Best OS for a KT266A MOBO?????

[ajrey]

Hi guys, I'm going to build a new PC from scratch and I have a question regarding OS. I'm gonna install a KT266A mobo with a Athlon XP 1700 (1.47 Ghz) and 256DDr RAM.

But I dont want to install Windows XP. Basically this pc will be used to play games. Will W98 gime me the best performance? or do I need WME or XP?

Can anyone ehlp me with this?

thnx guys!!

 

[dakota81]

You'll be extremely happy with the performance of Win98. I've got a gaming computer I built last summer with an T-Bird 1.13GHz and AMD761 motherboard with Win98SE. Still there is hardly a game that pushes my system to the max. Example, when I loaded up the new Wolfenstein game, I had to set the resolution up to 1280x1024 just so the game would run slow enough.

Also, don't even think about WinME, that OS was unstable and often times slower than 98 thanks to its constant backing up of system files. And it was because of this constant backing up and trying to maintain an always perfectly working computer that the OS would screw things up even worse.

 

[ajrey]

Thnx dakota81, that really helped. Now I have another Question for you. Besides the KT266A mobo for gaming performance, what other mobos u recomend??

Remember, I want this PC to really fly! lol!

 

[paparazi]

If U can wait? Via is launching or has launched? it's new KT333 chipset, packed full of extra features and support for even faster DDR ram.
In the early reviews I have seen it appears to be a considerable leap in the right direction and is easily beating the KT266A based motherboards.
And I just bought a Abit KR7A last week!!!! (KT266a board) shame!!!
It could work out quite a bit more expensive untill the 3300? DDram becomes more widely available.
Might be worth reading some reviews. Martin Vote if you found this post helpful please!!

 

[ajrey]

Thnx for the info Martin, I'll wait and read revews.

Thnx again!!

 

[dakota81]

How about we wait just a little bit longer when VIA is going to release the KT333A which is slated for a more silent replacement of the KT333 chips. Matter of fact, let's just wait even longer and get the new Hammer CPU AMD put out. Hold out on that video card, agp 8x is just around the corner.

See a trend forming here?

If I were putting a new computer together now, I'd probably go with Gigabyte's new KT333 board. There really aren't any noticable speed increases due to the memory limitations, DDR266 at CL2.0 tests at about the same performance of the best DDR333 at CL2.5. However, the KT333 boards provide agp 8x slot, ata/133 controller, and usb 2.0, so those are its major advantages.

 

[Guest_imported]

Wait = sitting there without anything done

These days, there are new stuff coming up every month,
every week even every day. If you wait for the best of
everything to come up in your 'new system', you might
end up with having no system at all. This is what makes
this industry interesting and frustating.

 

[paparazi]

I have used these sentiments quite alot before!
(if you wait you never end up buying!!!) etc etc
But when a new release is so close (a week or two) and is an improvement over the old !
And of course we are not tempted to wait for the next/next best thing, then surely it's the most sensible thing to do??
I know! it's all marketing hype and Capitalism at it's worse and we are all such Suckers for it all!!!!!! LOLOL
Martin Vote if you found this post helpful please!!

 

[ceh4702]

DO NOT BUY WIN ME. You will be sorry if you do. Also do not install Win ME. Win ME has more bugs than Win98 SE. I have both. However buy a Geforce?? video card. Do not buy ATI.

There are some pros and cons about WinXP. XP has the ability to use a lot more memory than Win 98. If you want to use 512Megs of memory you can not do it with Win 98. Of course you have to register your computer with Microsoft if you get Win XP. I don't know what would happen if you tried to reinstall WinXP. Ive used it but I have never installed it. I do know you have to activate the registration within so many days of the purchase or XP quits working.

I noticed Walmart.com was selling some Celeron 1.0 Gig computers for $399.99 with no operating system. Interesting marketing starategy. They probably don't have more than a 8 Meg Video Card, and wouldn't do too well with 3D games.

Don't depend totally on reviews about motherboards. A company can make one really good motherboard send it in to a few review sites and then produce 10,000 lemons. Go to sites where users who bought the board send in their feedback. As far as KT333 chipset goes you may find a lot of the features are not supported by the AMD Processors and the Hardware isnt made to take advantage of its speed. I think

http://www.tomshardware.com

and

http://www.anandtech.com.

The article in Toms Hardware compares the differences. The chipset supports an 8X AGP Slot but there is no such graphics card yet. You could take advantage of the PC2700 DDR memory, but how fast does the memory have to be for a Game?

I am playing 3D games with a 1.2 Gig Celeron, a Visiontek Geforce2 GTS-V 32 MB AGP Pro video card, and 128 Megs of PC100 Ram on an Asus TUSL2-C. The board uses an Intel chipset which is super stable. It can use PC133 RAM but I didn't buy any New RAM. This is one heck of a PIII/Celeron motherboard. It comes with plenty of USB ports, if that is what you want to use. It runs Emperor Sequel to Dune 2000 just fine at the default setting. It has never been crashed by a game. Can't keep my kids off my computer.

The VisionTek geforce2 GTS-V 32MB DDR (OEM) Video-out only video card has a 5 Star out of 5 possible Stars customer satisfaction rating at

http://www.newegg.com

and sells for $50.00. This is a really great deal. Of course if you want to spend $300 - $400 on a Geforce4 feel free to buy them if you can find an non-MX board. The video card and the motherboard are most important parts. If they are unstable nothing else matters to a real gamer. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[Tedlast]

I've read the limit on Win9x/ME is 512 Meg. If you go above this, you'll have problems. This is an article on the subject:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/14967.html

I'm running dual-boot Win98SE and Red Hat 7.2 on a KT266A. Both run fine. I'll upgrade my OS when WinXP SE comes out.

 

[Yegolev]

I (almost) always buy one or two steps below bleeding edge. Much cheaper and I'll be obsolete in months anyway.

I use the Epox 8KHA+ and am quite pleased. I would have stayed with W98SE except that my data got blasted and since I had to reload I thought I'd give XP a swing. Plus 265MB of RAM was not cutting it for me, so I kind of had to go XP. Plays games just fine so far, but for right now I would say W98SE for games, especially if you are not playing all-new titles.

Optionally, there are Win emus that run on Linux. =)

 

[Tedlast]

Yegolev.

Same philosophy - I'm running 8KHA+ also. I'm waiting for Geforce3's to become affordable. The Gf2-MX easily handles everything I throw at it. 3dmark2001 = 3,000

 

[CitrixEngineer]

Best O/S for AMD = Linux.

...although, since everyone seems to want to run Windows programs, I'd have to recommend Windows XP professional. The home version may be cheaper, but it's cut down and restrictive, especially if you have your own home network.

If you're on a tight budget, though, I concur with the earlier comments about Windows ME - I would avoid it, and use Windows 98 SE, if you can track down a copy.

Best bet is to dual boot XP/Mandrake 8.1 Linux, and have the best of both worlds.

On an aside, have you seen the new Emoticons yet?

CitrixEngineer@yahoo.co.uk