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Building a Pentium 4 Windows 2000 rig for kicks... Need some advice


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Hi, first of all I'm new here, so hi, my name's Jesse.

 

I've recently taken on the interest of building a computer that in my eyes is vintage. A lot of the components will be from around 2005, but my OS will be Windows 2000.

 

Planned specs:

 

Pentium 4 CPU, probably the later hyperthreaded version

4GB RAM DDR2 (Or 3.5 technically, whatever W2K will recognize.)

GeForce 7950 GT 512MB GDDR3

500GB HDD (I believe W2K Service Pack 4 natively supports a drive of this size)

Some sound blaster sound card may be added later.

This is going to be an open bench computer.

I did the research of all of these components already and they all have drivers available from manufacturers' websites for W2K.

 

Anyways, I need some advice. I want to make this computer as functional as possible. I plan on getting the unofficial service pack 5 installed already, as well as office 2007.

 

However, I would like:

 

The best browser that still will work on W2K.

A later version of itunes, preferably with support for iPhone.

Best available version of adobe flash player that will run.

Any other software you guys would recommend.

 

Like I said, I am looking to make this computer as functional as possible when compared to a modern computer, but with the vintage feel of an older operating system and hardware.

 

Thank you so much.

 

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Well, IMNSHO you cannot write "Office 2007" in a post declaring that you want your PC "as functional as possible" :no: personally I used to have it installed in offices where productivity was too d@mn high, in order to reduce it by 20-25% ;).

 

There are valid browsers (please read as "Opera") working on 2K, though it starts to get a little bit outdated on a few sites, but there are recent enough Firefox versions running (I believe with some of the available OS extensions).

 

The Itunes (a recent version) will most probably be the biggest issue. :unsure:

 

jaclaz

Edited by jaclaz
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Welcome to MSFN, Jessie.

 

If you install the Unofficial Service Pack 5.1, Update Rollup 2 and Unofficial Update Rollup, Firefox 39 should work, Pale Moon 25.5.0, Flash Player 18.x should work. I would totally advise against installing Office 2007. I've had nothing but problems with it. And uninstalling it basically rips Windows 2000 to shreds... I would recommened Office 2003 with the compatibility pack.

 

I'm not sure about iTunes, since I hate it. :whistle:

 

Other software I'd recommend includes: Irfanview (image viewer, since 2000 doesn't have one), Microsoft User Profile Hive Cleanup Service (UPHClean) (Since Windows NT5.x sometimes doesn't unload user registry hives properly), and the unofficial Windows Imaging Component that Tomasz86 has in his download archive (Windows2000-UU-WIC-x86-ENU.exe) (Since Windows 2000's own WIC is a bit outdated).

Edited by MrMaguire
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The only reason why I said office 2007 is because I don't have a 2003 key and installation around. 

 

Thanks for the advice though, ill be revisiting this thread in days to come.

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Well, then you may appreciate this:

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/137826-what-makes-office-2003-better-than-97/

particularly the article and grapphs here (too bad they haven't been updated :( ):

http://www.oooninja.com/2008/05/openofficeorg-microsoft-office-moores.html

 

I would also check LibreOffice, as last time I compared them it seemed to me a little bit snappier :unsure: BUT the good guys senselessly removed Windows 2000 support :( so last version working on 2K should be 3.6.3:

http://www.oldapps.com/libreoffice.php?system=Windows_2000

 

It goes without saying YMMV.

 

jaclaz

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Interesting information. Thank you. I think I'll be going with Open Office on the build. I plan on shooting for one of the later Pentium 4's, a Prescott model. 672 Hyperthreaded @ 3.8GHz

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Yeah, I think so. A few 4.0GHz models are listed on Wikipedia, but they don't have any Intel model code thingies (SLxxx), so I assume they don't generally exist.

 

I hear the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo is good for the money.

 

I have Windows 2000 running on a 3.0GHz Prescott, and so far it seems quite snappy.

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If your prescott runs well then I'm sure mine will as well. (When I order it, lol!) I believe ours can even run Windows 8 and Windows 10. As far as I know only the hyperthreaded P4's are able to comfortably run either of those OS's.

 

I'm mostly just concerned about software. If what you say is true and I can really get Firefox 29 and flash player, I will be REALLY stoked.

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Sweet. Intel used to make good motherboards. With 4GB of RAM and that graphics card, you should get some pretty good performance out of that Pentium 4.

 

Sure, Firefox 29 (or even 39, lol :angel ) and the latest flash player will work just fine. Just make sure to download the full version of the setup file, and run it in the Application Compatibility Launcher from the start menu, otherwise setup will complain that you're using an unsupported OS. Java 8 will also work, and so will Mozilla Thunderbird if you use that.

 

There's also an unofficial 2010 release of DirectX 9.0c ported from XP, so if you're the gamer type, you might have some success with that too.

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