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Wow....hehe...OK, I missed it. You're also from Beaverton I was kinda wondering why you were asking me....I was like, "Well...maybe the BestBuy near you won't carry it? Or have it in stock?" Groovy

I bought it @ BestBuy, of all places. I honestly didn't think they would have carried it....but they do. I'm sure that Fry's would have it as well. TE

Quick and to the point....yes. I have no problems running it under WinXP RC1. (or any previous build for that matter)

Shampoo, I couldn't agree with you more. I'm a real sucker when it comes to hardware. Honestly, it's pretty sad sometimes I was just leaving work, and stopped by BestBuy to get Anachronox, and I saw the box just sitting there...and I read plenty of reviews on the thing, and figured what the heck. Like you, I haven't turned back since. TE http://www.nvnews.net FIC AD11 512 MB PC2100 (Crucial) AMD T-Bird @ 1.3 GHz. VisionTek GF3 (225/530) Philips Acoustic Edge

Let me be a little bit more precise....By stuttering, I'm referring to framerate, not sound. And another thing...this *never* happens in OpenGL...It's always Direct3D. Of course, we typically tend to play OpenGL games based around the same engine (that is to say, Quake1/2/3 engines), but there are some other games as well, such as MDK2, Tribes2, Unreal/UT, SeriousSam.... Anyhow, if you're somebody who is looking for something that produces unparalleled sound quality, and might even get rid of some odd phantom bottleneck, I strongly urge you to check this card out.

I just want to throw this out there....For a long time, I've been convinced that there was 'something' about the SB Live! in Win2k that was causing some odd performance issues....Namely, the stuttering.... Now, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that there is a 100%, definitive correlation...What I can tell you is this. In the game Giants, I notices that Win2k performance was 50% that of Win98, and WinXP was right in between. This was using a SB Live! 5.1 card. I recently purchased a Philips Acoustic Edge sound card, and went about doing some comparisons....Now, all things being equal, I gained nearly 10 FPS in Win2k to pretty much close the gap between WinXP and Win2k performance. So, in other words, switching sound cards bumped up the performance in Win2k, while WinXP didn't change at all. Right now, I get about 61 FPS Avg. in WinXP while I get 55 FPS Avg. in Win2k. And let me say one more thing...The sound quality of the Philips card is second to NONE. It's the best sounding card I have ever owned. I have a 5.1 speaker setup, and these things rock. No hissing/popping issues, and the Win2k WDM drivers work like a charm in WinXP RC1. And the darn things aren't bloatware either. TE http://www.nvnews.net FIC AD11 256 MB PC2100 (Crucial) AMD T-Bird @ 1.3 GHz. VisionTek GF3 (225/530) Philips Acoustic Edge

Real preliminary stuff....but I've only had a chance to run 3DMark2001 + Giants since I got everything up and running. As was mentioned in another thread, the SB Live! (5.1) didn't quite work right when I used the standard Win2k drivers....Once I re-installed the WDM drivers, all was OK. OK, so here's my breakdown: - FIC AD11 - 256 MB Crucial PC2100 - memory timings: 8-8-7-2-5-2-2 - VisionTek GF3 (225/530) - Athlon T-Bird (144 MHz FSB x 9 mult) - SB Live! 5.1 - Det. 12.90 drivers, AMD 522 Win2k miniport 1024x768x32: 6200 I benchmarked this using the exact same setup as above, but in Win2000, and I got like 5800-5900.... Giants v1.398 1024x768x32: Avg: 61.42 Min: 34 Max: 121 Typedef Enum http://www.nvnews.net

Let me put a shameless plug in here... I'm from http://www.nvnews.net , and I do quite a bit of benchmark posting with regards to Win98, Win2000, and WinXP. I have the latest release (2486 now, will have 2495 soon), and update frequently. As a matter of fact, about 1 week ago, I made a post on our front page about Giants performance across all 3 OS's using a GeForce3 and a 1.4 GHz. T-Bird CPU. FYI, Win2k gets about 50% the framerate as Win98, and WinXP is smack-dab in the middle. I would be willing to bet you that by October, WinXP will be right there with Win98....For some reason, Windows2000 has some inherent limit in D3D performance....In many cases, Win2000 OpenGL performance exceeds that of Win98. Anyhow, check out my posts on the main page....I update it frequently, and have thought about doing a somewhat comprehensive roundup of games, comparing the performance levels between different OS's. BTW....I'm pretty darn convinced that the somewhat new Philips Acoustic Edge soundcard might be the best thing for non Win9x OS's....As an example....Quake3, which doesn't support any kind of hard-core 3D audio per-se.....In Win2000 and WinXP....When the audio slider is set to "full acceleration"....Quake3 @ 1024x768x32 gets like 137 FPS.....When I set it to "no acceleration", it jumps to 167 FPS using the same settings. You might say, "Hey, what difference is 137 vs. 167 FPS?" Well, truth to tell, there isn't....But if it can make that kind of difference is Quake3...Imagine what it *might* do in some other more taxing games?

