Is XP Home tolerable on a PIII/450?

[David Lawson]

I know XP Home is memory-intensive, and I won't be running it with less than 256 MB, but I was wondering how processor-intensive it is.

The machine won't be used for much (internet applications, Office 2000 on occasion), and I plan on disabling most of the eye candy like fade in/out menus. What can I expect in terms of overall system responsiveness? This won't be my primary machine, but I'd like to know if the above tasks will run at acceptable speeds when I do have cause to use this PC.

I also have a Windows 98 license I could use, but I'd rather not bring that upon myself again.

 

[David Lawson]

I know XP Home is memory-intensive, and I won't be running it with less than 256 MB, but I was wondering how processor-intensive it is.

The machine won't be used for much (internet applications, Office 2000 on occasion), and I plan on disabling most of the eye candy like fade in/out menus. What can I expect in terms of overall system responsiveness? This won't be my primary machine, but I'd like to know if the above tasks will run at acceptable speeds when I do have cause to use this PC.

I also have a Windows 98 license I could use, but I'd rather not bring that upon myself again.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I recommend 512MB of RAM to run XP, and if possible, at least a P4 1GHz CPU, and plenty of hard drive space too.

We run XP on old laptops that have 512MB RAM and PIII 900MHz CPUs and it's a crime to run XP even on that old hardware.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I recommend 512MB of RAM to run XP, and if possible, at least a P4 1GHz CPU, and plenty of hard drive space too.

We run XP on old laptops that have 512MB RAM and PIII 900MHz CPUs and it's a crime to run XP even on that old hardware.

 

[David Lawson]

That was my concern. The weakest system I've run XP on was an Athlon 900 MHz with 384 MB RAM, which was more than enough for the tasks I listed above.

I know the PIII/450 is technically possible according to the XP system requirements...but those same requirements also recommend "at least" 128 MB RAM. I've tried it on another system with 128 MB RAM, and I've never seen a 2.4 GHz Celeron reduced to a 486 so quickly.

 

[David Lawson]

That was my concern. The weakest system I've run XP on was an Athlon 900 MHz with 384 MB RAM, which was more than enough for the tasks I listed above.

I know the PIII/450 is technically possible according to the XP system requirements...but those same requirements also recommend "at least" 128 MB RAM. I've tried it on another system with 128 MB RAM, and I've never seen a 2.4 GHz Celeron reduced to a 486 so quickly.

 

[Chris Hovanic]

I have XP running on a Pent 200Mhz with 128MB of RAM with no lockup problems like I had with Win98. Now I dont access this computer often (just use it to run a backup/archive program) but it works.

My brother in law runs a PII 400 laptop with 256MB of RAM with XP again no problems and is as fast as running 98.

Hard drive space is a must. An XP install is a fat pig.

I say it will run fine.

 

[Chris Hovanic]

I have XP running on a Pent 200Mhz with 128MB of RAM with no lockup problems like I had with Win98. Now I dont access this computer often (just use it to run a backup/archive program) but it works.

My brother in law runs a PII 400 laptop with 256MB of RAM with XP again no problems and is as fast as running 98.

Hard drive space is a must. An XP install is a fat pig.

I say it will run fine.

 

[Diallo B]

i agree with chris. i have ran xp on a pII 266 with 192mb of ram and it ran fine. it will self install without some of its bells and whistles but for what you say you want to do you won't miss anything.

your pIII 400 will be fine as long as you have more than 128mb of ram. i would recommened at least 256mb.

 

[Diallo B]

i agree with chris. i have ran xp on a pII 266 with 192mb of ram and it ran fine. it will self install without some of its bells and whistles but for what you say you want to do you won't miss anything.

your pIII 400 will be fine as long as you have more than 128mb of ram. i would recommened at least 256mb.

 

[Christ Reynolds]

i'm with diallo and chris. the computer i recently gave my parents is a dell p3 500 mhz with 256 mb ram, and it runs xp pro just fine. they dont do anything beyond internet and email, and i dont notice any performance issues.

CJ

 

[Christ Reynolds]

i'm with diallo and chris. the computer i recently gave my parents is a dell p3 500 mhz with 256 mb ram, and it runs xp pro just fine. they dont do anything beyond internet and email, and i dont notice any performance issues.

CJ

 

[DaveGTP]

I set up my Dad's PC (an old K6-2 450 Compaq) with Win XP Pro. He had 64MG RAM. I was surprised how it ran OK right out of the box. But it took very little time before the comp ran like utter crap. I stole 128MB PC133 from my wife's PC to give him 192, and XP seemed to run just fine on that (with a little tweaking).


