Hey, Im building a new PC for mostly gaming. Im ordering most of the parts off NewEgg.com so thats my selection. Well these are the parts i have selected so far, any suggestions and comments are welcome.

Chieftec Full Tower w/ 420w PS
Abit KX7-333 Mother Board
Visiontek GeForce4 ti4400
AMD Athlon XP 1800
Crucial 256mb DDR RAM
Maxtor 40gb 7200 RPM
Linksys 10/100 LAN NIC
Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 PCI
52X Lite On CD-ROM

those are the main parts im buying, could use any suggestions espescially in regards to the sound card. BTW im looking to spend under $800. All that so far is $725. Thanks =D

Get more RAM!!! :P

500 Ram should be ok.
And if you can get a 64 MB Vid card. Much smoother.
Dunno about the rest.

Ciao for now!

512 Mb RAM would be a good idea.

Dropping any Soundblaster would be too ... perhaps replace with Santa Cruz.

Don't forget your CPU heatsink/fan.

Thanks guys, I do plan on upgrading RAM but not right away cause im kinda on a buget hehe, probably will add another 256 in a month or 2. Thanks Tuda i dont know much about sound cards and my new mobo doesnt have onboard. Thanks

Never heard of Chieftec towers, but that's not surprising these days. Just make sure that you've got adequite airflow - the AMD and G4 will get very hot.

I haven't looked up that motherboard particularly, but make sure it doesn't have onboard RAID. If it does, get the model without it. Chances are, you're not going to use it anyhow (and I know you're not with just one drive).

Get more RAM - as already stated 512, or 1024 are your best bets.

Go for a bigger hard drive if you can afford it - the difference between the 40 and the 60 is only around $20 - stay with the 7200 RPM though. Stay away from Quantum drives (and don't listen to anyone else on their opinions of other OEMs - everyone's had problems with everyone ;)) If you're buying anything from Fry's, don't buy anything that's not in the original box.

Replace your sound card with the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz - cheaper card, better performance, less problems.

In my opinion, make the 512mb a priority, even if you have to lower the spec of some other component. If you want to play Luclin without waiting an age to zone, I'd say RAM is fairly important :) Even after the performance tweaks they did.

SB16, yuck. You can probably pick up a soundcard that does all the Dolby 5.1 bells and whistles etc for the same price, and it won't be from Creative (a Good Thing)

And /agree on hard drives
Some swear by make x, some hate them
Some swear by make z, some hate them
and on it goes..
Everyone has a hard drive manufacturer they love and one they hate, and everyone is convinced they're "right"... but there doesn't seem to be any consistency in it :p

Reconsider your RAM choice. If you just stick to standard PC2100 RAM, an extra 256Mb should only cost about $70 more and will give you much better performance with memory-intensive applications.

Stormhaven says: Never heard of Chieftec towers

Chieftec is the actual manufacturer of Antec and (most) Enermax cases. Antec and Enermax rebadge them and stick their power supplies in them. Overall a pretty nice line, one of the better choices for steel cases.

PadfootEQ says: Everyone has a hard drive manufacturer they love and one they hate

My vote is for Seagate, as the Barracuda IVs are not only reliable but the quietest you can get. Only problem is that they're a bit more expensive.

By the way, who "loves" IBM drives? <img src=http://www.geocities.com/lag999/biggrin.txt>

IBM's IDE Deskstar series have been making *many* headlines for both speed and reliability.

Quantum has always been your 50/50 provider - either you one that's rock solid, or it'll burn out it's bearings in two days.

Western Digital is the same way, but it seems to be more towards 70/30 for good. It seems to have a *lot* to do with whether you're buying the "pretty box" version (70% ok) or the OEM-silver-wrapping version (the other 30%).

Maxtor is known for putting out the biggest drive the fastest for the least amount of money. In turn, they usually sacrifice reliability and speed. They all seem to have a shorter normal lifespan than most other drives. Also, they get the large GB number by stacking platter on top of platter, so the seek times are usually pretty slow compared to other drives of the same size.

