I have always put off getting myself a better machine here at home. It has been mostly due to lack of high speed internet being available in our small town. Infact as I type this I am doing so on a 233 (OK Laugh now) running Win2k with 256Mb of mem. on dial-up!

What I'd like to know is how is Win XP home edition or do I want to spend the Xtra for XP Pro? I havent't even bothered to check them out as work is all NT, NT workstaion, and Sun/Unix stuff.

My 1st(available)chioce was a Pentium 1.6 with 256 Mb of mem, but for around $20 more I can go to a 2.0 Ghz with only 125 Mb. of mem. To me I think I'd prefer the extra mem and .4 worth of xtra processor isn't going to do alot more for me unless someone on here has a diff opinion?

Building one myself isn't an option due to financing and time, but if there are any other reccomemndations on must have gear I would be appreciative

Thanks

IAJack

I agree with Beer_Slayer: more RAM is better than a tad higher CPU speed. In fact, take the money you save at the slower CPU, and get 512 megs of RAM.

Make sure you don't get a PC with the video chip on the motherboard, thus sharing the slower main memory. Or at least make sure the motherboard has at least 3 PCI slots and a AGP slots, so you can upgrade the machine later.

My Pent III 500 (with 768 megs of RAM) has yet to encounter a program (except some high-end games) it couldn't deal with.

If you already own W2K, you have no reason to switch to XP Home at all. If you want to have XP, go with XP Pro. The Home version is essentially a crippled W2K, with lots of color added.

I love W2K Pro and see absolutely no reason to get XP.   I really, really, think you should build one yourself.  You can easily build the same computer for about 25-40% less!!!  Think of the ammo that can buy!!   If you can build an AR you can build a computer.

Either way, I would choose CPU spped over Ram at this point because it is very easy to add/buy Ram but you will never buy another CPU.  Yes Rambus is a little high, but not that high ($55/128kb?)

Sgtar15

PS Seriously....build it yourself and save $$$.  We can talk you thru it easily!!

DO NOT BUY RETAIL!
DO NOT BUY RETAIL!
DO NOT BUY RETAIL!
DO NOT BUY RETAIL!
DO NOT BUY RETAIL!
DO NOT BUY RETAIL!
DO NOT BUY RETAIL!

Goto [url]www.newegg.com[/url] and/or [url]www.mwave.com[/url] for the guts
[url]www.pricewatch.com[/url] is good for specialty parts.

Don't be intimidated by putting it together,  it isn't that tough, and since you work in the field you can either do it yourself with ease, or bribe a buddy at work to do it for a few beers.

But you didn't, you said the same I said, only different ;)
If you have anything older than W2K, get XP, home or pro, if your PC supports it.
If you have ME, pitch it, go back to 98SE or forward to W2K or XP.
If you have W2K, and you're satisfied, keep it. Unless you want to upgrade, then go to XP Pro, 'caus XP Home is a colorful, crippled version of W2K.

Then of course, there's the wonderful and scary realm of non-Windows operating systems ;)

Btw: you usually can run old games by using them in compatibility mode.

Dude, get the faster processor and buy the extra ram if you need it. Just checking pricewatch the p4 2ghz is $270 dollars to $123 dollars for a 1.6ghz.
A $150 dollar difference.

Some RDRAM should only be $30 or so for 128mb more.
$20 for the 2ghz upgrade + $30 for the ram if you want it is only $50.

Seems like the 2.0 ghz is the better deal to me... only $50 for the extra processor power.. But whatever..

You already sai building your own is not an option, but I have to agree with car003 for anyone else out there thinking of upgrading.

I bought an Athlon XP, a Mobo, 256 Megs of DDR, a good case and built my own just a few days ago from [url]newegg.com[/url]  --spent $500, built it myself and now have a very fast PC. I had fun doing it and I saved a ton of money.

Give it a try. Now if only my little town would get cable modem service or DSL, I would just drool myself to death.

I would say for the money the Micron computers that Best Buy is sell are very nice. All high quality components. Most of the time you have to get them to order it for you though. They can't keep em on the shelf. That has to say something.

Yeah!  WHat he said.  XP really is W2k Pro with a few more bells and whistles and more of MS's way of doing business.  If you got it, stick with it.  

(And as I recall, SGTAR's suggestion comes from him being a "jack-booted" thug of Microsoft.  So he definitely know's what's he's up to.  Funny, I'm also in that category- MCP.)

