Windows Which OS for a games PC?

I am looking to build a pc just for games and IRC.

My games are:

Half-life/Counter-Strike
C&C
QuakeIII Arena


I have a PIII600 with 256RAM PC100.


Out of Win98, Win2000, WinMe and WinXP what is the best OS for this?

Cheers

Medic6666

 

98 :dude:

 

After many years of win98, I have to say I prefer 2000 as its more stable and runs most games or all that you have mention. Xp is too resource hungry for your spec I think.

 

Win98se??

Will 98 cover my TV tuner card (WinTV) and My webcam Creative Webcam3??


Medic6666

 

It should do as most software is written with 98 in mind, but check the manufacturers websites for a definate answer.

 

I would go for 2000 personally, because it is an improvement of 98, with the stability of the NT file system and kernel. 98 falls over itself after a long uptime, of more than say 15-20 hours

Windows 2000 will run for a week without crashing... my record for win2000 being up near 6 weeks.

 

I have these as well??

I have the following and am being a bit lazy, but if anyone can help.

Hercules 4500 64meg
Creative Webcam3 USB
Creative SB Live 5.1 player
Agfa Snapscan 1212U
Kodak DC215 Digital Camera (Serial attach)
Hauppauge WinTV card (PCI)


Will all these work as well as my games?

I do have another pc which I am going to build as well.. Am think of having a games machine and a internet machine.

What is a good cheap router/switch to use so both machines will run together??


cheers again

Medic6666

 

Until XP has a service pack, Win2K SP2 takes some beating. It should have no issues with the hardware you have and drivers should be well enough astablished for this OS.

Router switch I presume you mean an ADSL one and I would say the xietel ones arn't bad, not sure on the spelling. Just make sure the incorperated hub is 100Mb.

 

I'm sure I'll get slaughtered for this...but I always liked Me the most for playing games. All this stability talk shouldn't apply unless you're into server hosting or something similar. Me is quick to boot and runs games pretty fast. I don't see a real reason for a gamer to need 2k, but if you're really concerned about stability, then go that route.

 

ME is just 98 with a different boot screen

Xp pro all the way for me. Never crashed during a game yet and i had it two months before it was released in the UK

 

Yea but it's faster than 98...considering he can't use XP well with his amount of ram that'd be a good OS to fall back to.

 

which version of 2K i'm currently running advanced server and have found it stable yes but a bit hungry on the old RAM, is pro or server any faster?

 

I have used both server and 2k pro, and I can say that server used a little more ram than Pro, but server was much more stable than Pro, this was in the days of running a gameserver with 1gb of ram.

2k Pro doesn`t use as much ram as server or advanced server, but then, they are more stable... its the choice u gotta make really.

 

i'm gonna stick with 2kas as it runs all my games fine and does every thing i need and more, will get more RAM me tinks though.

 

win2000 has no directX support though. I would go for 98

 

you may be thinking of NT as i think that only has support for upto directx 4, 2000 supports it as i'm running 8.1 at the moment.

 

XP is the bestest os ive used but on that spec id agree with every1 else and say get win2k verry stable and good support for everything you got

 

uhh, 256megs ram?

XP would be fine, and i can only vouch for its stability, been very good to me.

 

xp all the way...i've only got 256mb ram and all my games run perfect...stability wise my record is up for two weeks, and had to restart it cos i installed a new driver....wud have been up for a lot longer otherwise me thinks. And thats on a dodgy installation

/me needs to format

 

XP