love it. I had some memory management issues with 98se and they were all solved with ME. I can see how it can get frustrating when it tells you to be sure you know what your doing before continuing and what not, but all my games, hardware and software work excellent with ME. Are those of you who hate it so much doing the critical updates often, they do fix a TON of bugs.

[nkasdon]

Chosenfool:

I am curious to know how do you install WIN2K under ME? I have tried many time without success on my laptop (INSPIRON 8000, PIII 700, 192MB SDRAM PC100, 10GB IBM HD, ATI RAGE MOBILE 128 4XAGP, ESS MAESTRO SOUND CARD, ACTIONTECH COMBO MODEM & 10/100 NIC CARD, DVD, INTEL 815 CHIPSET...).

First, the system comes with ME, when I pop the WIN2K CD in it asked if I want to update, I click no then click on install... Clean install. It displayed a message that it doesn't recognize the OS of something alike then stop the setup application.
After doing some research at WIN 2000 forums, I have been told that I should try either to run WINNT.EXE under DOS or WINNT32 under WINDOWS. I have tried both and finally succeed to install WIN2K; however, when the boot menu appears, if I choose to boot to 2000 and restart the machine WINME refuse to boot (it boot up to Microsoft WINME logo screen, flicks one, go to a black screen then freeze up) and if I chose to boot to WINME WIN 2K refuse to boot exactly the same way as WINME.

I also tried to install dual boot in my 2 desktop machine by installing first 98SE, install WIN2K, then finally upgrade to WINME. It seems to run fine.

What am I doing wrong? Is laptop is build differently than desktop that would prevent both ME and 2K coexist at the same time? Any help is greatly appreciated