Upgrade from 98?

[krokadil]

I am building a new machine (AMD XP1800+) and am wondering if it is worth shelling out the money and upgrading to XP. I was just going to load 98, which would save me a hundred dollars, but I wonder if it would be better to go ahead and try xp.

I use graphics and multimedia programs mostly, so is there any improvements in xp? I don't do networking or dual os systems or anything too intensive. Is it worth the bother?

How is the upgrade of xp over 98, versus starting from scrath with a ful version of xp?

And would you go with xp home or professional?

[Confused]

If you decide to go XP I would recommend a clean install rather than a upgrade. You can do a clean install with a upgrade version if you have a full version of WIN98. But since full version of XP Home can be had for $93.00 at Newegg I would go that route if you decide on XP.

Personally I like XP a lot better than 98. I have two PC's WIN98 on one and XP on the other.
Chas

[Nuclear Krusader]

XP is way better than 9x/ME.

And regarding your last question, unless you plan to use a multiprocessing system or need to log onto a domain, go with Home.

[Force Flow]

Graphics as in photoshopping or gaming?

For gaming, the was definately a performace increase. Not just in benchmarks, but actually something that was noticible. It was a very nice surprise when I installing my first game on it.

As for photoshop, yes, it runs a little better. I haven't tried anything too extensive on it, but there is a slight difference.

I agree with Confused, go for a full install. You'll have less problems in the long run.

[krokadil]

Definitely photoshopping - I'm not big on the gaming. Anything past Wolfenstein 3D and I pretty much suck.

I've also heard that XP requires more memory to run satisfactorily than 98 - I am going to have 256Megs of Crucial. Will that be enough? I mostly want a zippy, swift little machine. Stable and swift.

I've also heard that you NEED to register XP. What is that? I don't know how down I am with that.

[Force Flow]

Yes, 256MB will be enough. That's what I'm running. The requirement was 128MB, I believe.

As for registering, yes, you have to. You have 2 weeks to do so, or the O/S will no longer run. By registering, MS gives you an activation number to keep it up and running until two scenarios occurr: if you do hardware upgrades or reformat (having to reinstall the O/S); you will need to reregister.

[mairving]

Actually 256 won't be enough if you are using Photoshop and other graphics programs. I would go with at least 512 and maybe even go 768 or a GB since it is so cheap (around $70 for 512M DDR Crucial).

[reboot]

256 will be enough, but it will be slow doing photoshop stuff, because of prolonged read/writes to the swap file, and/or photoshop's "scratch file".
If you can, get a gig in it...at least 512 meg.
Registering XP is painless. You do it once, and will not have to do it again, unless you do a format/reinstall or MAJOR hardware change (motherboard/CPU).

I mostly want a zippy, swift little machine. Stable and swift.

Get 512 meg of RAM (to make it swift). Get XP (to make it stable).
Of course, none of this matters if you put it on a totally bad motherboard...

[oleblue73]

At my job we run 256MB in 1.13Ghz PIII's and Photoshop is soooooo slooooooow. At home I run (photoshop) on an Athlon XP 1700+ w/256 MB and it's a lot faster, but I'm planning on upgradeing to 768MB AND Win XP also.

[krokadil]

What are the security issues with registering XP? Do you go online to Microsoft? What information do you give them?

Not that I don't love Microsoft or anything () but I don't know how excited I am about a major corporation knowing all my personal details for no real reason.

And does that mean that I couldn't install a copy of XP on two machines in my house? Would I need two copies?

[reboot]

They don't want a bunch of personal info.
You can do it over the web, or via phone, your choice.
Just do it, and get it over with, it really is painless.
No, you can only install one copy of XP per computer, and you'll need another license for the second computer, but not another complete copy of the software.

[sdkfz]

Activation takes a calculation made up of serial numbers/mac address's and such from your hardware and comes up with a code number - there is no personal info at all, this code would be the same if the identical (completley identical that is, which you can not do unless you can clone pc's) pc was used by another copy of XP

Registering the software, now you are talking personal info and this is optional just like any other item you buy.

You will need a separate OS(license or complete copy of cd and license your choice) for each machine per the EULA, this is normal except for freely distributed operating systems, XP just has a method to enforce the EULA where older OS's did not.