I have a Pentium 4 machine with a BFG 6800 ULTRA OC and a Vortex 2 sound card.
Is there any reason to install DOS and dual-boot with Windows XP? Will the video or sound card even work at all?
Also, should I install Windows 98 or XP?
There is a bit of a mismatch with that video card and sound card. The Vortex 2 card won't work properly with Windows XP, since the 9x era was the last officially supported operating systems for A3D (Vortex) sound.
Conversely, the BFG 6800 is better suited to Windows XP. While it can work under Windows 98, you're more likely run into compatibility issues with games.
What type of P4 do you have? If it's a Northwood era P4, I'd probably swap out the GPU for a GeForce 4 or FX and make it a Windows 98 machine.
If it's a later model P4 (Prescott/Cedar Mill), you could replace the sound card and make it an XP machine.
In neither case is there a reason to install DOS.
Ugh -- I should have done more research. The system is a Pentium 4 2.4 GHz (Northwood) which I read was better for gaming than Prescott?
I just picked up the 6800 (for quite a bit of money) because I didn't know the Vortex 2 wasn't compatible with XP. You live and learn I guess. However, I have a SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS so I think I will use that instead. I was hoping to check out A3D effects in games like Half-Life 2, etc though.
My other machine is my DOS/Win98 machine with an AMD K6-3, Voodoo 3 and Orpheus 2. However, that's more for earlier games.
I was using an Geforce MX 440 with my Pentium 4 (and Windows 98) but it was too slow for Half-Life.
Clock-for-clock, a Northwood should out perform a Prescott in most circumstances. Prescotts do have higher clock speeds available and can out perform Northwoods depending on specific applications.
Cedar Mill processors is my preference, since they tend to run cooler than Prescotts though, at least for a late-model P4.
You could do dual boot 98 and XP. Then you could use both the Vortex 2 and Audigy 2 ZS is the same system. Use the Vortex 2 for 98 and ZS for XP. I do this in my own P4 build (per signature).
And I don't believe HL2 supported A3D, just the original Half-Life. A3D effects in Half-Life are really nice though, really nice positional audio.
Thanks for the information.
I'm interested in dual booting, but I thought the 6800 ULTRA doesn't have drivers for Win98 so I would need to switch video cards I guess?
The 6800 series including ultra has Win 98 driver support. It's just that compatibility may be a little more iffy depending on specific games and driver versions, compared to earlier model GeForce cards.