Seagate and Fujitsu are a "love/hate" combo. They both make very good drives *on paper*. However, it also seems to be a "works flawlessly" or "I'll never use it again" split. Seagates and Fujitsu like to add in their own proprietary stuff onboard which doesn't always like to work nicely with the various motherboard chipsets. While no one beats Seagate on the SCSI market, their IDE drives are no where near the same quality IMO.

If you were building your machine, I would suggest buying a non-OEM drive as long as the price difference between the two is only around $20-30. If at all possible, I would buy it locally *just in case*.

Tuda - I never really liked Antec's much... I've started leaning away from the old fashion "beige" cases, and that seems like it's all Antec makes. I love the cases from Nikao and Colorcase. Coolermaster and Lian-Liu's are also nice, but man, I can't see spending the $300 for the alum. cases :(

Stormhaven, I honestly don't know where you get your info...

IBM hard drives, especially the 75xp series, are just about the laughing stock of the hardware community because their failure rate is so high. The last one I bought (before everyone figured out how bad they were) started dying after 1 month of service. From the hardware message boards I read I see the same thing too - extremely high failure rate on the IBM drives. I will certainly never buy one again.

Seagate has unquestionably been the industry leader by a wide margin in top-performance (SCSI) drives for at least a decade. Not just on paper, in practice. On the ATA (IDE) front, Seagate hasn't been the most popular not because their product is crap, but because they don't make the biggest, cheapest drives like Western Digital and Maxtor. (For some reason, many consumers think a big, noisy, slow drive is somehow better than a fast, quiet drive that has slightly less capacity.) However, the recent drives, especially Barracuda IV, have very good performance, reliability, and the lowest noise levels. If you're building a "quiet PC" you really ought to check these out.

As for "working nicely with the various motherboard chipsets", since about 1985 I have used almost every popular consumer chipset made on the PC platform, and installed close to 200 hard drives. Since IDE became the consumer level standard, I haven't really seen the types of problems with "proprietary stuff onboard" which you mention. Especially nowadays, as long your motherboard supports the appropriate interface, the BIOS supports the drive capacity, and you have the proper cable and power, it's almost certainly going to recognize the drive, and that goes for any manufacturer (even IBM!).

Overall, my recommendation given the current state of the market would be:

Seagate for overall quality
Western Digital or Maxtor for highest capacity
IBM if you like to back up your data often <img src=http://www.geocities.com/lag999/biggrin.txt>

Kinda getting off topic again ;)

Just a few IBM reviews:
www.vnunet.com/Products/Hardware/1111406 (http://www.vnunet.com/Products/Hardware/1111406)
www.anandtech.com/storage...tml?i=1287 (http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.html?i=1287)
www.zdnet.com/supercenter...06,00.html (http://www.zdnet.com/supercenter/stories/overview/0,12069,561006,00.html)
www.dooyoo.co.uk/product/40158.html (http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/product/40158.html)

They're definitely not 100%, but 80%'s not that bad. There are a few "drive is unreliable" type posts, but not anything too dissimilar from other manufacturers.

Few IDE drives tested by Tom's Hardware Guide - just about the same as with any hardware benchmark these days - nothing blows the doors off anyone else. Most are pretty close to each other generically.
www.tomshardware.com/stor...q2/000602/ (http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/00q2/000602/)

One generic review from TechTV:
www.techtv.com/products/h...07,00.html (http://www.techtv.com/products/hardware/jump/0,23009,3380407,00.html)

And of course, Gamer's Depot:
www.gamersdepot.com/hardw...up/007.htm (http://www.gamersdepot.com/hardware/storage/hdd_roundup/007.htm)

Oh, I should add that most of my machines have Western Digitals in them (Caviar Series 7200rpm). I've found them to be a nice compromise pricewise, and their performance is pretty up to par. You're most likely not going to notice a 1ms seek time difference (you will notice if your seek time is over 9ms though).

