recently I've been trying out windows 2000. why just 'trying' it out? well the ultimate gaming card (IMHO) still is the one with the best 3D positional audio and that is the Aureal Vortex 2.
just to get it to run in windows 2K you don't have to do much, but alas, I am stuck unfortunately with a 686B southbridge, which is probably why things don't go so well right away.
here's why I'm angry at Creative. Aureal would have wiped the floor with them if they were allowed to continue. their driver releases kept improving performance (they had to, becuase A3D by nature is more CPU intensive due to wavetracing). So, not only does creative bring them into a trivial lawsuit, but they BUY THEM UP after they go BANKRUPT due at least in part to the lawsuit.
how can I know that Aureal was going to kick Creatives' butt? the SQ3500 was a good example. simply put it did hardware acceleration of Dolby Digital (due in part to Aureals A3D 3.0 API) decoding. all that you had to have was an application with support for A3D 3.0 and a dolby digital stream to decode. no CPU hit (unlike every other card that 'decodes' DD).
ok, that was 2000.. Aureal might have introduced even a card that did Dolby Digital ENCODING (or perhaps a driver set for the SQ3500 that did that), so that people who didn't have 6 analogue inputs on the backs of their recievers could get fairly good quality surround sound.
ok enough ranting, all I can say is, without a doubt, the best card to get for games was the Vortex 2 (and it still is, it just lacks driver support). if it wasn't for that, Windows 2k would be my OS of choise.
as it stands right now, I'm passing on an Audigy partly becuase it's made by Creative (what they did to Aureal was the worst thing anyone could have done to the computer audio industry), Partly becuase it's not a step UP in quality over the Vortex 2 in 3D positional audio (perhaps in pure audio quality: ie. the signal to noise ratio), and finally, becuase no-one will answer my question about whether or not the Audigy works with a 686b chipset!
of course, this wouldn't be justified in the General Hardware forum if I could give the specs of my ideal Ultimate Gaming Machine, no holds barred 🙂
-monitor? who needs a monitor! I'm talking beastly expensive projectors..
barring that, than I'd have to go with an HDTV with the proper DVI or 15 Pin inputs.
-CPU? tough one.. after simultaneous hyperthreading article I would want a XEON, or something like that, but the P4 does seem ill suited for that tech (plus to take FULL advantage of SMT games would need to be programmed differently). so I think I would go for a Dual XP2000+ setup. if I could hold off longer though, I might go for a dual Hammer setup 🙂
-CPU cooling.. simple, water cooling for the CPUs (water would be cooled with evaporative cooling), a nice slow rotating 120mm exhaust fan at the top of the case, and a nice slow rotating 120mm fan for an intake at the front.
-Motherbaord? - Tyan Thunder K7 - for when it finally happens that a superior soundcard comes alont with win2K and linux support 🙂
-Video.. tough desicion.. if I could hold of for a while I'd go with the GF4 probably (even then if ATi had their R300 it might be a tough decision). right now, it's a tossup to me between the 8500 and the Ti500. as this is a gaming machine, and the Ti500 tends to win in gamin scenarios, I would probably go for that
-Sound - hmm I wonder 🙂 Aureal Vortex 2 😛
-Network card - ahh I'd love a gigabit ethernet card.. only then I'd have to spend the same amount getting a card on my router (which is a computer). I think I'll just stick with what's worked so far. D-Link DFE-538TX
-SCSI Card - Adaptec 29160 (unless I decide to go SCSI RAID, but nahh..) this'll fit into my 64 bit PCI slots nicely 🙂 plus it'll save me an IRQ should I ever need one..
-SCSI HD - hmm that was hard! Seagate Cheetah X15-36LP. simply the fastest HD that has moving parts. I'll take 2 36 gig drives please 🙂
-SCSI DVDROM - well, I'll have to take that 10x Pioneer. not a bad drive. certainly plenty fast!
-SCSI CDRW - this is getting tricky.. I COULD go for the Plextor 12x10x32.. yep, thats what I'll go for. I don't want anything faster (or louder).
-OS - for the moment, windows 98. yes I like windows 2K, but becuase of Creatives incredable stupidity, it all comes down to windows 98. weird how things work out.. eh?
yes I do like how stable windows 2K is. no I don't mind all that much having to reboot every so often in windows 98 (as long as it doesn't require me to do so every 2 hours).
at least I still have some limited support in Linux.. what's funny is that I tried a 3D game when audio wasn't working in the desktop, and the audio worked perfect. it wasn't until later on that I realized the audio WAS on in the game becuase I always turn off windows sounds (and the same with linux). the only time I hear audio in windows or the desktop in Linux is when I get an ICQ message, or when I play music in winamp.
yes audio is THAT important to me. unfortunately, I'm going to have to buy 2 of these mythical perfect audio cards.. one for this computer that i have, and one for my other computer (if I ever want to get it running windows 2000).
sheesh, I never thought a now dead manufacturer would make so much difference in my life. I mean, I can run my Voodoo 3 in windows 2K becuase they lived a little longer than Aureal and got decent win2K support, but the soundcard in there right now I think was out around the time Direct X got started.. sheesh it's old.
and I'm not made of money either.. what I hate to see, is both computers being stuck with windows 98 for years and years becuase of dead manufacturers and no support in windows.
