WIN 2000--good for "average" user"?

[ricrat]

I'm going to get a whole new system and have been told that WIN 2000 OS is the most stable. I'm using WIN ME and am told it's junk!

I'm thinking of the ASUS P4-S8X, P4 2.0, SB Live 5.1, 256MD DDR (2700)
GeForce 440 video card, WD 80GB HDD (8MB). I think that covers every-
thing. I can get it locally for $650.00. Is this a good system with every-
thing compatable? Any changes?

I've been many problems with my system since I added a Maxtor 80GB
HDD. Does it have anything to do with the viruses that are showing up?

I can't seem to get any striaght answer from the people around here.

Thank you very much for all you input!

[cfitz]

Windows ME is generally accepted to be pretty bad, and Windows 2000 is a pretty stable OS. However, Windows XP is probably better for the "average" user.

I don't know anything about your Maxtor drive problems and viruses. Certainly if your system is infected with viruses then you can expect to be having problems.

I can't seem to get any striaght answer from the people around here.

That doesn't seem like a fair statement, or a very nice way to elicit additional help. Looking through your posts, it looks like you've been getting a lot of helpful answers to your questions here.

cfitz

[ricrat]

By "here" I mean my area. Sorry--no disrespect meant.

[cfitz]

My fault. I misunderstood your intention.

cfitz

[dodecahedron]

like cfitz said, win2K is good, winXP is good too. winME is bad.
i have winXP and like it fine.

I'm thinking of the ASUS P4-S8X, P4 2.0, SB Live 5.1, 256MD DDR (2700)
GeForce 440 video card, WD 80GB HDD (8MB). I think that covers every-
thing. I can get it locally for $650.00. Is this a good system with every-
thing compatable? Any changes?

sounds like a fine system.
no incompatibilites AFAIK.
i would stay away from Creative Soundblaster sound cards - they are known to be troublesome in some situations, have a reputation for buggy drivers. there are many other good brands.

strongly recommended - more memory - 512K.
especially if you go for winXP.

[ricrat]

The sound card is very important to be. I plan on doing a lot of wav files
and am using EZ CD Creator 5 Platinum (which I like very much).

How many extras do you get with an onboard sound card? Enough to do
"effects" when rrecording?

I have a Sony 12x8x48 burner which I found out (the hard way) isn't
compatible with my ABIT BH6 mobo. Should I keep it or upgrade to the
Lite-On 48x when get the new system? They're about $50.00.

Thanks for all the help.

[dodecahedron]

i don't know what you mean by "effects", and what they have to do with the soundcard.
if you mean ripping .wav files from audio CDs to your hard drive and burning them to CDs after doing various editing on the .wav files, then i don't think the sound card comes into play at all! the sound card determines the quality of sound when you play music off your computer/speakers. and also if you use it to read music into the computer through the inputs (midi, analog inputs etc.)

usually on-board sound is not nearly as good as a good sound card.

if i'm not mistaken, Abit BH6 is a very old board.
i believe nowadays there are very few incompatibilities between optical drives and motherboards - all (most?) drives run fine all motherboards.

your 12x4x48x drive is rather slow by today's standards.
if you can afford it, upgrading to a 48x burner sounds very nice!
the Lite-On 48x are pretty good. many here like them a lot!
probably better to go for the 48x24x48x (48246S) rather than the older 48x12x48 (48125W/S) drive.

[ricrat]

By "effects" I mean eq, reverb, etc.

If not SoundBlaster--what and why?

My current system is 3 years old.

[dodecahedron]

sorry, not an expert on soundcards etc.

like i said, soundblasters have a bad reputation, not undeserved.

if you go Creative, Audigy is better than Live and Audigy2 is even better.

there are other good sound cards.
read up in some hardware related site, you'll find more info.

this is where my knowledge ends. maybe someone else here can give a few hints.

[average_joe83]

Everyone hates Windows Me, why? I love it, I just bulit a new computer with a ESC P4VXASD2+ motherboard,P4 1.7Ghz processor, 256 MB of SDRAM, Nvida TNT2 video card, 20 gig hd. I ran Windows Me first on the system, it work awsome (Ive used Me for awhile before the upgrade), then I ran Windows Xp, and it seemed to work fine, accept for the fact it wouldnt let other users on my network access my computer on my home network, and the fact that I haded the new dispaly of WindowsXP. Ive run Windows 2000 Professional on my computer before and it sucked little to no driver support and hard to find driver support, same goes for Xp and their stupid driver signing bullshit

[BuddhaTB]

like i said, soundblasters have a bad reputation, not undeserved.

if you go Creative, Audigy is better than Live and Audigy2 is even better.

there are other good sound cards.
read up in some hardware related site, you'll find more info.

this is where my knowledge ends. maybe someone else here can give a few hints.

Creative and Sound Blaster are all the same company. So your buying Creative products everytime you pick up a Sound Blaster branded product. I too have heard bad stories about Audigy and some of the older sound cards not being compatibile with certain motherboards, poor drivers, and a lack of customer support. I would stay away from those older creative products and go with the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 if you want a really nice sound card. I've had one in my system for a few weeks now and I can really notice a difference between it and the onboard sound chip that I used to use. Another good sound card brand is Turtle Beach. They make some excellent sound cards for the money and they can be found for around $50, which makes them an excellent alternative to the sound blaster series. Go with the Audigy 2 and you won't be disappointed.