Also, Im assuming I can run Win2000 Advanced server edition to get up to 32gb of memory?

Mine is a Pentium 3 (450 Mhz) with 384 MB physical memory. You could run a server edition to use PAE, but might run into driver related problems. If moar memories and clock speed are what you’re agonizing over, W2K may not be your OS.

Ok sure but the other side of it is that I dont want to buy an old system. I already have new systems. I could try to install myself, but im wondering what others have experienced.

SP4 Update Rollup came in 2005 - so it should run normally on hardware from that time.
MUCH higher than P3 with 384 MB RAM.

Are you asking bare metal or virtualization?

If bare metal then are you asking for PCs built by a vendor or one you can build yourself? The only way to get a "best" (whatever that is) PC would be to build it yourself unless your "best" requirement is pretty low.

If virtualization used then you can run Windows 2000 w/KVM on the latest and greatest and use passthrough for KB/mouse/audio/video/etc.

Verified various Operating Systems on newer hardware w/KVM via proxmox

PROXMOX TEST 2000/XP/Vista/7/8/10/11/Linux

CPU: Ryzen 9 5950x
CPU Cooler: Corsair iCUE H150i w/ 3x Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM chromax
Motherboard: MSI Meg X570 Unify
NIC: Intel Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X550-T2 (10GB)
Memory: G.Skill 32GB DDR4 PC4-28800 3600MHz Ripjaws V for Intel CL16 (16-19-19-39) Dual Channel kit (2x16GB)
GPU: 8800GT 512MB (2000 Vanilla)
EGPU: Zotac Geforce GTX 980 Ti 6GB AMP! Extreme GDDR5 ZT-90507-10B PCIe (Windows XP,Vista)
EGPU: GIGABYTE Gaming OC GeForce RTX 3080 10GB GDDR6X PCI Express 4.0 ATX Video Card GV-N3080GAMING OC-10GD (rev. 2.0) (7+)
Video card: EGPV-1101-C1 M.2 (Proxmox Console)
Audio: Realtek® ALC1220 (Vista+)
Audio: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy PCIe RX 7.1 (2000/XP)
Monitor 1: Acer XB271HU 27" 2560x1440 "Acer Predator XB1"
DVD: Blu-ray LG WH16NS60
SSD: Seagate FireCuda 530 1TB
SSD: Seagate FireCuda 530 4TB
PSU: CORSAIR RMx Series, RM1000x, 1000 Watt, 80+ Gold Certified, Fully Modular Power Supply
Case: Corsair 600C Black ATX Full Tower Computer Case w/ 3x Noctua NF-A14 PWM chromax

EGPU 980TI
Cable: ONE XPLAYER OCuLink Cable for OneXGPU eGPU, SFF8611, 3.3ft Long, PCIe 4.0 x4
Adapter: NFHK 4X Oculink SFF-8612 SFF-8611 to PCIE PCI-Express 16x Adapter with ATX 24pin
Case: Fractal Design Ridge Black - PCIe 4.0 Riser Card Included - 2X 140mm PWM Aspect Fans Included - Type C USB - m-ITX
PSU: Corsair SF Series, SF750, 750 Watt, SFX, 80+ Platinum Certified, Fully Modular Power Supply (CP-9020186-NA)
Occulink card: PCIe x4 Gen4 with ReDriver to OCulink 4i Host Bus Adapter

EGPU 3080
Cable: ONE XPLAYER OCuLink Cable for OneXGPU eGPU, SFF8611, 3.3ft Long, PCIe 4.0 x4
Adapter: NFHK 4X Oculink SFF-8612 SFF-8611 to PCIE PCI-Express 16x Adapter with ATX 24pin
Case: Fractal Design Ridge Black - PCIe 4.0 Riser Card Included - 2X 140mm PWM Aspect Fans Included - Type C USB - m-ITX
PSU: SilverStone SX1000 1000W SFX-L:
Occulink card: PCIe x4 Gen4 with ReDriver to OCulink 4i Host Bus Adapter

PROXMOX Test DOS\9x (VESA)/NT4 (VESA)/2000 (XP+ Backup)

