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If driver and laptop probs are not enough...


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I am due to upgrade my system later in the year (daughter will inherit the current) and CMBO MUST play on it, and play VERY well, regardless of other sacrifices.

There is much argument in computer mags over PIII/IV v. AMD Athlon at moment and I am probably going to go Athlon and a 32 or 64 video card (MX2?). Any comments re this, or othet system compatability issues to watch for. I would hate to be in a position where I invest significantly in a system to find "Ah... you should have got a 'x' if you wanted to do that'.

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Guest wwb_99

While P 4 is neat, nothing (including CM) really uses its special abilities (SSE2). Not to mention that you will be tied to an expensive MoBo/RAM combo if you go that route.

Get an AMD. Get a MoBo that works with DDRAM. Choose the MoBo very carefully, as it is the one component that it is very, very painful to replace. Don't even think about getting less than 256 mb of RAM. Also, if you go with AMD, get a 300 watt power supply, as the T-Birds are well known for being very unstable without enough juice.

If you are going over 850mhz on the processor, you will want a full fledged GeForce 2 w/ DDRAM, not the stripped down MX. By the time you will be buying, GeForce 3s will be out so GeForce 2 Pros or Ultras will be much cheaper.

Regarding OS: Get Win 98 or Win 2k. ME is a system hog at best, compounded with serious incompatibility issues. If you can deal with the incompatibility issues, you might as well go with 2k.

Hope this helps

WWB

------------------

Before battle, my digital soldiers turn to me and say,

Ave, Caesar! Morituri te salutamus.

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Guest wwb_99

The WinME incompatibility problems to which I refer have little to do with CM. Unless, that is, you have some older components on your system. Basically, WinME is a big step away from the Win95/98 kernel, meaning that what were once perfectly servicable drivers need to be rewritten. And while many of them have, quite a few others have not. Most newer equipment works fine, but woe be unto those who use 'legacy' (ISA) cards, old peripherals, etc.

This incompatibility issue especially applies to the proprietary cards which many Broadband internet vendors force upon their customers; PPPoE just does not work in winME.

One major issue which WinME might well create with CM is that WinME is a resource hog. The same boxes show 10-20% lower benchmark scores between 98 and ME. While it might be hard to notice in a 1.2ghz Athalon, it can still become an issue.

Similar problems exist with Win2k, but since Win2k is a major advance in terms of stability and memory management, you might as well go all out and get Win2k rather than letting WinMe eat your system resources for little gain. 3rd party video editing software and Norton System tools can replace what little feature improvement ME has.

WWB

------------------

Before battle, my digital soldiers turn to me and say,

Ave, Caesar! Morituri te salutamus.

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