Building budgeted dream machine - Page 2

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Wow, this thread is growing faster than GA Cutzu. In defense of ATI (someone had to do it) I would recommend you wait until the 25th-31st before you rule them out completly. 90% of the problems with ATI cards, is that people mess up when installing them. If you plan on using Windows 2000, or XP, a new driver class will come out that supports not only all (or most of the features missing now) but will probably give us all a chance to see the Radeon 8500 in a new light. It is hard for us to see and blame ATI for problems with XP especially since many of us have run the program for months already, but Windows XP is still not out yet, nor is dirct X 8.1, which is needed for those new features to work accessible to the masses yet.

If it works for you then don't fix it.

If you do get use the Windows 98SE, I would reduce you memory to 256MB, or use Windows 2k. Windows 2K has been out for a while and will give good driver preformance, whether you get the NVidia card, or the ATI card. Windows XP is just to new to use with new equiptment yet. I would wair at least 3 month (or until all the parts have documented stable drivers for XP) before I would install it on the computer. Another trick that you can do is to install 98, get it running smoothly, then upgrade to XP over 98. I have found that Windows is much more forgiving of drivers if it sees it worked on a previous verson, than if you start out with a clean slate. Also, as far as HD's are concerned, I would recommend getting a small, 5-10 GB and putting your OS on it, then placing all the other software on your IBM. This way, if you need to reformat your drive with the OS (like if you upgrade it) you will be able to leave the other programs and files alone, and not have to loose them as well.

If it works for you then don't fix it.

btw, hehe, man I never expected this thread to get SO big. But there is ALOT of great info on this thread. Again, thank you everyone who has put in thier findings and thier 2 cents, it has been more helpful to me then I could have imagined. And to many others as well Im sure.

Thx

"He not busy being born is busy dying."
-Dylan

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