To WinXP or not to

[ianching]

I have been using Win2k Pro since its debut and I'm impressed (after years of using Win9x ) by its excellent stability and decent performance, however, it was not a good OS for gaming.
Having heard of WinXP which is based on Win2k/NT, I'm believe it offers the same level of stability as Win2k and with better support for games, right?

I have a few questions:

1) Does WinXP offer the same level of stability as the Win2k Pro SP2 which I am using?

2) How's WinXP's performance when compared with Win2k? I mainly use my PC for games or surfing the web and as a little web server.

3) Are all of the hardware supported in Win2k also supported in WinXP? I am currently using a AMD TBird processor on an Abit KT133A board, with a GeForce DDR (not 2), Linksys NICs, Aopen sound card (Yamaha chipset)......

 

[ianching]

Also, what's the Activation thing? Is there any crack available yet?

 

[Haden]

I would say XP is as stable as win2k, it's only minor update with loads of new stuff/bug fixes (5.0->5.1). However as it repairs known bugs, it ofcourse brings new.
Nice thing about XP that it boots faster than win2k, I would say about 30-35% faster. If you'll use old style themes it'll take even less RAM (don't expext much thought).
You should check for new drivers/info about XP before upgrading, it should support win2k drivers, but it's better to be sure.

I don't do much gaming, but I'm almost sure you won't be able to run oldies which didn't run on win2k.

I think XP is a good system, but it needs service packs just like NT 4.0/5.0

 

[Doh!]

1. basically yes

2. similar w/ faster boot up. overall, about the same & a little better w/ games but really depends on the type of games you play

3. not all but w/ your setup, you shouldn't have too much trouble

4. you wouldn't need to worry about any cracks if you have a legitimate copy of xp (next time, no ask about any cracks as it's not encouraged here).

 

[microAmp]

<< I have been using Win2k Pro since its debut and I'm impressed (after years of using Win9x ) by its excellent stability and decent performance, however, it was not a good OS for gaming.
Having heard of WinXP which is based on Win2k/NT, I'm believe it offers the same level of stability as Win2k and with better support for games, right?

I have a few questions:

1) Does WinXP offer the same level of stability as the Win2k Pro SP2 which I am using?

2) How's WinXP's performance when compared with Win2k? I mainly use my PC for games or surfing the web and as a little web server.

3) Are all of the hardware supported in Win2k also supported in WinXP? I am currently using a AMD TBird processor on an Abit KT133A board, with a GeForce DDR (not 2), Linksys NICs, Aopen sound card (Yamaha chipset)...... >>



1) I've only been running XP for a couple of days now, I like it and the boot up time is tremendous compared to W2K when I had it installed. If you have Easy CD Creater you might have problems like me and a lot of other people. When I had W2K also very stable with Easy CD Creater and Direct CD.

2) I haven't seen any gaming benchmarks with XP vs. W2K vs. Win98. Like I said boot up time is fast on XP, I'm still shocked My brother who also just got XP with me says the web browsing seems faster with XP than Win98SE.

3) I don't see a problem hardware wise that you could have any problems, just d/l the latest XP drivers for them save them on another HDD/Partion/CD-R/W and you'll be better situated when installing.

4) To me IMHO the Activation is that bad. I've installed XP twice on same computer within one day apart and got no flak for doing that. If I remember right after you 'register''activate' Win XP you can do 6? hardware changes before it requires you to reregister again which may mean instead of doing that reregister over internet, you may (I AM NOT SURE) have to call Microsoft. Hardware changes, change your video card, sound card, SCSI cards, etc. But if you change NIC the I think it brings it down to 4 hardware changes. Also I think after 90 days, you could in theory, completey upgrade your computer, new HDD, new video card, new CPU, new memory, new NIC, new sound card, new motherboard, and put XP on that and it won't give too much trouble when activivating WinXP.

Now if I am wrong on #4, please let me know.........

 

[Lars]

<<
4) To me IMHO the Activation is that bad. I've installed XP twice on same computer within one day apart and got no flak for doing that. If I remember right after you 'register''activate' Win XP you can do 6? hardware changes before it requires you to reregister again which may mean instead of doing that reregister over internet, you may (I AM NOT SURE) have to call Microsoft. Hardware changes, change your video card, sound card, SCSI cards, etc. But if you change NIC the I think it brings it down to 4 hardware changes. Also I think after 90 days, you could in theory, completey upgrade your computer, new HDD, new video card, new CPU, new memory, new NIC, new sound card, new motherboard, and put XP on that and it won't give too much trouble when activivating WinXP.
Now if I am wrong on #4, please let me know......... >>



I had some problems with my video card and reinstalled WinXP about 4? times within 48 hours and had to call them. They asked me on how many PCs I installed the software on and stuff like that, so I just told them why I needed to install the software so often and they gave me something to type in. Took only 10 minutes.

 

[erikistired]

i've got xp running on my system and it's been running good but lately i've been having issues with drivers that aren't mature enough to be stable. specifically the new 2.x version of winamp and the video driver seem to rub each other the wrong way. i'm actually pondering going back to win2k, and as i only play sims/starcraft/diablo2 win2k should play those fine, so i dunno about gaming compats.

~erik

oh. the activation can be a tad annoying. i've had to reload it three times on here from crashes and whatnot, on the third attempt i had to call microsoft for an activation code because "this key has been installed too many times". painless, just took 20 minutes or so of my life away.

 

[gwlam12]

to XP

 

[koshnarn]

I am glad that I upgraded to XP, except for the price of the upgrade. I was fortunate to have built a relative new system, so there was no cost in upgrading my hardware. However, I am starting a countdown to the first Service Pack for XP.

 

[jcmoran]

One thing to consider folks about the activation of XP. You have a reasonable amount of time after you install XP before you have to activate it, so it's a good idea to wait until you get all the bugs worked out and then run the activation program. So, if you have to reformat, install, oops, reformat, install...
You can do this until the cows come home for about a month before you need to activate. Then if something else goes wrong, you will have many more opportunities to activate before having to do it over the phone. Something to think about.

 

[Aenygma]

wait for SP1