You want old computers?  I've been working on a PII 300.  Old board from a hand me down Gateway purchase of my brother's.  Haven't seen any reason to upgrade yet.  No time for games anymore.

Question:  Why not look into AMD?  Athlon prices are sometimes a bit more reasonable.  

As one who builds for fun and profit, not chinchillas but computers, I feel this way:
A pentium 4 1.6A cpu, and a P4TE motherboard and 512 megs RDRAM with a GeForce3 video card and most any soundcard would be very kik ass and be a viable comp for years. With good RDRAM mem you can clock the 138 dollar 1.gA to the 400 dollar 2.4A level. That's why...
Intel is more compatible, stable, and will be my recommendation to any but those who long for something akin to the ZL-1 Z28 with say, dual Holleys and mechanical cam. My allegory is due the fact that AMD needs more setup and general care, and most of all, well chosen parts.
XP home is fine.
Good luck and jump in and build yer own, its fun!!

Hell, If you or anyone else wants I still have 3 complete Windows Advanced Server O/S CDs!!  They are designed to be only 120 day "trial" versions but of course I have a crack to fix that[:D].  So yes, I am Bill Gates Ho and proud of it!!.

BTW Kaimeara, I have my 215 scheduled for this Wensday.  Already have 35+ hours of studing put in for it and am feeling pretty confident.  I'll let you know what it is like.

Sgtar15

Knowing how you faced down that 210, you'll have hash of the 215.  And though you won't need it, good luck.  

I'm planning 215 in a couple of weeks.  

I've been running XP Home since September.  It works pretty well, but is less than perfect. In particular, there are problems with login accounts.  ALWAYS have two accounts that have admin privileges. When one dies, you need a spare.

The outstanding benefit I noticed was that XP actually uses memeory effectively. A couple of years ago, I ran tests of a company's apps on several versions of MS OS products with memory from 32MB to 448MB.  They peaked out at 128MB, and actually slowed down at 256 MB.  Yes, we tuned and retuned, hoping to improve speed with more memory. Win 95, 98, NT 3.5, 4.0 did NOT use more than 128 MB effectively.

XP on the other hand, is faster with 256MB, and bringing it up to 512MB improved yet again.

I have not tested how Win2K performs with more memory, but I understand that 2K is also a good choice, and I would not buy XP just to replace 2K. If you get XP with a new system, I would not necessarily dump it either.

My current system is a 1.5GHz Pentium 4 with 512 MB, and I'm pretty happy. I plan on adding an additional 512MB DIMM in the near future.

One caution, lots of bits and pieces don't work with XP.  I had to scrap my firewall software, as it did not run with XP, and I set up a hardware firewall (and networked my old 233 MHz K6).  I had to buy a new Anti Virus package, as the old one doesn't run with XP either.

I have assembled systems, and I have purchased them, and this time I bought one assembled. I could not buy the components in this system for the price I got for the complete name brand box, even excluding warranty, support, and the cost of time to assemble the hardware and set up the OS.

Benchmarks show XP is more than just bells and whistles compared to win2k(MaximumPC)  
If I had win2k all ready I would run it but given the choice of purchasing win2k or XP I would take XP.
I wouldnt waste money on an Intel CPU, you can save big money by going with an Athlon and get better performance.  Get at least 512 RAM. Pick up the new western digital Harddrive with the 8mg buffer cache, runs almost as fast as a RAID-0 setup without the hassles.
I priced buying OEM parts wholesale vs. buying a complete system from Alienware.  I would have saved $300.00 building myself. I thought about it and how safe I felt with oem parts and decided for the money I would rather have the good warranty. Gives me a little piece of mind.

What do you mean by "benchmarks"?  As in what authority?  Tomshardware?  Anandtech?  

I'm not questioning your word.  Just sincerely curious where u got this information.  Obviously if you cite something from Microsoft itself, I'd be a trifle suspicious.  

As for performance or even speed of signon.  I onced showed a pal the minor (and I really can't even dead on positive about THIS aspect) thing in Computer Management under the Heading: SERVICES.

Notice that 2k Pro has certain of these services configured for Auto and others as Manual?  Someone showed and told me that these were all turned ON pre-configured in XP.  That tells me something from the get go.  

So in all respects.  I'd probably say:  NO WAY in HELL to XP.  On top of older software incompatibilities in XP, I'd rather stick to something tried and tested- albeit in the Microsoft way.

(welcomes responses and comments)