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Jim · 03-08-2003, 09:56 AM

That's a very nice rig you're getting there Gandar! The Asus N-Force 2 Motherboard is excellent (and you've got the Deluxe too!). You say you're getting 512 MB pc 2700 DDR RAM, are you getting this as 2x256 modules? If so then forget what I'm about to say, but if you're planning on getting 1 x 512 MB, then you're missing out on a big feature of the motherboard - dual channel memory (essentially doubles the bandwidth, but needs a matched pair of DIMMS). Only thing I can see holding you back with that rig is the GF4 MX graphics card, since these generally don't perform any better than the old GF2's (GTS and Ultra), the GF4 MX is a DirectX 7 compliant card, so if you could fork out a little extra and get a Titanium version (even the 4200), you are getting a fully compliant DirectX 8 card with a load more features that will be substantially faster. It's worth spedning the extra £30 pounds or so to get this over the MX if you can.

But enough babbling, I'm sure the last thing you want is my opinions about what to buy, so to answer your question about windows XP vs 2k:

I've used both extensively. I'm currently running Windows 2K because in my experience it's a little faster (I'm running an old PIII 700), but BG2 ran excellently on both.

Since the hardware you're getting is very new indeed, I'd suggest getting Windows XP. It has much better support for features such as USB 2 (which your motherboard has). I've experienced problems getting USB 2 to work in Windows 2000, but Windows XP had no grumbles.

Because Windows XP is quite a bloated operating system that likes to eat RAM, I went back to 2K (only have 256 MB, and it was struggling since I do a lot of GFX design). 512 MB is an absolute must for Windows XP to run efficiently, which you have, so I'm sure that XP will be the best choice for you.

03-08-2003, 09:56 AM	#4
Jim Quintesson Join Date: May 1, 2001 Location: Leeds, West Yorkshire, England Age: 45 Posts: 1,088	That's a very nice rig you're getting there Gandar! The Asus N-Force 2 Motherboard is excellent (and you've got the Deluxe too!). You say you're getting 512 MB pc 2700 DDR RAM, are you getting this as 2x256 modules? If so then forget what I'm about to say, but if you're planning on getting 1 x 512 MB, then you're missing out on a big feature of the motherboard - dual channel memory (essentially doubles the bandwidth, but needs a matched pair of DIMMS). Only thing I can see holding you back with that rig is the GF4 MX graphics card, since these generally don't perform any better than the old GF2's (GTS and Ultra), the GF4 MX is a DirectX 7 compliant card, so if you could fork out a little extra and get a Titanium version (even the 4200), you are getting a fully compliant DirectX 8 card with a load more features that will be substantially faster. It's worth spedning the extra £30 pounds or so to get this over the MX if you can. But enough babbling, I'm sure the last thing you want is my opinions about what to buy, so to answer your question about windows XP vs 2k: I've used both extensively. I'm currently running Windows 2K because in my experience it's a little faster (I'm running an old PIII 700), but BG2 ran excellently on both. Since the hardware you're getting is very new indeed, I'd suggest getting Windows XP. It has much better support for features such as USB 2 (which your motherboard has). I've experienced problems getting USB 2 to work in Windows 2000, but Windows XP had no grumbles. Because Windows XP is quite a bloated operating system that likes to eat RAM, I went back to 2K (only have 256 MB, and it was struggling since I do a lot of GFX design). 512 MB is an absolute must for Windows XP to run efficiently, which you have, so I'm sure that XP will be the best choice for you.