I really have to stop doing impulse buys.

In anticipation of the upcoming releases of Doom 3 and Half Life 2, I have upgraded my motherboard, CPU, RAM, and video card.

Mobo is the ASUS P4C800 Deluxe, CPU is an Intel 3.2 ghz, RAM is a gig's worth of Corsair 466mhz PC3700, and the video card is a GeForceFX 5900 Ultra with 256mb of video memory, made by BFG Tech.

I actually had the choice between two different GeForce 5900's with the same specs, I picked the one on the shelf that said "24/7 tech support" and "Lifetime warranty". I was glad I did, because I couldn't get the system to boot once I installed the Nvidia drivers. Their tech knew exactly how to fix my problem.

Turns out that Windows 98, 98SE, and ME don't support more than 512 megs of RAM. Even though the system properties screen properly detects and displays "1024mb", you run into all sorts of odd problems such as the video drivers not working.

So after I removed one of the sticks, everything worked fine and I was able to rush off to a LAN party where the games we played performed flawlessly at much higher resolutions and frame rates than I'd previously thought possible. Ah, it feels good.

But I've got this 512 meg chip sitting here just itching to be used. And I'm sure Doom 3 and HL2 are going to like having the extra RAM when the time comes to get those games.

Although I'd prefer to avoid installing the Fischer Price OS on this computer, I certainly don't mind installing Win2K (I guess I'll throw out those few apps and games I still have which won't run on NT/2K), and have even been contemplating doing so for a while now.

My questions to the panel:

- Has anyone had any trouble or performance issues running relatively recent games on Win2k?

- In terms of how it affects games and home systems, can anyone think of a reason why I shouldn't install 2K server on this box instead of 2k professional? There are a few features of 2k server that I'd like to use on this box if I can. For instance, when installing, I get to pick and choose features as opposed to having my features chosen for me like the 2k pro installer does.

- Is there a definitive list of differences between 2k server and 2k professional somewhere?

- Is it possible to convert the FAT file system on my disks to NTFS without destroying the data that's on them? I've only ever installed 2k onto boxes which I was nuking and paving. I've never tried to do it onto a drive which contains some files I'd like to save. If I can do it, does that have to be done at setup time, or can it be done after the fact?

Anyone else have any comments or suggestions about running 2k for a gaming system?