Yes...provided your sound card will work in 2k

Well, don't they have 98/2k drivers for sbpro cards?

dosquest wrote:

Well, don't they have 98/2k drivers for sbpro cards?

I don't know from top of my head (and your question was about w2k), but the rest of your hardware is enough to run w2k.

Win 2K for playing games up to 2005? WHY? Build or pick-up a used hyperthreaded P4 pc with a couple of gigs of ram. Throw XP on it (although it probably already has it) and you'll be much happier.

I can see people using 98SE for older games. The rig you've mentioned would be a killer 98SE rig. I just don't understand anyone using 2K anymore, especially for gaming. Is there anything that runs better on 2K than XP?

2K takes up less resources (Not really an issue here since he has alot of memory) also if he already has a copy of 2K but not of XP then not much sense in buying XP since 2K can run everything XP can.

DosFreak wrote:

2K takes up less resources (Not really an issue here since he has alot of memory) also if he already has a copy of 2K but not of XP then not much sense in buying XP since 2K can run everything XP can.

I did think of that, but the hardware he wants to use still wouldn't be enough to do that good a job playing games that late (2005). Like I already mentioned, that hardware would make a very nice Win 98SE machine. But playing anything well into the 2000's would end up being an unpleasant experience. Heck, I bought GRAW in 2005, no way that rig could play that game. Try playing Doom 3, FEAR and Far Cry (earlier 2000 games) with a 500mhz PIII!

That's why I suggested getting a cheap HT P4 rig. That would have no problem doing what he wants to do. You can buy used pcs with XP already installed of that type all day long for under $80.

That spec would make for a very nice rig to play stuff right up to 1999 or so. Unfortunately, it'll not be enough for most things past 2001.

For games from 1997-2001 i use a P3 1000 512mb's of ram, 128mb video card, sound blaster live, and a dvd drive. I run win98 because i don't have a win 2000 install disk, though my case has a win 2000 pro code on it. I would highly highly highly recommend a faster pu than 500mhz though.

I only have, in my parts/use for older rigs sub 1ghz Pentiums.

even a 650 would be better, I'd recommend a 733 or 800. I have a 650 and it's butt slow for 2000+ games.

I think I can scrounge up an 800

The sbpro will bottleneck the entire system. I had to switch to a SB32 when I moved from a P100 to P200, otherwise the games would stutter with scratchy sound.

filipetolhuizen wrote:

The sbpro will bottleneck the entire system. I had to switch to a SB32 when I moved from a P100 to P200, otherwise the games would stutter with scratchy sound.

I used an SB16 CT2740 (non PnP) in my Pentium 3 system, back in the day. Never had any issues like that.

olemogamer wrote:

Win 2K for playing games up to 2005? WHY? Build or pick-up a used hyperthreaded P4 pc with a couple of gigs of ram. Throw XP on it (although it probably already has it) and you'll be much happier.

I can see people using 98SE for older games. The rig you've mentioned would be a killer 98SE rig. I just don't understand anyone using 2K anymore, especially for gaming. Is there anything that runs better on 2K than XP?

And I don't see why anyone would want Win98 on their PC while there's Win2K 😕

Windows 98 is a slow, bloated graphical user interface for DOS. Windows 2000 is a fast, stable operating system, compatible with nearly everything, and does not have any of the unneccesary 'features' introduced in XP.

jwt27 wrote:

And I don't see why anyone would want Win98 on their PC while there's Win2K 😕

Windows 98 is a slow, bloated graphical user interface for DOS. Windows 2000 is a fast, stable operating system, compatible with nearly everything, and does not have any of the unneccesary 'features' introduced in XP.

Well, the reason is quite simple.

Windows 98 is actually quite faster then Windows 2k. With some help of nlite, even XP can be run faster then 2k while having compatibility mode and still being updated.

Frankly, I see no reason to use 2k while 98 (especially 98SE) still has it's place

SquallStrife wrote:

filipetolhuizen wrote:

The sbpro will bottleneck the entire system. I had to switch to a SB32 when I moved from a P100 to P200, otherwise the games would stutter with scratchy sound.

I used an SB16 CT2740 (non PnP) in my Pentium 3 system, back in the day. Never had any issues like that.

The SB16 has a lot of differences from the SBPro and will not cause that problem. It's basically the SB32 without wavetable.

Okay, how about a pIII 1ghz 512mb ram 128mb graphics card and a sb Live! card? Still 2k

olemogamer wrote:

Win 2K for playing games up to 2005? WHY? Build or pick-up a used hyperthreaded P4 pc with a couple of gigs of ram. Throw XP on it (although it probably already has it) and you'll be much happier.

I agree with this. 2005 is not a problematic timeframe.

jwt27 wrote:

Windows 98 is a slow, bloated graphical user interface for DOS. Windows 2000 is a fast, stable operating system, compatible with nearly everything, and does not have any of the unneccesary 'features' introduced in XP.

Windows 2000 is just as incompatible as Windows XP where it matters. And, as pointed out, 98 can indeed be much faster.

Okay, how about a pIII 1ghz 512mb ram 128mb graphics card and a sb Live! card? Still 2k

The SBLive has good SB16 emulation under real DOS. You will experience some problems when running DOS games under Windows, like build games crashing when in reverb areas. Just run them in real DOS and you'll be fine. The drivers were however, kinda buggy under Windows, but nothing to worry about.