I refuse to move to windows XP though, so don't bother trying to get me. RSI already had a long fight with me about 2K.
just to get it to run in windows 2K you don't have to do much, but alas, I am stuck unfortunately with a 686B southbridge, which is probably why things don't go so well right away.
here's why I'm angry at Creative. Aureal would have wiped the floor with them if they were allowed to continue. their driver releases kept improving performance (they had to, becuase A3D by nature is more CPU intensive due to wavetracing). So, not only does creative bring them into a trivial lawsuit, but they BUY THEM UP after they go BANKRUPT due at least in part to the lawsuit.
how can I know that Aureal was going to kick Creatives' butt? the SQ3500 was a good example. simply put it did hardware acceleration of Dolby Digital (due in part to Aureals A3D 3.0 API) decoding. all that you had to have was an application with support for A3D 3.0 and a dolby digital stream to decode. no CPU hit (unlike every other card that 'decodes' DD).
ok, that was 2000.. Aureal might have introduced even a card that did Dolby Digital ENCODING (or perhaps a driver set for the SQ3500 that did that), so that people who didn't have 6 analogue inputs on the backs of their recievers could get fairly good quality surround sound.
ok enough ranting, all I can say is, without a doubt, the best card to get for games was the Vortex 2 (and it still is, it just lacks driver support). if it wasn't for that, Windows 2k would be my OS of choise.
as it stands right now, I'm passing on an Audigy partly becuase it's made by Creative (what they did to Aureal was the worst thing anyone could have done to the computer audio industry), Partly becuase it's not a step UP in quality over the Vortex 2 in 3D positional audio (perhaps in pure audio quality: ie. the signal to noise ratio), and finally, becuase no-one will answer my question about whether or not the Audigy works with a 686b chipset!
of course, this wouldn't be justified in the General Hardware forum if I could give the specs of my ideal Ultimate Gaming Machine, no holds barred 🙂
-monitor? who needs a monitor! I'm talking beastly expensive projectors..
barring that, than I'd have to go with an HDTV with the proper DVI or 15 Pin inputs.
-CPU? tough one.. after simultaneous hyperthreading article I would want a XEON, or something like that, but the P4 does seem ill suited for that tech (plus to take FULL advantage of SMT games would need to be programmed differently). so I think I would go for a Dual XP2000+ setup. if I could hold off longer though, I might go for a dual Hammer setup 🙂
-CPU cooling.. simple, water cooling for the CPUs (water would be cooled with evaporative cooling), a nice slow rotating 120mm exhaust fan at the top of the case, and a nice slow rotating 120mm fan for an intake at the front.
-Motherbaord? - Tyan Thunder K7 - for when it finally happens that a superior soundcard comes alont with win2K and linux support 🙂
-Video.. tough desicion.. if I could hold of for a while I'd go with the GF4 probably (even then if ATi had their R300 it might be a tough decision). right now, it's a tossup to me between the 8500 and the Ti500. as this is a gaming machine, and the Ti500 tends to win in gamin scenarios, I would probably go for that
-Sound - hmm I wonder 🙂 Aureal Vortex 2 😛
-Network card - ahh I'd love a gigabit ethernet card.. only then I'd have to spend the same amount getting a card on my router (which is a computer). I think I'll just stick with what's worked so far. D-Link DFE-538TX
-SCSI Card - Adaptec 29160 (unless I decide to go SCSI RAID, but nahh..) this'll fit into my 64 bit PCI slots nicely 🙂 plus it'll save me an IRQ should I ever need one..
-SCSI HD - hmm that was hard! Seagate Cheetah X15-36LP. simply the fastest HD that has moving parts. I'll take 2 36 gig drives please 🙂
-SCSI DVDROM - well, I'll have to take that 10x Pioneer. not a bad drive. certainly plenty fast!
-SCSI CDRW - this is getting tricky.. I COULD go for the Plextor 12x10x32.. yep, thats what I'll go for. I don't want anything faster (or louder).
-OS - for the moment, windows 98. yes I like windows 2K, but becuase of Creatives incredable stupidity, it all comes down to windows 98. weird how things work out.. eh?
yes I do like how stable windows 2K is. no I don't mind all that much having to reboot every so often in windows 98 (as long as it doesn't require me to do so every 2 hours).
at least I still have some limited support in Linux.. what's funny is that I tried a 3D game when audio wasn't working in the desktop, and the audio worked perfect. it wasn't until later on that I realized the audio WAS on in the game becuase I always turn off windows sounds (and the same with linux). the only time I hear audio in windows or the desktop in Linux is when I get an ICQ message, or when I play music in winamp.
yes audio is THAT important to me. unfortunately, I'm going to have to buy 2 of these mythical perfect audio cards.. one for this computer that i have, and one for my other computer (if I ever want to get it running windows 2000).
sheesh, I never thought a now dead manufacturer would make so much difference in my life. I mean, I can run my Voodoo 3 in windows 2K becuase they lived a little longer than Aureal and got decent win2K support, but the soundcard in there right now I think was out around the time Direct X got started.. sheesh it's old.
and I'm not made of money either.. what I hate to see, is both computers being stuck with windows 98 for years and years becuase of dead manufacturers and no support in windows.
I refuse to move to windows XP though, so don't bother trying to get me. RSI already had a long fight with me about 2K.
