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Best computer for Windows Me (desktop)


Flasche

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I strongly urge you to reconsider your opinion! Pentium 4 is a very hot CPU and I saw several systems with 3.6 GHz models that throttled under load. I serviced a lot of Pentium 4 systems and I still do today and everything over 3.2 GHz is a danger to itself and the motherboard. The box cooler is a very bad joke and unless you buy a third party cooler like arctic freezer 7 pro you are going to have serious problems in keeping that CPU cool!
From personal experience the best windows 9X system would be one based on socket 754 or 939. I still have from December 2004 an Athlon 64 computer that runs 98SE like a charm without any glitches whatsoever. If you like I can put a complete description on the forum.

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Go for a Core2Duo machine if going for Intel route. One of the cores may sleep all time but the one that runs will run circles around a P4.

My machine has a E7300 in it I got for 16€. It is 2.66GHz but way faster than the 3.2GHz P4 was in m old machine, takes much less power and does not heat the room up (though some people may like that LOL).

My laptop runs a 2.2GHz AMD Turion 64 ML-40. 98 and ME run very well on it, and battery life is much longer than with XP on the machine. You do need to install Powernow! or there won't be any battery life regardless of OS and settings.

I got 2GB of RAM in the laptop and with ME I can have it all usable, minus 64MB the GFX chip takes, which makes the RAM figure 1984MB that is just below the absolute max, so there's no need to muck around in the SYSTEM.INI file when installing (which can be a PITA with ME).

Edited by TmEE
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Go for a Core2Duo machine if going for Intel route. One of the cores may sleep all time but the one that runs will run circles around a P4.

My machine has a E7300 in it I got for 16€. It is 2.66GHz but way faster than the 3.2GHz P4 was in m old machine, takes much less power and does not heat the room up (though some people may like that LOL).

My laptop runs a 2.2GHz AMD Turion 64 ML-40. 98 and ME run very well on it, and battery life is much longer than with XP on the machine. You do need to install Powernow! or there won't be any battery life regardless of OS and settings.

I got 2GB of RAM in the laptop and with ME I can have it all usable, minus 64MB the GFX chip takes, which makes the RAM figure 1984MB that is just below the absolute max, so there's no need to muck around in the SYSTEM.INI file when installing (which can be a PITA with ME).

I'm going to do some serious research on this. I'm gonna look at all of your suggestions and see which machince, with those specs would be the best.

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Also I'm guessing that if I had 2 Gigs of ram Only 1995 MiB will be useable.

With all due respect: what's in there to guess? Both loblo and I told you so as a (well) known fact. Then again, that's 97.4% of the installed (viz. 2 GiB) RAM: ain't it good enough? OK! Then go ahead and use XMSDSK to create a working 53 MiB ramdisk, which can be accessed from inside Win ME (or you can make it somewhat bigger, but then Win ME will see a little less memory available). Possible it is, but I really don't think it's worth the trouble.

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Also I'm guessing that if I had 2 Gigs of ram Only 1995 MiB will be useable.

With all due respect: what's in there to guess? Both loblo and I told you so as a (well) known fact. Then again, that's 97.4% of the installed (viz. 2 GiB) RAM: ain't it good enough? OK! Then go ahead and use XMSDSK to create a working 53 MiB ramdisk, which can be accessed from inside Win ME (or you can make it somewhat bigger, but then Win ME will see a little less memory available). Possible it is, but I really don't think it's worth the trouble.

Just making sure since I really dont want to modify system files. I'm not doubting the fact.

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I already see a problem with your motherboard: Chipset ATI Radeon Xpress 200 for Intel Processors which is a very low performance chipset and also with compatibility problems regarding Win 9X!

For best performance, stability and compatibility with 9X I would use intel chipsets; nvidia would come second and VIA third!

Edited by ND22
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I already see a problem with your motherboard: Chipset ATI Radeon Xpress 200 for Intel Processors which is a very low performance chipset and also with compatibility problems regarding Win 9X!

For best performance, stability and compatibility with 9X I would use intel chipsets; nvidia would come second and VIA third!

Hmm grr. I would really like to try and get a machine from the 2005-8 era. (I know I'm pushing it) If you don't mind, but post your description of your machine please. It would be very helpful. :yes:

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Give a careful look at the machines described in the > 1 GiB list. They cover the range you're interested in, and are known to work well with 9x/ME.