Processor: Intel Core i7 6700k
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U9S w/2 Noctua A9 92mm fans
Motherboard: ASUS PRIME Z270-A
Memory: Patriot Viper 4 32GB (4 x 8GB)
NIC: Intel X540-T1 10GB
SSD: Seagate Firecuda 530 1TB (Proxmox)
SSD: Seagate Firecuda 530 2TB (Proxmox VMs)
PSU: Corsair RM850x
Audio: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy PCIe RX 7.1 (9x/2000/XP)
Monitor: Dell Ultrasharp U2410F 24" 1920x1200
GPU : Geforce GTX 780 (2000 BWC/XP+)
GPU: Geforce FX 5200 128mb (9x-NT) (2k-xp for games that need it)
Case: CoolerMaster ATC-110 w/ 4x Noctua NF-A8 PWM fans
Amebay 5.25 Inch Front Panel USB Hub 2port 3.0, USB 2.0 for Computer Case
DVD: Blu-ray LG UH12LS28

IIRC, really really new systems will have issues with win2k, not just because of 'more than 4gb ram', but because of 'lacks a CSM', 'ACPI flavor is unsupported', and 'AHCI controller lacks IDE mode, and lacks win2k drivers'.

If I wanted retro chic on more modern iron, i'd go with XP x64. (It was a redheaded stepchild bitd, with bad driver availability, but many win7 drivers retroactively work on it.)

4gb+ / PAE works, etc.. still XP.

I ran it on AthlonXP chips back then, but i'd bet i5s and pals would work just fine.

Still needs a CSM though.

Systems189 wrote on 2025-03-10, 16:42:

Im a bit confused about what kind of pc can run windows 2000. A lot of people report success with newer hardware, but I imagine there are a lot of new motherboard chipsets that dont work with windows 2000. Ive considered buying a certified win2000 box from Nixsys but it's so expensive. If I can get more memory and better single thread clock speed, it would be worth it to build my own system. So what do you guys recommend?

Hi normally first gen i3-i7

I have a i5 with win2k and 8gb ram

read this

https://msfn.org/board/topic/145958-can-a-cor … n-windows-2000/

I ran windows 2k professional on a core i5 750 with 12 Gb of ram with almost no problem.

The main problem comes to the driver support on newer wifi cards and graphics drivers post 2007.

But if you look closely, here are some teams that were working on driver support for windows 2000 (AMD fanboys).

So I'd say :
- core i5 750
- 8 Gb of ram
- Radeon HD4870 - 4890
- and obviously the good old hard drives / SSDs (but on that platform, it will be capped at sata 2)

link for the forums is here : https://msfn.org/board/forum/88-device-drivers/

You can definitely go newer than certified systems.
Yes you can install sever versions to support more RAM. Windows will just ignore the RAM above the limit anyway, so it doesn't really matter if you didn't want to bother with a server version.
You may know this but Windows 2000 doesn't understand CPU cores and will treat it like a 2nd CPU, not very efficient but Win2k is so lightweight it's hardly going to matter.

Hard Drives you can use a floppy disk or a tool like nlite to inject the sata/raid "text mode" drivers.
For me I found the limiting factor was needing an IDE optical drive for install but a workaround may exist?
Newest computer I've installed Win2k on was a LGA 771 based Dell PowerEdge 1950

You could go with a Pentium 4 at 3.0ghz, Asrock Mobo P4i65g, 512mb ram and any fx nvidia gpu could do the job, its kind of my Windows 98 build specs I have, its pretty overkill for it so I guess it could go fine under Windows 2000

... That's flying toasters from AfterDark, a desktop enhancement pack for Mac. 😮

wierd_w wrote on 2025-03-11, 03:25:

... That's flying toasters from AfterDark, a desktop enhancement pack for Mac. 😮

😀😄 it is my friend, happens that I just love this screensavers since I was a little kid, I currently keep using them in all my retro builds projects I have.

not to sound cliched but the best machine is one you will actually use and enjoy

if the enjoyment is testing how far you can push up the tech ladder and still install w2k then whatever you can just about get it working on is best

if its to use w2k, software than works happily on it while having a responsive system the, as mainstream support ended on June 30, 2005, you should be fine with hardware up until then

from my experience w2k runs well on anything from a P2 with 128mb ram (with typical period applications not games) to the very last of the 32bit systems with lots of ram. I never tried on a 64 bit system, by then there's xp,vista and 7 that'll work fine

I like w2k but the moment xp runs fine i tend to use that, for me it lies in a P2-P3 space where the purpose isnt gaming