My main server is still running SCSI/UW 10k RPM drives :)

A lot of people like IBM drives, at least those who forgave them for the 75GXP.

As far as I know (from talking to quality hardware vendors such as Scan and Overclockers in the UK) the IBMs have been one of the most reliable until the 75GXP. And after it as well...
It's a shame they got slammed for making one dodgy model.

On the other hand, I have a tall stack of dead Seagate drives. The ATA IV is nice though, definitely the golden model.

This thread is proof enough of what I said about the inconsistency of people over hard drive manufacturers hehe

PadfootEQ says: On the other hand, I have a tall stack of dead Seagate drives.

That's not really the issue, though.

How big is that stack compared to the stack of drives that you bought?

And how do those two stacks compare with other manufacturers?

I've historically bought a little over 50% Seagate drives, with a little over half being the high-end SCSI products. Out of those, 1 started having problems - a pre-production original Barracuda from almost 10 years ago.

On the other hand, I have had a much larger percentage of Maxtor and Western Digital die.

I realize that with any small samples, there are going to be huge variances. But when people combine their experiences, patterns emerge, such as the IBM 75 series being crap.

Stormhaven says: Just a few IBM reviews

Reviews are almost universally pointless, especially from $$$-oriented sites that gloss over products like Tom's Hardware, Anandtech, and not to mention purely advertiser-driven sites like ZDNet. Name any product, even a bad one, and odds are I can find you a bunch of good reviews on it. So what?

I was talking about message boards where users post their own experiences. That's where you find out what's really good and bad. And IBM has gotten a fair share of not-so-positive attention there.

Yeah but a couple of those links had "I bought this and here's what I think" type reviews (kinda like Amazon has).

For my home network...
I've bought 5 Seagate drives, 4 have died
I've bought 7 IBM drives, 1 has died

That's how I form my opinion :)
Granted it isn't a large sample, but based on past experience I know where my money is going to go next drive upgrade.

These are IDE btw. Maybe our differences in experiences are down to how much each manufacturer puts into IDE compared with SCSI.

i have heard that the 333 boards have had some difficulties with anything less than a 2100 and perfer the 2200s and higher, which arent really available yet.

I use an MSI motherboard based on the nVidia nForce chipset and have been very happy with it. It wasn't too expensive compared to others of similiar performance and has a nice set of integrated devices: Dolby Digital 5.1 sound (the 420D variety of the chipset I believe), 10/100 ethernet, rumor of a 56k modem that I've not bothered to verify, one of those old crappy GeForce2 MX video chips (which I like having only in case my "real" video card fails). It's the only motherboard I've used that doesn't need a single card to run. It also uses the Uni-driver architecture so you only need to download one driver (which nVidia updates fairly often) to update all of its components - which is very convenient. I haven't kept up with the reviews after I bought it but I've not personally had any unusual problems in the 6 months I've owned it.

Something you might want to consider.

Oh yeah, definitely 512mb of RAM. Crucial being my preference as well.

A note if you're looking for nForce boards, not many places will have the original 420 nForce in stock since Nvidia is going to announce the new nForce chipset on July 15th. Also the on-board video is woefully inadequate for any serious gaming, so you will need a video card.

PadfootEQ says: I've bought 5 Seagate drives, 4 have died

Ouch! That's some crappy luck, I've never seen anything like that. Did you buy these from a reputable dealer? Some less-than-honest dealers will take defective/damaged returns and repackage them for sale.

Like I said, out of roughly 100 Seagate drives, I only had one go bad, and even then it was just excessive drive noise, not an outright drive failure.

How about this instead?

ASUS P4S533 , uses the sis 645 dx chipset, on board 10/100 nic and on board sound. That way you do not need to get linksys nic or the SB 16( crap by todays standards). The on board sound will be just as good if not a little better.

