Oldtimer Case/MB Question-comments

[KdF]

This will be kinda windy, but here goes.
I`ve built about 20 computers over the years, from 486`s up to the socket 478`s. Took a couple of years hiatus to pay off my house and cars and not dump mega-bucks into computers. Well these are a little long in the tooth, 4 years as a matter of fact, and I came back and posted about MB suggestions a month or so ago. Anyway, in my zealousness of getting parts, I picked up a Gigabyte case for myself and a cheapie for the wife's at CompUSA because the close out sale and I'm cheap! Well she got me a Raidmax case for Christmas. Well fine....I got her a Gigabyte P35-DS3L with a E6750 and a BFG 8600GT and put that in the Raidmax Case. Loaded Vista Ultimate and it`s workin. In the case there is a male 4 prong plug for the dials LED Lights in front of the case <Sirius> and no-where to go, also there is a temp wire that I have no idea where to put, and the cases instructions suxors.

Second....how old of programs can go on Vista? My Wife has Scanners, digital cameras and programs for sewing from W98. Will they work and has anyone seen the pop-up window of "This program has compatibility issues, please search for a updated program"

Third, I broke down and got myself <For ME> the Striker MB, 2 BFG 8600gt`s in SLI and 2 500GB SATA II HD`s. Will XP Pro work OK on this rig or do I need to get Vista also?

Comments??

[rjs735]

I wish now that you had scanned thru our postings. The general consensus is VISTA would not be your first choice as an OS.
1. Lack of drivers for such devices as scanners, cameras some older printers.
2.The issues of DRM( digital rights management) like music someone copied for you on to a cd unless you have the original drm signature they will not play on Vista. Unlike XP.
3.There is very little in the way of real gut wrenching enhancements in Vista over XP and Vista costs more.
4. There are issues with program compatability running in VISTA. You may need a newer ( buy new software) version.
There probably more but most of the people who have tried Vista here have gone back to XP Pro as a prefered choice.

The temp sensor should attach under the cpu to look at the CPU temp more realisticly. Search the cpu forum for some posts on the subject.

Your gaming rig should work better with less memory with XP pro than vista. Did I mention VISTA uses more resources than XP. ALso there is lot more experience with RAID and SLi in XP than Vista.

Any one else feel free to jump in and add comments I am sure I haven't adaquately covered all the points.

[KdF]

Well I have not validated the Vista,I think I have 90 days. I may go back to XP on Both Machines, I just have to find the bloody disks. I may have to buy Pro again, SIGH! I have read a bunch on the OS`s, and the DRM and the driver issues have kept me wondering. I really don`t know whether a MB being optimized for Vista will have any drawbacks runnin XP.

I never saw a place to put the temp wire under the CPU, I didn`t want to stick it between the Zalman and the CPU for fear of crushing the CPU.

More comments?

[rjs735]

I am hoping someone else who has installed a sensor can chime in but the sensor goes in the void under the heat sink for this type of cpu.

HERE IS A LINK TO CPU temp sensor install
EXTREME Overclocking - Super-Flower Fan Master (SF-609) Review - Page: 3 - Tweaking PC Hardware To The Max
The 2nd picture show the CPU temp sensor and wire routing.

The search i used was "cpu temp sensor install. There are some others but I'll leave those to you.

[KdF]

Well I knew this was going way to easy. I finally found one of my XP disks, the Origonal Pro Upgrade. But it only reads my 500 gig as a 127 gig. Drat! And I dont have it slipstreamed for SP1 or SP 2. Here I go huntin again to see if I can use that disk at all.

There was a reason I quit workin on these things all the time...........

[k0NG0]

You could try to use a virtual machine under Vista for the old stuff. Microsoft's Virtual PC comes in a free version, for example. You could then install XP and run it in a Window under Vista. I think USB1 support is there, at the very least. So a scanner may perhaps be a tad slow under huge resolutions, but it should work.

Before wiping Vista it may be worth a shot. Unless you detest Vista to begin with, then by all means go for XP instead. Also, it's a bit convoluted to start XP in Vista to scan something. It's probably quite a bit slower than just starting a regular program too.

BTW: love your avatar.

[FightingChance]

You may want to reconsider the 8600GT's in SLI. A single 8800GT will be faster and have less hassle than a dual card setup.

[S.SubZero]

Originally Posted by rjs735

1. Lack of drivers for such devices as scanners, cameras some older printers.

Vista's been out over a year. There's drivers for lots of things now.

Originally Posted by rjs735

2.The issues of DRM( digital rights management) like music someone copied for you on to a cd unless you have the original drm signature they will not play on Vista. Unlike XP.

I still love how people think Vista will absolutely, under no conditions, play any MP3 or any media file that does not have some kind of valid DRM. All of the MP3's I ripped from CDs or downloaded from P2P sites and played in Vista happily in it's own Media Player 11 or WinAmp or whatever.. It was all some kind of strange fantasy that never happened! All of the movies and videos I snagged off P2P? FANTASY.

Originally Posted by rjs735

3.There is very little in the way of real gut wrenching enhancements in Vista over XP and Vista costs more.

This is up to the individual to decide. As someone who used Vista64 for several months and went back to XP64, I do find myself missing some of Vista's extra stuff.

Originally Posted by rjs735

4. There are issues with program compatability running in VISTA. You may need a newer ( buy new software) version.

The vast majority of software works. Software that didn't work originally has mostly been updated to do so. Reliance on antiquated versions of software, or software that the company that made it is gone and there's no more updates, well.. That is another story. People tied to legacy apps know their situation though.

Originally Posted by rjs735

There probably more but most of the people who have tried Vista here have gone back to XP Pro as a prefered choice.

For me it was simply a resource issue. Vista64 just chews up alot of RAM and hard disk space I couldn't afford to lose on my laptop. If someone has the resources and disk space, it's worth at least checking out. But it's not for the faint of heart, Vista is huge.

I did notice 3DMark06 came in a little lower in Vista64 than XP64 but for playing games with DX10 (when more titles fully support it) it's the only game in town. I have a new laptop coming with an 8800M video card and 4GB RAM, so I am kind of on the fence if I want to put Vista64 on it or not.

[rjs735]

S.subzero thanks for the additional comments. Not having any direct experience I was only quoting from articles that I had read from reviewers and other sources so I am not surprised by the DRM issues being not 100% accurate. Thanks for the update which I will keep in mind for the future.

My feeling remains the same that Vista is not ready for the most knowledgeable people because both of cost of software and hardware as an upgrade. It's a shame that by the end of June this years you will no longer be able to buy even XP oem nor order it in lieu of Vista on a new system.