Advice on an OS...Xp or stick with 98SE?

B

Boseafus

New member
I am building a new computer. I currently use 98SE to do my recording with ASIO drivers. Was thinking it would be a good idea to build this new machine with XP. Any reason not to?

I remember reading somewhere that you couldn't do midi stuff (via a controler like an Oxygen 8) in real time using 98SE becuase it only uses ASIO drivers. BUt, XP uses WDM drivers which give you this benefit. Any truth to that?

Thanks a ton.

Nate


**Thought I would add that I am thinking of buyinga Duron 1.2 with MOBO and fan for $89. It does not have a VIA chipset on the MOBO. Any reason not to use this setup for recording?

Thanks.

Nate
 
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I was on Win2k for a year and a half, then on to XP for 5 months but eventually i went back to Win2k because its just more stable and snappy, i got sick of the XP look really fast. Win98 is worthless now if you can get ur hands on win2k or XP thats unless u got a slow computere
 
I had a bad experience with the one Duron machine I built. I'd recommend spending the extra money for Athlon XP. You can get the ECS K7S5A motherboard for $55 and a retail boxed Athlon XP 1800 for just over $100 at new egg. I've built 5 of those systems for home and work, including the machine I record on now (running WinXP), and they're great.
 
I agree with Bdgr. I also dislike the new XP interface but you can turn it off and make it look just like Win98 if you prefer. Just make sure there are 100% working drivers for your hardware first. If not, I'd say stick with Win98.
 
I would second the idea on buying an 1800 xp also. A little more money, but worth it. And I dont see why so many people hate the fisher price interface XP comes with. I kinda like it.
 
I would say stick with Win 98SE..and go to XP when its finished..they have an upcoming SR due in the fall of this year..whereas 98SE is done ! Win 2k will have SR3 this summer.

Im running 98SE and Win 2k in a dual boot scenario..and using the Motu 2408mk II..which has WDM drivers that work in both OS,s..

After performing the tweaks for both OS,s the difference between the two are....Latency of 1.5 in Win 2K..and 2.9 in Win 98SE..of course, the more tasks you try to perform the higher the latency has to be in order to carry out those functions..so the low end is only possible when youre doing practically nothing..

I am very pleased with the performance of the Motu and Win 98SE in this system at the present...I must mentioned that I am running a P4 1.6 Intel MB with the 850 chipset and 1054MB of RAMBUS..

The only prob I ever really had with 98SE in the past is the lock ups and/or freezes...but with the new horsepower it is actually quite stable and just as stable as Win 2K on my system anyway..Also, I must add that this is a music production computer only..nothing but multitracking and recording software on this machine..which of course I would recommend above all else..
build another for the internet and games and office and crap..
I also believe that Sonar 2 is a lot more stable than any of the previous by far..its running flawlessly under both OS,s. This may be contributing more than I suspect..

I am now optimizing the Delta 1010 under both OS,s and will report on that soon...

Oh , on the latency issue..latency is only a problem when it is interfering with what you are trying to do in realtime..in other words..you should be able to work with up to 25 ms latency on your realtime controllers ..make sense?...If you can peck the keys
and not hear the delay..then you are in the house :)..if it is a problem..dont use input monitoring while recording..and make the adjustments in the DAW if needed..( which should not be the case).

The Strenghth of the WDM drivers are suppose to be
1. Be able to play your software synths in realtime while using realtime controllers..
2. Monitor effects while recording in realtime..

Neither are necessary to create stellar recordings as the past will certainly prove.

For the tweaks..go to Steinberg,s website..this was pretty comprehensive for XP and Win 2k..and Tascam for Win 98 was quite sufficient..

Good luck( and go Pentium) :)
 
elbenj said:
I would say stick with Win 98SE..and go to XP when its finished..they have an upcoming SR due in the fall of this year..whereas 98SE is done ! Win 2k will have SR3 this summer.
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Yeah right.....No OS is ever "DONE". they release updates for them(including 98se) all all the time. The only time they stop is when they become so obsolete as to not matter. 98 is not there, yet, but will be soon, just like win3.x.