The Asus board cost 117 vs the 95 of the abit board (at newegg.com) but saves you from having to buy a nic and sound card. You can still add those later.

You can then get a P4. The P4 will cost a little more than the amd but you do not have the PCI problem that via chipsets have.

I LOVE my audigy card. Works like a dream. Live was ok. The SB 16 sucks.


Asus makes the best boards going IMO. MSI is good also. Abit is not what they used to be but they are still ok.
You can get a KT333 chipset board with on board sound easy if you want to stick with AMD. The Nforce boards are a good solution also but you need 2 sticks of ram for them to work. They have killer on board sound and a good nic also.

If he's on a budget, I don't think Yavim51 wants to shell out an extra $200-$300 for a P4. That money would be far better spent getting an upgrade to memory, video card, or a faster AMD CPU.

Thanks alot guys, I think i am going to change Mother Boards and go for one with onboard sound. I'm thinking of getting an Asus VIA A7V333 KT333 Chipset ATX Motherboard. Here is some of the info NewEgg.com gives on it.....

AMD Athlon XP Ready, C-Media CMI-8738 6-Channel Speaker Onboard Sound. ASUS C.O.P. (CPU Overheating Protection), Support DDR333 (PC2700) **ATA133** USB 2.0 Ready, Asus Q-FAN (Variable Fan Speed Control) 5 x PCI 1 x AGP4X 3 x DDR DIMM Sockets. Max 3GB PC2700/PC2100/PC1600 DDR

Also, i am gonna stick with the AMD, because I'm poor heh. Ohh yeah one more question, is there is noticeable difference between the GF4 ti4200 and ti4400. I know they use different memory speeds (445 and 550 mhz) but does that make a big difference?

Yavim51 says: Ohh yeah one more question, is there is noticeable difference between the GF4 ti4200 and ti4400.

The Ti4200 is about 10% slower than the Ti4600, unless you get into very high resolutions or use antialiasing. The margin between Ti4200 and Ti4400 is even smaller.

I recently (couple of weeks ago)priced a system for a friend of mine from newegg.

P4 2.0a retail box
ASUS P4S533 (sis 645DX chipset) w onboard sound and nic.
512 megs of pc2100 crucial ram
TI 4200
80 gig Western dig SE ( 8 meg cache on the drive)
plextor 40x cd-rw
liteon dvd
floppy
Chieftec Case with 420 watt powersupply
keyboard/mouse

All black ( Case, keyboard, mouse, drives) for 850ish.

Drop the cd-rw and he could get the ti 4400 and get the system for about 800.

He said about 800 right?

To be fair, yes many of the things I have that have broken were from a dealer I now have serious doubts about. Interesting that you brought that up, as I hadn't really associated it.

The company is only small but extremely successful for their size.

But I had a slight dispute with them last year where yet another component of theirs went faulty. They started saying "you bring a lot of stuff back faulty, maybe it's you?" (I'm an experienced technician, always use antistatic wrist band etc.) "Ok, so maybe it's your mains?" (If it was the mains, it would have more obvious consequences than a hard drive failing to spin)

Anyway from now on they only sell things to me after agreeing that I won't return them, ie. it's "sold as seen".
Suffice to say the most I've bought off them since has been 25 blank CDs, and I haven't had many problems with hardware since buying it from other sources such as Scan or Dabs.

PadfootEQ says: Anyway from now on they only sell things to me after agreeing that I won't return them, ie. it's "sold as seen".

OMG why would you still buy from a retailer who insults you like that? Are their prices insanely good or something?

As to selling defective products, yes unfortunately there are a number of shady dealers. The biggest example I can think of is Fry's Electronics: if you return a defective item, they stick it in the box and put it right back on the shelf for sale. No kidding. I could take a hard drive, knock a big dent into it with a hammer, and it would be returned to the shelf. They operate on the presumption that since many users don't know what they're doing, a good part of the time they will return a product that works fine. So, if they just reshelve it, there's a good chance that the next buyer will just keep it. As for the truly defective products, well who cares about the customer right?

