To XP or not to XP

AllonFS · 7 Jan 2002, 14:29 (Ref:194899)

I am soon to buy a new whizzy computer. The game I really want to play above all is Grand Prix Legends, my old machine is not powerful enough.

Does anyone know if it will work with Windows XP or would I be better getting Windows 2000? Following on from that, does anyone know how compatible older games are with XP, any guidance would be appreciated. I don't want to spend loads on a computer and then find I can't play a damn game on it!

woodyracing · 7 Jan 2002, 18:27 (Ref:195018)

Im running 98se and thinking about trying XP. 2000 is slower than 98 for games/3d. And i read that XP is very similar games/3d performance to 98se, which is a good thing.

All games written in DirectX or OpenGl should be fine on Win9x,2000 and XP. Older MS-DOS based games can be a pain to run on any Windows systems.

Id run 98se or XP (if games performance is as good).

Woody.

AllonFS · 8 Jan 2002, 09:01 (Ref:195367)

Thanks for that, I was considering Win2000, which would have cost more. I guess now that I will go with the standard XP package. So in a few weeks I should be hopelessly spinning off around the Nordschliefe in GPL!

Jay · 9 Jan 2002, 04:44 (Ref:195870)

well..if you all you do is game and you dont care at all that your computer crashes 2-3 times daily....then by all means go with 98se..ME or XP...

But...for reliability Win2000 is definately the best... I was running 98se and my computer crashed multiple times in a week... Now that I'm running Win2000 it rarely crashes at all... In fact, if it does crash, you can pretty much guarantee it is a bug in the program you are running and not windows... If you care about not losing your work..Win2000 is the way to go...

But like I said...if all you do is gaming...go with XP...

PS I run GPL with Win2000 and it runs great!

**Aysedasi** · 9 Jan 2002, 13:27 (Ref:195968)

Hi Allon. There seems to be a myth that you need a high-spec PC to run GPL. I run it on a 333 Celeron with an old 16 meg Voodoo 3 (128 meg of RAM). Works fine (with NOTHING turned off!).

I'd still like to update my system though. As a matter of interest, what are you looking at in terms of spec for your new system?

woodyracing · 9 Jan 2002, 18:25 (Ref:196139)

Win2000 is a pretty good operating system, I use it at work and have tried it at home. 98 does crash a lot more often than 2000, but 2000 does still crash.

On 2000 I had problems with some games and found performance losses with games and 3D benchmarks. Also 2000 takes a while to boot, compared to a few seconds for 98.

Its down to personal preference, Id prefer more performance than stability. 2000 is probably the most stable of them all.
All i can say about XP is that if its as quick as 98 then id upgrade to XP. (btw, XP is built on the 2000 core)

Herminator · 9 Jan 2002, 20:29 (Ref:196232)

Hi guys, having tried all three OS's I currently have 98SE and win 2k installed. Win 2k is a lot more stable and I run all the more boring stuff on it, sch as 3dstudio max 4 and office aps. I mainly Use 98SE for games although if I have any probs with one OS I just use the other, such as win 98SE not recognising my joystick easily enough where'as 2k had no problems. I had XP for a while but got too anoyed with it. It should be more stable then 98 because it is 2k based but they added so much rubbish that it crashes as much as 98 if not more. it looks very nice and has good memory management at first. It even gave me a performance boost in 3d mark 2000, but after a few hours it starts hanging onto memory and my PC would grind to a halt. This is apparently a wide spread problem. There is very little drop in games performance in 2k, but some things I have aren't compatible with 2k, and so are also not compatible with XP, such as my TV card. If you have the HDD space and the contacts I say have dual OS's, if not go with 98SE or 2k. Forget all about ME.

AllonFS · 10 Jan 2002, 09:46 (Ref:196433)

Thanks everyone for the information. At the moment the choice seems to be Win2000 or XP. Win2000 will mean a supplementary cost, (package deal thing - XP is standard), so I am still not sure. The easy option would be the standard XP, as the main use will be gaming. Yup, just a big kid at heart!

Aysedasi, the reason that I am upgrading is that my P166 struggles with anything more than solitaire! Okay, an exaggeration, but there are some great driving games out there and I am fed up with drooling over reviews that I have no chance or experiencing. As for spec, well the UK Dell site has what looks to me like a very good package: 1.9ghz, 60GB HD, 512 Ram, CD-RW, DVD etc. for just under £1k. (4300 series, J20b - if you are interested)

I am sure this is ridculously over-powered for my needs, and that I could save money by not using a main dealer. However I am no computer genius and I working on the basis that I may as well get as much as I can now to give the machine greater longevity. Any further information or advice is of course very welcome.

woodyracing · 10 Jan 2002, 12:08 (Ref:196491)

For serious gaming / 3D power id definalty get the GeForce3 Ti200 option for an extra £85. The video card is the main thing now in games and theres a massive difference between a GeForce2MX and a GeForce3 Ti200. (im after one myself, current card is GeForce2 GTS).

A GeForce3 Ti200 will handle any game no problem, whereas an MX can struggle to keep the frame rate high on latest games, especially in 32bit colour.

You wont regret buying a Ti200, but one day you might regret if you didnt

ps: XP or 2000 should be fine, on XP you can turn off a lot of the naff features that slow it down or make it less stable.

Herminator · 10 Jan 2002, 12:38 (Ref:196506)

Ok if you are getting a Dell I would defintely get the GF3 Ti200, as the rest of th machine is unbelievably fast for an MX. With the GF3 it would be one hell of a beast infact, you lucky man. I have a standard GF3 and love it, it's just held back by the rest of my machine, P3 800, 384MB PC133 RAM, and a not so good mobo. I would check how many USB ports you have, as when I got my Dell last year it only had 2, you will definetly want more, thats the truble with main dealers they put great CPU's in but then skimp on mobo's which arenot very flexible, and I would say cooling is only adequate in my system. By the way my GF3 is an upgrade, I have learnt a lot about PC's since buying mine and now want something that can be overclocked easily and will let my graphics card fly. Have you looked at Systemax? something like that, as when I was looking at prebuilt systems they seemed to get a lot of good reviews, also they use Athlon proccessors more readily and that means you can get more bang for your buck, good bang not bad. Just go with XP for an operating system, you may want to check you get office, as it is more useful than you think. I don't suspect you would be leaving your PC on for long periods, like I do and so stability won't be as much of an issue.

Tony_Simpson · 10 Jan 2002, 23:39 (Ref:196841)

I am running GPL on/in XP and it works ok. Ther is one small problem in the fact that the sound does not work right, but downloding the new drivers for the sound card sorted that out. Now only occasionly the the screen seems to freeze for a fraction of a second. Nobody I know of has sorted this out yet, but it is still drivable.

As for a coputer spec, go for at least a 1GHz chip, with 256 mb RAM, and a GeForce 2(or similar) graphics card.

For any help on anything computer related join www.vroc.net (if the site is up) and join the chat room. People are only happy to help in there.