XP, at SR2(prerelease), was more stable and less buggy than 98se is today, or will ever be. 2k is very stable, but XP is very much superior. And you can bet there will more service packs for 2k and XP.
With XP you dont have to build a seperate system for games and internet, one will do everything with no problems.

Oh, and GO AMD!
 
I have to chime in on that dual boot thing, too. Windows XP right out of the box is the most stable MS OS to date and it also doesn't suffer from the creeping performance degradation that seemed to plague previous versions of Windows (especially 95/98). After running XP for many months I finally jumped in and migrated all of my recording hardware and software to my main machine to avoid spending money upgrading my dedicated recording machine (which was running Windows ME). This is the first time I've had *everything* installed under one OS with no issues or performance problems whatsoever (it's an Athlon XP 1700+, 512MB DDR 2100, two Maxtor D740X drives - 60 & 80GB). I'm talking 20+ games, all kinds of productivity apps, stuff running in the tray while I'm recording (firewall, IM, Proxomitron and more) - no problem.

So in my experience XP is definitely worth using over 98(SE, lite, whatever) or 2k and dual boot is not necessary anymore. Infinite patches will never make 98 catch up to how good XP is. Of course, this all depends on your drivers and recording software. With Logic 5 and a MOTU 1224, that's my answer.
 
Installed a SB Live with KXdrivers on both Win 98SE and XP Pro.

When playing VST synths on 98 (2.66ms latency) the sound full of "clicks". On XP the "clicks" has almost disappeared.
 
From these posts, it looks like XP is the OS of choice. I wonder though if I would be able to avoid dual booting with my PC since I only have a 650 PIII. Most of you who have had success using just XP also have much higher processor speeds. I would like to upgrade to XP without having to go thru the hassles of partitioning my HD and instead just use one OS (XP). Also, how difficult will it be to migrate all my files from 98SE to XP?
 
Brian Ferrell said:
From these posts, it looks like XP is the OS of choice. I wonder though if I would be able to avoid dual booting with my PC since I only have a 650 PIII. Most of you who have had success using just XP also have much higher processor speeds. I would like to upgrade to XP without having to go thru the hassles of partitioning my HD and instead just use one OS (XP). Also, how difficult will it be to migrate all my files from 98SE to XP?
Click to expand...

I use XP on a PII-400 w/ 512Mb of RAM and it performs better than Win2000 ever did.
 
Great, then there's hope for me with just my 384mb, since I can still add more memory if I need to! Does XP have a utility that makes it easy to transfer files from earlier Windows OSs like W2k and 98SE? I've never had anything but 98SE, so I've never upgraded an OS.
 
There is no best OS. WinXP doesn't have a crash-proof money-back guarantee, and there is a reason for that.
Neither does Win98, 2000, Linux or any of the rest of them.
So smile and relax, because it doesn't matter which one you choose.
They are all potentially cr4p.
:D
Two truths:
1. Don't try to move to XP until you have investigated all your hardwares' tech support sources (online BBS's, newsgroups) to make sure that at least some people have all your same components working in computers running WinXP. Unless.....
2. You want a component that isn't supported in Win98. There are now a couple products (videocards and motherboards) on sale out there with advanced features that aren't supported at all in Win98 and earlier OS's, and that list will only get longer. If you want that stuff you gotta go, and you may have to leave unsupported hardware behind.
-Or, get another older PC to run 98 on and a couple LAN cards.....
~
I still run Win98SE, it works just dandy for me. It won't forever tho'.
 
Yes, I kinda figured same about hardware compatibility, but I can't use my Hoontech C-Port's WDM drivers for 24 bit Sonar in 98SE, which means a lot of latency with input monitoring with the old drivers. XP supposedly works like a dream with WDM. It's good to know that you're not having probs recording with 98SE, but don't you have probs with latency?
 
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