They're practically on the doorstep.

But I'll repeat what I said, the most I've bought from them since has been 25 blank CDs (because, thankfully, they can't do much to harm those and I needed em quickly)

So what do u guys think of that motherboard? Asus VIA A7V333 KT333. Specs are a couple posts up. It was rated pretty well on motherboards.org, dunno how reliable of a source that is though.

So what do u guys think of that motherboard? Asus VIA A7V333 KT333.

While I haven't used that particular board, Asus is almost always a good if slightly overpriced bet (used over a dozen Asus boards in the past years), and VIA's KT333 is highly regarded as a nice incremental upgrade to the KT266A, and the best choice if you're buying an AMD-based system today. Note that with the PC2100 memory you're planning on buying, you won't be able to use the faster front side bus of the KT333, but I believe it's backwards compatible and you can upgrade memory later.

The on-board C-Media 8378 sound chip on the Asus board is pretty good for on-board sound, though you might consider getting an Epox 8K3A (no on board sound, around $90) plus a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz (around $60). You'll end up paying around the same price, but you will get a great motherboard AND a top-quality sound card that is far better the C-Media.

Either way, though, I don't think you'll be greatly disappointed.

Ok first off I'd like to say thanks to everyone who helped out. I think I'm gonna order this sunday this is my final build.

CHIEFTEC Server Chasis w/ 420w Turbolink Power Supply

Asus VIA A7V333 KT333 Mobo

VISIONTEK Xtasy GeForce4 Ti 4400

AMD Athlon XP 1800 Retail

Alps 3.5 Inch Floppy Disk Drive Seagate Barracuda IV ST340016A 40gb 7200rpm EIDE

Lite On 52X Black CD-ROM Drive

Linksys EtherFast 10/100 LAN Card

512 MB RAM

Have two more questions for u guys
1) Is there any big difference between the different Geforce4 manufacturers (PNY, Visiontek,etc)?
2) (Tudamorf Said) Note that with the PC2100 memory you're planning on buying, you won't be able to use the faster front side bus of the KT333...

What type of RAM should i buy to take full advantage of the FSB of the MoBo?

Thanks Again =) I'll keep u guys updated.

Yavim51 says: Have two more questions for u guys
1) Is there any big difference between the different Geforce4 manufacturers (PNY, Visiontek,etc)?

There is a difference, but it's in the features offered and analog output quality, not in the speed. Visiontek is a good quality "no frills" choice, though I personally favor the Gainwards because of their better cooling setup, overclockability, and dual DVI outputs as well as TV out/in.

2) (Tudamorf Said) Note that with the PC2100 memory you're planning on buying, you won't be able to use the faster front side bus of the KT333...

A bit poorly spoken on my part; I didn't mean to say front side bus. I meant to say that with PC2100 you'll have to clock the memory at only 266 Mhz DDR, as opposed to the 333 Mhz DDR capability on the KT333.

I wouldn't worry too much about it, because unless you plan to do some substantial hardware tweaking (e.g., unlocking the CPU, overclocking FSB), you won't see a big performance difference between the two speeds. On a synthetic memory bandwidth benchmark the difference might be about 5% or so, which translates in real terms to a very tiny difference in performance.

What type of RAM should i buy to take full advantage of the FSB of the MoBo?

PC2700 is rated to run at the faster speed. Good brands of PC2700 include Samsung, Corsair, and Mushkin. As I said though, the difference won't be much for a casual user, so don't pay a lot more for the faster memory.

AMD Athlon XP 1800 Retail

You might want to consider buying an OEM CPU (considerably cheaper) and pairing it with a better heatsink/fan. The one that comes with the retail version is really bad. Bad heatsink/fan = higher CPU temperature = greater chance of hardware crashes, particularly if your room temperature is above average. If you want a cheap but decent heatsink/fan, try something like the Vantec CCK-6027D.

