How much of a pig is XP (1 Viewer)

[Chris Bardon]

I'm debating installing Xp Pro on my machine, but I've heard that it's a bit of a resource hog. I'm running a P3 450 with 384 Mb of Ram, which SHOULD be enough, but I'm not sure. Has anyone tried installing on a similar configuration?

 

[Kevin P]

384 MB RAM should be plenty. I recommend at least 256 for either Win2K or XP. How big a hard drive do you have? If it's less than 20 GB, you might want to upgrade or add a second one. That's where most of the bloat ends up.

KJP

 

[Patrick Sun]

PC133 RAM is so cheap that I would think it should not be an obstacle in running XP if that's what you want to do.

 

[Kevin Coleman]

Unless of course you have an IBM like a guy I work with. It takes 64 megs max. If he wants any more he is going to have to upgrade his motherboard. I sure am glad I build my own computers.
Kevin C.

 

[Todd Hochard]

I'm running XP Home on a P3-450 with 256MB RAM, and I haven't had any issues.

Most "normal" functions seem quicker than ME, in fact.

Todd

 

[AndyVX]

If it's less than 20 GB, you might want to upgrade or add a second one. That's where most of the bloat ends up.

I think this is a little bit off. A 20GB hard drive is plenty of space for Windows. How much space do you think an OS takes up?

 

[Andrew Pratt]

I've got XP running on my wifes PC using a 4.3 gig HHD with a 450 MHz CPU and 128 megs of RAM.

On my PC my C partition which is only has XP installed and a few small programs etc is currently at 2.5 gig of which half is in the windows folder. XP is lager then most OS's but its not that bad.

 

[Michael Silla]

XP seems to run very efficiently on my machine, much more so than WinMe. Multitasking seems to be less of a risky proposition with XP. My hardware isn't "all that" either although I do have 256 MB.

Michael.

 

[Kevin P]

I think this is a little bit off. A 20GB hard drive is plenty of space for Windows.

You're probably right, the OS itself doesn't use more than a gig or so, but then add everything else (Office, games, browsers, graphics software, data, yadda yadda) and in a few years that 20 GB drive will seem cramped. Remember that just a few short years ago 1 GB was a TON of space!
As for RAM, personally I would recommend 256 MB, or 128 at the bare minimum, to run XP comfortably.
KJP

 

[Carlo_M]

Don't forget, if upgrading parts doesn't make you queasy, and you only have 1 HD, you can always slave a second one and add it to the same IDE channel. But to be honest, I think by the time you need more than 20GB (assuming you don't save full versions of tons of games and tons of music to your system) you will probably need a new PC.

Personally I have a 40GB HD, I'm a moderate gamer with a few MP3s, and I rarely use more than 14GB.

 

[Chris Bardon]

Thanks for the replies. With the 40 Gb drive, I should have lots of space-I was more concerned about the processor speed.

 

[JasenP]

One thing to look out for after you install XP: make sure that the "speach recognition" application isn't running.

Somehow it became enabled on my AMD 500mz 380mb RAM system and it took FOREVER to even open IE.

I did some research using the task manager and tracked down the resource hog.

 

[Jason Merrick]

Remember that just a few short years ago 1 GB was a TON of space!

I remember when 20 megabyte drives first came out, bigger than a shoebox, and I didn't think anyone could ever need that much storage.