Lets see here.... I would say that Deu*** is an awesome game....Once you get into it, you won't be able to play anything else. It's one of the best ever. I would also suggest NOLF, if you don't have it...good humour, good gfx., a little bit different than your typical FPS. Of course, I think Giants is a riot as well....If you didn't get it, I would suggest MDK2 as well...It has that really dry humour.

Let me say this... There is no question that issues pertaining to the OS hold back Direct3D performance. I have Win98, Windows2000, and WinXP (build 2486) on this system. The funny thing is that it really depends on the game/application. For example, Giants...This one is pretty funny. Using the exact same drivers across Win2000 and WinXP...and obviously, the same game settings....the timedemo in Giants yields: Win2k: 48 FPS WinXP: 60 FPS Of course, I get the following in Win98: Win98: 83 FPS I will let you be the judge. I'm using the exact same nVidia drivers for all OS's, same tweaks, same everything....Obviously, AMD760 miniport drivers are different for Win98 vs. Win2k, but all the updates have been applied. Next up is NOLF. This one just plain sucks outside of Win98. It's a fantastic game, but the performance just stinks. And then you have 3DMark2001....and, interestingly enough, there is very little variation between Win98 and Windows2000. Very interesting indeed. It's almost as if nVidia said, "hey, a lot of people pay attention to 3DMark2001...lets make sure we work on that one..." (I know this happens). Anyhow, I have done this experiment across a number of titles, and there is something about Win2k that just prohibits one from getting the best D3D performance possible. Typedef Enum http://www.nvnews.net - FIC AD11 - Athlon T-Bird @ 1.4 GHz. - VisionTek GF3 (225/530) - Crucial PC2100 256MB

I'm actually most interested in finding out why that dumb EAX splash-screen happens whenever you add/change drivers...It happens in Windows2000, so I know it's not just XP. I used to use a regular, old SB Live! card (IE not the 5.1), and it never used to happen...But those drivers are different than the 5.1 drivers off the CD.

I've got $$ on the fact that it's the SB Live! Actually, not so much the card, but the bloated mess they like to call LivewWare.

1. This may be an nVidia problem, or an XP one...But I can use PowerDVD (I've used 2.55 and 3.0), watch a DVD...But the moment I shut it down, I don't get a BSOD...It just restarts the system. 2. Similar to #1, watching an AVI will do the exact same thing, except it restarts as soon as the video is about to begin. 3. Again, this one might fall under the "it's nVidia's bug", but I have noticed that when going into the advanced tab (using an nVidia GTS) in the display settings, and then hit "Cancel" or "OK", there will be a 3 seconds pause or so. In Win2000, it's pretty instantaneous. (By the way, I'm using the 11.01 Win2k drivers) 4. Not a bug, but is anybody else using the Via 4-in-1 drivers? 5. This one is a Creative Labs bug, I believe. I have noticed this behavior in Win2000, but the result is a little different. I'm using a 5.1 Live! card, and the drivers off the CD (which are not the same as LiveWare3 on CL's website). After installing it in Win2000, I have noticed that whwenever I add a new device, and/or add new drivers, that stupid "EAX" splashscreen is executed. This isn't a huge deal, but there is something wrong....Back to WinXP: So, after having installed the Win2000 5.1 LiveWare drivers, if I install drivers *outside of safe mode*, I get that stupid EAX splash screen, and the OS will, once again, reboot. 6. Performance is right there with Windows2000. I have been playing a number of games, to include: - UT - Quake3 - Giants - NOLF - Black & White - Tribes2 It's really hard to believe how far this thing is relative to Windows2000's Beta2...of course, it helps to be able to use the WIn2k drivers....Nonetheless, there's a lot of potential for things to not work correctly, and it is, for the most part, minimized a great deal. This OS is almost (in my eyes) ready for prime time...The hardware vendors just need to fix these little ticky-tack issues, and optimize their code for XP. I have actually been most impressed with Direct3D performance to be honest with you...I knew that OpenGL would most likely rock, but was afraid that D3D was going to really suffer...I can gladly report, based on the games that I've tried, that this is not true. Remember how long it took before you could actually use D3D in Windows2000? Man, it was a real sacrifice, as it simply wasn't very usable.