I NEED SERIOUS HELP

[pigtender]

My name is Marc and I'm new to the forums :) I work as a sales rep for Gateway so I think I'm pretty hardware savvy but I need some advice. I have a Gateway AMD 1.4 GHZ machine, 512MB SDRAM, 60GB Quantum HD, Radeon VE 64MB DDR vid card, SB Live! ect... and my motherboard was manufactured by MSI and has a VIA chipset. I'm formatting my computer as soon as I get a min and I want the best possible performance. I also have a 20GB WD HD that I was thinking of installing in the unit as a second HD. What version of windows would be best to use? I do a lot of internet, cd burning and digital music, and some gaming. Are there any good tweak guides out there for windows to give me top performance? How about the tewaking of my radeon card? I think I just need advice to get the best possbile out of my system...

[Fierce]

Well, you have a nice system going there...this is what I would do...

I would use the 20GB drive you have as the drive that houses the OS and loaded programs, and use the 60GB drive as your second drive dor all your data, music and downloaded files. For an OS, I would either do Win2000 or WinXP Pro for stability.

For program tweaking....download TweakUI or Xsetup, two utilities that allow you to really change windows and other app settings. Unless you really know what you are doing and have good cooling options, I would leave your vid card alone as far as overclocking goes. It's a pretty kick *** card, and unless you are a game freak, you won't notice much of a difference from OC you vid card.

BTW...get Gateway to carry AMD processors again. :D :D

[Gameguru]

I would say Fierce is right on time, here. As for OS, I would go with XP(better for gaming IMHO). As for OCing your videocard, use <a href="http://www.entechtaiwan.com/ps.htm" target="_blank">this utility.</a>

It works great and I haven't had any problems with it. Just remember to start slow and only change things a little at a time.

While I am a big advocate of overclocking, there is an art to it and there are a ton of factors that can influence the performance of your vidcard. You will have to benchmark your own system and find out what works best for you.

[Cygnus]

<a href="http://forums.windrivers.com/cgi-bin/forum3/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic&f=38&t=000687" target="_blank">http://forums.windrivers.com/cgi-bin/forum3/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic&f =38&t=000687</a>


Multi-post?

[Mr_Miyagi]

..........gateway sales rep with a gateway pc!

hmmm thats interesting!

i'm a compaq engineer but i built my own!

(please note: this is a sad attempt at humour)

[xschmittyx]

I'd run XP. Go <a href="http://www.tweakxp.com" target="_blank">here</a> for tweaks for XP.

[Wyckyd1]

I have a "mighty" Dell running Windows 2000. I know the hardware comparison to my old 95 desktop makes a difference as well but on top of that 2000 is much more stable.
As already stated I would go XP. I can only give you personal experience with running 2000 for awhile, actually just started encountering XP machines and they seem stable. I will probably upgrade soon.

[Gollo]

[quote]Originally posted by Mr_Miyagi:
<strong>
(please note: this is a sad attempt at humour)</strong><hr></blockquote>

yup

[xschmittyx]

[quote] i'm a compaq engineer but i built my own!

(please note: this is a sad attempt at humour)
<hr></blockquote>

Haha just got it.