I've been running my Athlon XP 1800 on 256 MB of Corsair CAS2 RAM for quite a while (never got around to adding the other stick - CAS2 RAM is pricey for my poor self). XP ran perfectly for normal J6P computing, DVD burning, etc (anything non-gaming). Was out of the computer gaming habit for quite a while (PS2, GC + projector). I started playing some PC games again though - C&C Generals ran like crap about half way through a game with AI. So I added another 256MB via a Staples sale this weekend and it is much happier.


You should be fine. Just make sure they don't install too many taskbar-loitering programs or it might start to bog down.

 

[DaveGTP]

I set up my Dad's PC (an old K6-2 450 Compaq) with Win XP Pro. He had 64MG RAM. I was surprised how it ran OK right out of the box. But it took very little time before the comp ran like utter crap. I stole 128MB PC133 from my wife's PC to give him 192, and XP seemed to run just fine on that (with a little tweaking).


I've been running my Athlon XP 1800 on 256 MB of Corsair CAS2 RAM for quite a while (never got around to adding the other stick - CAS2 RAM is pricey for my poor self). XP ran perfectly for normal J6P computing, DVD burning, etc (anything non-gaming). Was out of the computer gaming habit for quite a while (PS2, GC + projector). I started playing some PC games again though - C&C Generals ran like crap about half way through a game with AI. So I added another 256MB via a Staples sale this weekend and it is much happier.


You should be fine. Just make sure they don't install too many taskbar-loitering programs or it might start to bog down.

 

[Carlo Medina]

At work we have a few PIII 450s that are successfully running WinXP, however:

1. They have a minimum of 384MB RAM (and one has 512MB and you can tell a difference)

2. Not 100% sure it helps, but our tech dept. are running WinXP on those machines in Classic Mode (i.e. the mode that makes it look like Win2000) with all the bells-n-whistles GUI of WinXP disabled.

With that combination, the 450s have been running XP just fine for the last year plus.

 

[Carlo Medina]

At work we have a few PIII 450s that are successfully running WinXP, however:

1. They have a minimum of 384MB RAM (and one has 512MB and you can tell a difference)

2. Not 100% sure it helps, but our tech dept. are running WinXP on those machines in Classic Mode (i.e. the mode that makes it look like Win2000) with all the bells-n-whistles GUI of WinXP disabled.

With that combination, the 450s have been running XP just fine for the last year plus.

 

[Francois Caron]

I've set up the 450 MHz PIIIs at our office in pretty much the same way Carlo has his systems set up. In fact, only the server and test computer are loaded with Windows 2000. All the other computers are loaded with XP Pro.

We've boosted memory a bit, turned off all the bells & whistles, all the PIIIs work perfectly fine. My notebook is an IBM Thinkpad 600X, a 500 MHz PIII with 448 MB of memory and a 20 GB hard drive; it also works well for what I normally do with it.

Most of the complaints related to running Windows XP on old machines are questionable except in a couple of areas as already mentioned: it is a hard drive and memory hog. I normally allocate no less than 5 GB of hard drive space for the operating system alone, and only if I have no other choice. As for memory, even a fast machine needs at least 512 MB to avoid running half the applications off virtual memory. But that doesn't mean you can't run XP on less memory; you simply won't work as fast as you wish.

 

[Francois Caron]

I've set up the 450 MHz PIIIs at our office in pretty much the same way Carlo has his systems set up. In fact, only the server and test computer are loaded with Windows 2000. All the other computers are loaded with XP Pro.

We've boosted memory a bit, turned off all the bells & whistles, all the PIIIs work perfectly fine. My notebook is an IBM Thinkpad 600X, a 500 MHz PIII with 448 MB of memory and a 20 GB hard drive; it also works well for what I normally do with it.

Most of the complaints related to running Windows XP on old machines are questionable except in a couple of areas as already mentioned: it is a hard drive and memory hog. I normally allocate no less than 5 GB of hard drive space for the operating system alone, and only if I have no other choice. As for memory, even a fast machine needs at least 512 MB to avoid running half the applications off virtual memory. But that doesn't mean you can't run XP on less memory; you simply won't work as fast as you wish.

 

[Bob Graz]

I'm running XP Pro on a PIII 800 mhz system at home with 512 meg of memory. Runs great and I'm very happy I upgraded from Win 98.

 

[Bob Graz]

I'm running XP Pro on a PIII 800 mhz system at home with 512 meg of memory. Runs great and I'm very happy I upgraded from Win 98.