will it take xp?

Sam Vimes

i've already sort of got an answer to this but i'm about to flog this pc and i'd like to be sure it'll work.


its a celeron 700MHz with 256MB SD-RAM and an 8GB HDD

i was wondering if it'll handle xp professional. i've got win 2k pro waiting if you all think its too much for it

Ruu_Old

It should be fine, any chance you could get an extra stick of 256mb of RAM or more?

MunsterCycling

Will run XP no problem at all. WGA approved and all???

Mr. Presentable

It'll run it, but it'll run 2k better. If it was mine I'd put 2k on it, it's a bit borderline for xp if you want anything else to run, particularly on ram

Sam Vimes

Ruu wrote:

It should be fine, any chance you could get an extra stick of 256mb of RAM or more?

i've got two 128MB sticks in and it only has two slots. i might be able to get a 256 to replace one of the 128MB's but do you think it'll be alright without it?

i'd rather not go out and spend more money on it since i'm selling it to the guy for next to nothing

MunsterCycling wrote:

Will run XP no problem at all. WGA approved and all???

of course....................tumbleweed

Ruu_Old

It depends on the motherboard and how much it can handle. Is it a Dell or some other type of system? Post up the details and one of us will be able to give you an idea or answer as to how much RAM it can handle.

Sam Vimes

Ruu wrote:

It depends on the motherboard and how much it can handle. Is it a Dell or some other type of system? Post up the details and one of us will be able to give you an idea or answer as to how much RAM it can handle.

its some compaq or other. i'm sure it'll take an extra 256 MB but i don't want to go spending money on it. i was wondering if you think xp will be fine with just the 256MB

Ruu_Old

It should be grand yeah, I ran XP on 256mb for a long time on a 1ghz system and I didn't have any problems.

Anti

throw a copy of ubuntu 6.06 on it

Sam Vimes

anti wrote:

throw a copy of ubuntu 6.06 on it

you may remeber my thread a few months ago that i posted after a brief flirtation with ubuntu. i still wake up screaming and then i remember that i'm using windows and i don't need 6 phd's to install my wireless network

melekalikimaka

you do not need to add anything to it xp will be grand on it, turn off a few bells and whistles maybe tho

Anti

Commander Vimes wrote:

you may remeber my thread a few months ago that i posted after a brief flirtation with ubuntu. i still wake up screaming and then i remember that i'm using windows and i don't need 6 phd's to install my wireless network

haha lol. yeah i know what you mean mate

what mellikalaka ( sorry ) said is a good idea

LunaC

Will defo run it but you may becom slow/slugish at times, especially if your multi tasking in anyway.

Defo suggest a RAM upgrade like Ruu suggested.

TerrorFirmer

It'll be perfectly fine for basic use...I have seen XP running on 350mhz and 96mb ram, it was reasonably alright!

zilog_jones

It'll be OK, but not great - as others said things will start slowing down easily with only 256MB RAM, but that'll happen in Win2k as well. You'd want to turn off all the visual effects.

SouperComputer

the biggest bottleneck on the setup is the throughput of the HD to be honest. If you could get your mits on a more modern 20GB it would help prep things up. 256MB is okay, 512 on that setup is a waste unless the ram is free. 386MB would be a nice spot to hit if you have a 128MB stick lying about.

As others have said, be sure to disable the "fisher price" look and feel, disable uneeded services also.

Depending on what you are using it for, you could run SP1 rather than SP2 as its a little lighter.

subway

i run xp on less than that and its fine.
dont know why you would change the theme, having a different color takbar doesnt affect running speed in my experience.
what i would do is disable all the animated menus etc and when your finished setting it up,
make sure nothing is runnning at startup.
all them little things like jusched, neroman, adobedm and so on that arent noticeable on a newer machine will 20 seconds each to os start time.

Sam Vimes

the version of windows on it is a corporate light edition. it has all the themes etc turned off by default and cuts out lots of the junk. it doesn't even have WMP.

the guy i'm selling it to only wants it for the net and his creative zen so he won't be doing too much processor wise. i think it'll be grand anyway.


thanks for all the replies

MunsterCycling

.......... Tumbleweed ........ Tumbleweed......... Ouch......

Zapho

I installed XP on a machine with 64mb ram, 500mhz celeron and 10gb harddrive, and it runs grand. It can be a little bit chuggy though, but it beats Win98

SeanW

That PC is waaaaaay old. Expect issues.

My advice - stick Win2k on it, sell it, and use the Windows XP for your new PC (build).

zilog_jones

It's not *that* bad. I've seen XP on a PIII-500 with 128MB RAM and it was borderline useable.

From what I've seen with benchmarking in games on a PIII-933 (512MB SD-RAM; GF4 Ti 4200) there's about a 5% speed difference between Win2k SP4 and WinXP SP2 (both up-to-date and whatever else), if not less.

I'd second what SouperComputer said - old hard disks are slow as molasses compared to what's around now - even an old 20 gig (from around 2001/2) is dirt slow compared to anything newer, not to mention a hell of a lot noisier. I'm next to a P4 2.0 from 2002 here and all I can hear is the crappy old hard disk - if I put a new disk in it'd be silent in comparison.