VANTEC CCK-6027D = $18
AMD ATHLON XP 1800 - OEM = $90

AMD ATHLON XP 1800 - Retail = $108

=D

Downside to OEM CPUS is the warrenty, often it is 30 days or less from many places. You don't have to use the retail fan.

Warranty on a CPU is irrelevant really. If it works and you don't fry it (expose it to sustained temperatures in excess of 90 C for AMD processors), it will continue to work until it's totally obsolete. Theoretically, as long as it's operated within specs, the CPU can outlive you. <img src=http://www.geocities.com/lag999/biggrin.txt>

Theoretically, alot is possible. However Theory and real life often have little to do with each other.

Ok, I postponed ordering until next weekend. I decided I'm gonna get a monitor with also. I'm gonna get a 17' CRT. Any manufactures I should stay away from? Also, what's the difference between Aperture Grille and Shadow Mask? Thanks as always.

While I hesitate to recommend this web site, there is a pretty decent <a href=http://www17.tomshardware.com/display/01q4/011128/index.html>article</a> there about the basics of CRT design which should answer your questions.

In very loose terms, the aperature grill or shadow mask is the sheet placed between the electron gun in the back of the monitor and the phosphor coating on the front, and its purpose is to make sure the electron gun aligns the pixels correctly on the screen by forcing them into little slots. I personally think aperature grill, pioneered by Sony and its Trinitron line, results in a much better image, and always went for it despite the historically higher price.

If you're interested in an inexpensive aperature grill CRT, I'd suggest looking at the Sony G-x20 line (I think it goes G-220, G-420, G-520, depending on size). For shadow mask, I've heard various good things about Samsung's CRTs, but I haven't personally used them. Mostly these days I get LCDs unless it's a system designed specifically for gaming.

Samsung are very good. Also Viewsonic are very good for what you pay. Phillips and sony seems to have a problem with gamma settings for DAOC. Night time in DAOC is way too dark and no gamma adjustment seems to fix it. I have seen this on a phillips (had no problem with anything else ever) and heard about it on the sony. Viewsonic and samsung both have a 3 year warrenty. Also if you have a monitor that is working you might want to save a little since you can get a good 19 inch for under 300 now.

I would get a better shound card they are not that expensive.

Whilst I'd probably still use a nice big CRT for a true, pure games machine - one of my boxes has a (relatively) low priced Samtron 15" LCD on it, and it looks just fine in games. I don't experience the problems with motion that some CRT advocates talk about.

Of course, it'd be nicer as a decent 17" one with 1280x1024 and made by a company I've heard of(!), but it's still surprisingly good.

PadfootEQ says: I don't experience the problems with motion that some CRT advocates talk about.

The smaller the LCD, the less noticeable the blurring from low response time.

Example: I have a Samsung 210T on one system (21.3" LCD), with a response time around the market average. While the picture quality and sharpness is excellent, any fast-motion game (FPS game, or even something like Everquest if you're panning around a lot) will give me a headache after about 20 minutes from all the blurring. However, when I play on a smaller Sony (18" LCD) with an even slower response time, it's not all that bad, because the individual blurred artifacts are physically smaller and therefore less noticeable. On a 15" LCD, it's even more tolerable. Even the best LCD is still nowhere near CRT levels for gaming, though, and for any extended gaming I use a CRT.

Then again, perhaps I'm just too picky, since I also can barely tolerate the flicker at 85 Hz vertical refresh rate on a CRT, and usually have to bump it up to 100 Hz.

Of course, it'd be nicer as a decent 17" one with 1280x1024 and made by a company I've heard of(!), but it's still surprisingly good.

