ME or 98SE on new 1ghz TBird

[xbassman]

Ok I know most of you guys are Win2000 advocates, but I don't own a copy. I would try that first if I had it.

I am running ME on my Celeron 500 system right now. It runs fine, but I dont like the memory overhead of ME. At the same time this system will be handling all the print jobs and ICS for my LAN. ICS seems much improved in ME vs 98SE. Anyway, If any of you guys have had experiences with similar hardware and these OS's, your input would be greatly appreciated.

Here's the hardware that I have coming in a couple of days:

Asus A7V133 w/1ghz tbird
256 MB PC133(CAS2) Micron
Asus V7700 GTS 2 Pure 32 MB
30 GB IBM ATA100 HD
16x Toshiba DVD
4x2x8 Mitsumi CDRW (already had this)
SoundBlaster Live
Linksys 10/100 Nic
56k rockwell modem (who cares..got cable )

Thanks

 

[RedFox1]

Well, I've heard that 98 has trouble handling more than 128MB of memory. It can only allocate so many resources, so even though you have 256MB, you won't be utilizing the whole 256. That might be something to think about in your case. I don't think ME has that problem.

-RedFox1

 

[rommel]

i have a plll 1ghz on a cusl2-c and run ME....it runs flawlessly....i would go with it.
until xp is finalized anyway

 

[Noriaki]

ME and 98SE have the same memory manager and neither deal with large amounts of memory terribly well, but 256MB is ok.

WinME is just 98SE with some extra bloaty features. Though I've heard it's got a better optimized TCP/IP stack so that might be a good reason to use it, though I'd take Win98SE.

I'd try and get my hands on a copy of Win2k if I were you....it looks like WinXP is going to need MS activation (when you buy it and if you change any major hardware), and that's going to suck.

If you have a full version (OEM or Retail) Win95 or 98 you can get the Win2k upgrade version for about 2/3s the price of the full (WinME doesn't qualify).

 

[rommel]

well i dont think thats set in stone yet...but the concept of xp is cool...have to try it atleast once....lol
have ordered 2k to run along with me on a a partitioned hdd also running linux SuSE 7.1
i like new stuff...even if it dont always work right away....ME is running so well its boring

 

[Mem]

Go with Win98SE,it`s more stable then ME,IMHO.

 

[rommel]

i honestly dont get the whole stability issue...when i first went to ME it was an upgrade adn i had driver compatability issues....so i back up downloaded the right stuff did a clean install updated teh driver data / firmware to what was ME "compliant" adn its been very smooth....go to the future living in the past gives you gray hair and bad posture...LOL

 

[xbassman]

Thanks for the replies guys...I'll probably put on 98SE first and if its smooth stick with it. I've been running ME with 128 MB and as soon as I load a couple of progs, I wind up with under 10MB available and Windoze starts swapin to disk.
I wish I knew how to get a reasonable price on 2000. Even the upgrade is kinda steep.

 

[igiveup]

Just FYI: When ME first came out the first thing that reviewers did was test the TCP/IP stack. It is slower. I don't remember how much exactly but a good couple of percent. I have connected a laptop at the company I work for that ran ME and once I put in the IP, configured the protocols and network settings, and connected to the network, it recognized every shared drive in the workgroup. It was stupid simple to hook it up. Recognized the shared printers too, and because it was new it had the drivers for all of them. Nice way to go when setting things up. However, that same laptop froze up on me later. When I pressed power, it just went into sleep mode. When I pressed the power button again it would just pop back up into the frozen screen. I had to take the battery out in order to get the thing to die. Not my idea of fun. I would go with 98SE.

 

[Aaron1982]

It's so annoying and sickening to constantly see people pushing Win2k. WinME is far better than Win98SE, much faster downloads and better optimized unless you run old ass hardware if thats the case then don't bother.

 

[Odeen]

WinME - for one single reason. SYSTEM RESTORE.

Say, you overclock too far, or install a piece of software that hoses your system - you can just roll your system back to how it was a day ago... It has saved my ass several times since last summer.

Alex