what OS what you using XP or 2000

[Cesar R]

I've been having a problem where my computer reboots and crashes whenever I have the sound card enabled. I was told it is a driver conflict. However I've tryed to download the latest driver i can find from the asus website and still having trouble. so maybe it has something to do with the fact that Iam running XP pro?.

[CHE]

I'm runing Windows XP PRO without problems. Is you MB compatible with XP PRO? Perhaps your sound card's driver is not supported under XP.

[Wojciech Klepacki]

I would like to help u, but I need more info. Please, specify the sound card & mainboard model. Best regards.

[Jeff Mottle]

Cesar,

 

I've heard of this before. You may have to disable your onboard sound and buy a PCI sound card.

[Greg Hess]

I still don't use XP for a few of the following reasons.

 

1. No security. You can hack into an XP box, change the admin pwd, and force a reboot in just a few seconds. With win2k at least you have to hack in and enable some services first.

 

2. Performance issues. There are glaring issues with XP's performance with Raid, and SCSI systems. Before the latest patches, some individuals took almost a 50% performance hit on high end scsi drives, almost crippling the machines performance. Glaring issues like this really question any reason to downgrade to XP.

 

3. Opengl. Opengl is slower on XP due to drivers not being as mature for it.

 

4. Dual processor performance. XP can be up to 5-10% slower on the same system then windows 2000, due to some kernal modifications that have yet to be fully addressed (Service Pack1)

 

5. No real benefit. Unlike the upgrade from nt4 to win2k, (Which gave us increased troubleshooting, better memory allocation, Direct3D, and full USB support), XP doesn't really offer much to the table, other then increased backwards compatibility with windows 98 games. That and of course, a M$ authorization system to steal your personal information, increased os size and memory usage, and less hardware compatibility. Did I mention its got prettier icons? (Waves a little flag)

 

Bottom line? If you use your computer for work, you should be running windows 2000. If you use your computer for play, or hobby stuff, do whatever the hell you want.

 

You can see lots of little problems and issues continually popping up on the Discreet forum, almost on a daily basis. Some of these issues are only solved by actually wiping the whole drive and putting 2k back on it.

 

Until the second service pack comes out for it, I will not install, nor recommend anyone install XP in any type of environment which requires tested stability in a production. I see XP as an upgrade to windows 98, and a downgrade to any nt workstation.

 

(Feel free to contact other IT guys over XP problems, some will tell you very long stories.)

 

[ June 26, 2002, 08:58 AM: Message edited by: Greg Hess ]

[Cesar R]

Greg:

 

Hi since I've noticed you seem to know what you are talking about I will like to ask you these questions in order to optimise my system.

 

I have a dual athlon with an ausu motherboard. I have just updated the bio from 1004 to 1006 and everthing seems to work fine. I have enables turbo more in the bios and now my CPUs are running at 1.61 instad or the regural 1.60. Is this ok? what does that setting actually do and how does it affact my over all performance. I also dowloaded an ATA/DMA utility and enables DMA on my WD Caviar 7200, - good or bad choice ? My last question has to do with the PCI, should I enable them to 64bit or leave them at 32? ( I only have the UBS card that comes with the m/b). and as far as my AGP aperture size,. I have a geforce 3 64MB, will improve performance if I make it 128mb or just choke my card?

 

I want to my computer to be a true workstation optimized for CG, but I don;t want to make poor decisions and end up pushing it 2 hard that i will burn it out before time.

 

Something else. I need to build a "server" for a school in my city. What do you recomend ?

I have in mind a dual athlon with a SCSI HD. I want to make sure that it never dies and that info never gets lost. I heard there is something called raid that duplicated info ? can you briefly explain that please ?

 

this is what i have in mind:

 

Dual athlon mp 1900+ (btw is there a big differece in performance with a 2000+ ?)

1GB or Ram

SCSSI or raid,

CD-RW, or maybe DVD-RW

a server case with dual power supply

and I guess i can put a gefroce 3 64mb, since it won't be a CG workstation.

 

well thanks for you help. if you feel you need to bill me for the wisdom.... i guess its ok, .lol

 

Cesar

[Greg Hess]

"I have enables turbo more in the bios and now my CPUs are running at 1.61 instad or the regural 1.60. Is this ok? "

 

As long as the computer doesn't catch on fire, its fine.

 

"what does that setting actually do and how does it affact my over all performance."

 

Turbo is akin to the ancient 486 boards, which when turbo was enabled would sometimes increase their FSB slightly, to boost both the memory, cpu, and system interfaces. Its basically raising your Front Side Bus from 266 to 268-269. A baby overclock.

 

"I also dowloaded an ATA/DMA utility and enables DMA on my WD Caviar 7200, - good or bad choice ?"

 

See my post on this in the hardware section. Actually if any moderators see this, they might want to move it to hardware.

 

"My last question has to do with the PCI, should I enable them to 64bit or leave them at 32? "

 

You can't control this, this is determined by the pci card, not by just putting them in the 64 bit slots. Aka if you put a 32 bit card into a 64 bit slot, its still running at 32 bit. You also can't mix and match 64 and 32 bit cards, it forces all cards in the 64 bit slots to run at 32 bit.

 

"I have a geforce 3 64MB, will improve performance if I make it 128mb or just choke my card?"

 

64 or 128 is fine, AGP aperature setting is how much system ram can be allocated to the agp card if it runs out of memory. Since most cards have an insane amount of memory, this almost never gets used.

 

I want to my computer to be a true workstation optimized for CG, but I don;t want to make poor decisions and end up pushing it 2 hard that i will burn it out before time.

 

Its hard to optimize a system without knowing exactly 1. Whats in it. 2. What the components are capable of. 3. What the settings are, and what specific areas of the system they effect. There are a variety of bios optimization guides on the web (Just do a search on google for bios optimizations) you can check out. But make sure you know how to flash the bios and reset all the system settings before fiddling with them. Run sisoft sandra to test performance increases and stability. (http://www.google.com again)

 

"Something else. I need to build a "server" for a school in my city. "

 

A dual Pentium III 866. Very inexpensive running a raid 1 array. It sounds though that you shouldn't be building a server though. Their very complex machines and require quite a bit of knowledge to setup, maintain, and get to a state where their virtually uncrashable. Your questions on raid and other topics set off warning klaxons in my head . If its a school they probably have a deal with dell or gateway and can get an old one realitively inexpensively.

 

[ June 27, 2002, 08:56 AM: Message edited by: Greg Hess ]

[Cesar R]

Thank you for your help and time. U are right, I have no clue of what I am doing, but I am a fast learner and very intelligent. I believe that by doing some research I will be alright. I also plan to be MS ceritified, if that helps any. Once again, thank you.

[Greg Hess]

If you want to get certification in something with meaning, get A++ certified.

 

Microsoft certification's are sleeper courses. I've seen M$ Certs unable to figure out the most rudamentary computer problems. Good if the job requires it, or if you can get a bit more pay outta it. Otherwise, you'd learn more just building systems for friends.

[Cesar R]

hey great look out Greg, thanks, i'll look into it