Here's a glimpse of the list as it was in Jan 1st, 2009... 21 of the current 48 machines were already there!!!

I see... I am going to look carefully. I plan to be number 49.

21 of the current 48 machines were already there!!!

Did I make you angry?!? If so I apologize.

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21 of the current 48 machines were already there!!!

Did I make you angry?!? If so I apologize.
Thanks! But you've got no need to apologize, you didn't make me angry, at all. :yes:

What happened is that I was surprized to realize almost half the machines in the list were there already by the end of 2008.

In fact, it was from about that time that our knowledge about how to do it and the issues involved was becoming really consolidated.

I see... I am going to look carefully. I plan to be number 49.

I do count on it! :thumbup
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Flasche you wanted me to show you what I use so here it is!
Complete specs:
Motherboard Asus k8n-e with Nvidia nforce3 250 GB chipset; this motherboard has chipset, audio and network drivers available for windows 98. When I start a new build the first thing I choose is the motherboard which I think is the most important piece of hardware in the pc. The board has 3 memory slots unlike most other boards that have 4 which is a minus! Also the board has an AGP connector which I think is a big plus for windows 98!
The processor is an Athlon 64 3200 with the real frequency of 2200 MHz; the performance is very close to a P4 running at 3200 MHz; the CPU is very cool with the box cooler and clocks down automatically to 1000 when not in use so heat is never a problem.
Memory is made up of 2 identical modules from OCZ, 1 gb each. From reasons yet unknowns it has been impossible for me to run the board with all 3 memory slots populated!
The drives are all WD: 1 40 gb and 1 80 gb both PATA, 1 250 gb and 1 320 gb both SATA. I have a dvd-rom and a dvd-rw installed to the other PATA connector. I use the PATA drives with windows 98; the SATA with XP! They never see each other as I disconnect the XP drives when using 98 and vice-versa.
The video card is an Asus geforce 6800gt with 256 mb and windows 98 drivers available. The card has a power connector so I have an antec 550w power supply which is overkill but I prefer to be on the safe side! The final piece is a very old creative live 5.1 audio card that has windows 98 drivers available.
Although I limit the memory to 1 gb when running 98 the above configuration is STILL faster with windows 98 than with XP!
Your best bet for a windows 9X/ME machine would be one based on socket 939 for which you can still find cheap motherboards. Any board with Via chipset would run perfectly under 98! The main problem I see would be the video card – any higher than geforce 7XXX series represents a huge problem (I don’t have experience with ATI cards)!

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Flasche you wanted me to show you what I use so here it is!

Complete specs:

Motherboard Asus k8n-e with Nvidia nforce3 250 GB chipset; this motherboard has chipset, audio and network drivers available for windows 98. When I start a new build the first thing I choose is the motherboard which I think is the most important piece of hardware in the pc. The board has 3 memory slots unlike most other boards that have 4 which is a minus! Also the board has an AGP connector which I think is a big plus for windows 98!

The processor is an Athlon 64 3200 with the real frequency of 2200 MHz; the performance is very close to a P4 running at 3200 MHz; the CPU is very cool with the box cooler and clocks down automatically to 1000 when not in use so heat is never a problem.

Memory is made up of 2 identical modules from OCZ, 1 gb each. From reasons yet unknowns it has been impossible for me to run the board with all 3 memory slots populated!

The drives are all WD: 1 40 gb and 1 80 gb both PATA, 1 250 gb and 1 320 gb both SATA. I have a dvd-rom and a dvd-rw installed to the other PATA connector. I use the PATA drives with windows 98; the SATA with XP! They never see each other as I disconnect the XP drives when using 98 and vice-versa.

The video card is an Asus geforce 6800gt with 256 mb and windows 98 drivers available. The card has a power connector so I have an antec 550w power supply which is overkill but I prefer to be on the safe side! The final piece is a very old creative live 5.1 audio card that has windows 98 drivers available.

Although I limit the memory to 1 gb when running 98 the above configuration is STILL faster with windows 98 than with XP!

Your best bet for a windows 9X/ME machine would be one based on socket 939 for which you can still find cheap motherboards. Any board with Via chipset would run perfectly under 98! The main problem I see would be the video card – any higher than geforce 7XXX series represents a huge problem (I don’t have experience with ATI cards)!

Thanks for sharing your information with me. You suggesting will most definitely help with making my decision.

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