Why you should buy Windows 2000

[Ion Silverbolt]

I just had to make the first post in this awsome forum. http://www.opentechsupport.net/forums/smile.gif Anyways, here is my list of why you should buy it and why you shouldn't:

Better security - With broadband connections popping up all over the place, it's nice to have an Operating System with better security. Windows 2000 is also better optimized for networking than Windows 98.

Stability - Windows 2000 is far more stable than any previous Microsoft Operating System. It also can handle multitasking far better. Even when a program crashes, rarely will it hard lock the system.

Performance - If you have a high-end PC, Windows 2000 is better suited to handle it. Especially memory.


Why you should not buy Windows 2000:

Old Computer or Parts - Nothing beats Windows 98 as far as product support goes. If you have anything that's a bit old, it may not be supported in Windows 2000.

Low Memory - Windows 2000 usess far more memory than Windows 98. 128 Megs seem to be a decent amount in Windows 98, but 2000 prefers 192Megs or more. It can vary depending on hardware and type of applications ran however.

Old Programs - Windows 2000 may not support some older programs. If you have a lot of older software or games, they may not work. Most of them do however work.


I been using Windows 2000 for quite a while now and I must say it is by far the best OS Microsoft has ever made. I would even go so far as to say it is a good gaming platform now since Video card drivers are finally getting better for it.



------------------
©2000 Ionic Computer Services.

[-Memnoch-]

Two questions for you.

Why is Win2k's memory usage better? And how does this effect it as a gaming platform? (Positive or negitive)

With the consideration that Win2k is looking for 192Megs or more, Whats going to be enough ram to allow the system to run comfortably as a gaming platform?



------------------
What is an Angel, But a Ghost in drag.

[-Memnoch-]

Sold. I'll take it. So what do I get for tradin in this slightly used copy of 98se. Low Mileage. I'll even throw in the boot disk.



------------------
What is an Angel, But a Ghost in drag.

[Ion Silverbolt]

The thing that makes Windows 2000's memory usage better is the fact that each program is assigned its own seperate memory thread. While this may take a bit more memory, it's far more stable since you don't have to worry about programs accidently sharing the same memory segment.

With Windows 9x,Me, the memory is roughly all pooled together. So if a program acts up and crash, it can affect the whole system. This is a big reason why Windows 2000 and NT can multitask far better than Windows 9x,Me in both stability and speed.

Windows 2000 can also use a lot more memory as well. Windows 9x,ME really can't take advantage of more than 512Mb's of RAM(Which is plenty anyways). Windows NT and 2000 theoretically I believe can handle up to like 4 terabytes of memory. Not sure if that is the right number, but whatever it is , it's really high. http://www.opentechsupport.net/forums/smile.gif

As far as a gaming platform, Windows 98 or Me is still better since the system requirements are less on that platform. But I believe Windows 2000 is solid enough now to also be a considered gaming OS. You could get by comfoetably with 128 megs I believe. I just like having enough memory to make the OS forget about the swap file. http://www.opentechsupport.net/forums/smile.gif Diablo 2 actually seems to run better on Windows 2000 if you have 256 megs or so. Especially if you're hosting a game.

The networking optimization makes it a lot better for broadband connections and pingtimes. At least it does for me. I used windows 98 a bit with my cable hookup and it was slower and had higher latency. That may have been fixable by changing the MAxMTU or something but I don't care to mess with that junk. http://www.opentechsupport.net/forums/smile.gif

Probably the biggest reason I got Windows 2000 though was for NTFS. I wanted some type of extra security since I got a static IP and cable service. A lot of the networking settings in Windows 2000 can even be tweaked to help prevent DoS attacks somewhat. I need to milk that info out of Cheyd sometime. Right now, there isn't much info around about how to tweak it.

------------------
©2000 Ionic Computer Services.

<FONT COLOR="#FF0000" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Arial">[This message has been edited by Ion Silverbolt on December 08, 2000 @ 12:29 PM]</font>

[-Memnoch-]

Got it installed, reloaded the basic drivers, programs and a few games. So far it's much better. The disk admin utility is real handy. Things seem to run much smoother. This could be due to it being a fresh install. One question I had was: will putting the paging file on another physical disk improve preformance if I set a 1 or 2 gig partition for it?

------------------
What is an Angel, But a Ghost in drag.

<FONT COLOR="#FF0000" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Arial">[This message has been edited by -Memnoch- on December 21, 2000 @ 06:27 PM]</font>

[-Memnoch-]

They are exactly the same IBM drives.
What I did was create a P:-(page) drive on the second physical disk this P: drive is a 2 gig partition. I removed the page file from the default of c: and configured the page file size on P: at 200-1500 MB. I'll see how it works out. So far everything has run better period on 2000. I see almost zero system lag playing D2 or any other game. I could spend days playing around with all the services.

------------------
What is an Angel, But a Ghost in drag.

[Ion Silverbolt]

If it's the same hard drive with a seperate partition then no. If it's a different hard drive, it may speed you up slightly. Especially if the second hard drive is faster.