You should avoid any LCDs that will lock you into a non-standard resolution like 1280x1024. That resolution is designed for a 5:4 aspect ratio, not the standard 4:3 aspect ratio (the "standard" resolution with 1280 horizontal is 1280x960). A monitor can only properly support 5:4 or 4:3, but not both, and I've seen 1280x1024 LCD panels that don't even properly conform to the aspect ratio (5:4), resulting in a vertically squashed image. Even if they do conform to the 5:4 aspect ratio, every 4:3 resolution (640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1152x864, 1600x1200, etc.) will then appear streched out vertically.

Bottom line, either go for an LCD with 1024x768 native resolution (which are typically 15-16"), or move up to the 1600x1200 LCDs (which are typically 19" or more).

HEY, finally have a chance to post an update. Got all my stuff in and put together my new computer. It was up and running fine the whole day, but the next day I shut down and was moving it to another desk and booted up and got HiMem.sys (or something like that) has been corrupted or is missing and there is an error on line 1 of config.sys. Now its acting all weird, guess ill have to reformat no big deal. Big thanks to everyone, especially Tudamorf, Brairwolf, and Stormhaven!

PS) Anyone know what HiMem.sys does or if i can replace it without reformatting?

Thanks =) =)

What os are you running?

Himem.sys should not be in your config.sys with any current windows os.

I would think something changed your config.sys. If you are on XP or 2k I would just remove that line. In fact my autoexec.bat and config.sys are empty on both my 2k and xp systems.

If you're on 2K/XP, delete config.sys and autoexec.bat. They are irrelevant.

I'm on win98 2nd edition =/

Edit: this is exactly what it says

The following file is missing or corrupted: C:\Dos\HiMem
There is an error in your Config.sys file on line one

Buy Win2K. Unless you like BSODs, that is. <img src=http://lag9.com/biggrin.gif>

As to your immediate situation, you could probably just delete that line and be fine. My memory on Win98 is a little rusty, but I think the config.sys is only there for DOS compatibility modes.

Ahh Tudamorf and Briarwolf save me again. It seems to have fixed what was wrong. I don't get the msg when I boot up anymore, so im hoping that's why my computer was acting all weird.

Ok now that I'm not gonna reformat i got one more question.
When i installed my Geforce4 driver it put a icon on my desktop called Desktop Explorer. I can't delete it, i can't move it, opening it brings up IE with a cannot display message. Any idea on how to get rid of it?

Your company-specific driver probably installed one of those annoying, useless desktop apps with a system tray icon. Easiest thing is to remove those drivers, and download the reference 29.42 drivers from www.nvidia.com (they're bloat free).

Or, you can remove that individual application from the startup if you know its exact filename. First, look in the startup menu (under Start-Programs) to see if there's an icon there. If not, load up regedit, then goto key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Run, and delete the entry corresponding to that app (be careful not to delete the wrong thing).

Arghhhhh, Ok i think the problem all along has been the Cd-Rom. When i pop in PhotoShop to install it won't autorun or open. When I check the System Info now it says:

PCI Universal Serial Bus
Unknown
This Device Has a Problem: Code=28 (0x1C)
The drivers for this device are not installed correctly. To install the driver
for this device, click the Driver tab, and then click Update Driver.

So i go to windows auto-update and it says I already have the best available driver installed. The LiteOn CD-ROM didnt come with a driver, any idea what to do?

Edit) found a driver but now on start up it says Error on Config.sys on line 9...and it still says Drivers for this device are not installed correctly blah blah under System info.

Edit#2) Went to edit Config.sys and I don't even see a line 9?

ATAPI CD-ROM functionality is built in to the operating system; I don't know what you're trying to install (maybe some DOS CDROM driver?), but it's not necessary.

If you're using a VIA KT333-based motherboard, you need to install <a href=http://downloads.viaarena.com/drivers/4in1/VIA_4IN1_V440V(a)P3.zip>VIA's 4-in-1 motherboard drivers</a> to recognize your motherboard features.

Yep on 98 you need the 4in1 drivers if you are on a via board.