Is XP Home tolerable on a PIII/450? (1 Viewer)

[Ken.Nischan]

As it has been mentioned, the most important thing to do is scale it back to the basics. Disable all the services you don't need, don't use the themes, disable the stupid fade effect, etc. It runs OK on my old 233 system.

 

[Ken.Nischan]

As it has been mentioned, the most important thing to do is scale it back to the basics. Disable all the services you don't need, don't use the themes, disable the stupid fade effect, etc. It runs OK on my old 233 system.

 

[Todd H]

I'm running XP on a P3 650 with 512 megs of RAM. It runs like a champ. With XP, the more RAM the better.

 

[Todd H]

I'm running XP on a P3 650 with 512 megs of RAM. It runs like a champ. With XP, the more RAM the better.

 

[Carlo_M]

Ooh, a hard drive upgrade. That's now a cheapie you can perform. There are nice Seagates in the 40-60GB range that are 7200rpm that Best Buy frequently sells for under $70 with rebates (one time I remember a 40GB 7200rpm Seagate was $39 net after MIR).

That would be a nice, cheap way to help an old system handle XP.

Remember the thing about PC slowdown: it's a "weakest link in the chain" scenario. Sure your P3 450 CPU could be faster, and you could add RAM, but if you haven't upgraded the HD since buying the system, you might have a 5400rpm or, gasp, a 4200rpm HD on that old system and that would really be a system slowdown.

 

[Carlo_M]

Ooh, a hard drive upgrade. That's now a cheapie you can perform. There are nice Seagates in the 40-60GB range that are 7200rpm that Best Buy frequently sells for under $70 with rebates (one time I remember a 40GB 7200rpm Seagate was $39 net after MIR).

That would be a nice, cheap way to help an old system handle XP.

Remember the thing about PC slowdown: it's a "weakest link in the chain" scenario. Sure your P3 450 CPU could be faster, and you could add RAM, but if you haven't upgraded the HD since buying the system, you might have a 5400rpm or, gasp, a 4200rpm HD on that old system and that would really be a system slowdown.

 

[David Lawson]

Thanks for the replies. The system has a 10GB 5400 rpm drive in it, and I probably won't use more than half of that with the few things I plan to install. It sounds like I should pony up $50 or so for an additional 256 MB stick of PC133, but I should otherwise be set for now.

 

[David Lawson]

Thanks for the replies. The system has a 10GB 5400 rpm drive in it, and I probably won't use more than half of that with the few things I plan to install. It sounds like I should pony up $50 or so for an additional 256 MB stick of PC133, but I should otherwise be set for now.

 

[ThomasC]

When I first installed XP, I had a P3 1GHz with 128MB of RAM and it ran fine. I added 256MB later on so Madden could run, but I didn't notice much of a difference.

 

[ThomasC]

When I first installed XP, I had a P3 1GHz with 128MB of RAM and it ran fine. I added 256MB later on so Madden could run, but I didn't notice much of a difference.

 

[Michael Harris]

In my old job I re-imaged some PII/266 machines with XP and they ran fine as long as the "eye-candy" and other junk is disabled or not installed. I have found that RAM is sometimes more important than just pure processing power.

I upgraded my personal PIII/1Ghz machine from Win 98 to XP but there was only 128 of RAM and it ran like a hog. I went to 256 and it ran fine. I've since gone to 512 and is just perfect considering all the "overhead" such as AV, Zone Alarm, and other security programs running in the background.

 

[Michael Harris]

In my old job I re-imaged some PII/266 machines with XP and they ran fine as long as the "eye-candy" and other junk is disabled or not installed. I have found that RAM is sometimes more important than just pure processing power.

I upgraded my personal PIII/1Ghz machine from Win 98 to XP but there was only 128 of RAM and it ran like a hog. I went to 256 and it ran fine. I've since gone to 512 and is just perfect considering all the "overhead" such as AV, Zone Alarm, and other security programs running in the background.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

I've just bumped my main XP rig from 512mb to 1gb of ram and I can feel difference. Everything just feels that bit smoother and quicker. Athlon XP2500+ on Asus A7N8X.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

I've just bumped my main XP rig from 512mb to 1gb of ram and I can feel difference. Everything just feels that bit smoother and quicker. Athlon XP2500+ on Asus A7N8X.

 

[DaveGTP]

I will say, my wife's PC was running my old Athlon 1.1 & and her old 8.4 GB 5400 HD. I upgraded her to a 80 GB 7200 RPM Western Digital SE drive (Officemax $20 sale) and it made a world of difference. The 7200 RPM drive made a big performance difference - if you get a chance on a cheap one (like $20 or $30 after rebate), it's worth the upgrade.

 

[DaveGTP]

I will say, my wife's PC was running my old Athlon 1.1 & and her old 8.4 GB 5400 HD. I upgraded her to a 80 GB 7200 RPM Western Digital SE drive (Officemax $20 sale) and it made a world of difference. The 7200 RPM drive made a big performance difference - if you get a chance on a cheap one (like $20 or $30 after rebate), it's worth the upgrade.

 

[WayneO]

If I already had 256MB of ram and a 5400 rpm drive, a new 7200 drive would be your best bet for most bang for the buck. You could easily find one cheap with a rebate.

 

[WayneO]

If I already had 256MB of ram and a 5400 rpm drive, a new 7200 drive would be your best bet for most bang for the buck. You could easily find one cheap with a rebate.

 

[Nick Graham]

My best friend Jeff is running XP on an old junker HP with a Celeron 466 and 192 megs of RAM. Once he killed all the unnecessary services that run by default, he said it screams in terms of web surfing, general Office stuff, etc.

 

[Nick Graham]

My best friend Jeff is running XP on an old junker HP with a Celeron 466 and 192 megs of RAM. Once he killed all the unnecessary services that run by default, he said it screams in terms of web surfing, general Office stuff, etc.