Best Anti-virus for my PIII Desktop ?

[varunmehta11]

Which is the best and most effective Anti-virus(freeware or shareware,no problem) for my HP Pavilion 8505 Desktop which shall also utilize least system resources, memory and cpu usage, since the pc is quite low on configuration:

Intel Pentium III 450 Mhz
384 MB RAM
20 GB Hard Disk
Windows XP Professional SP3

 

[kornphlake]

Honestly I'd not even attempt to run windows XP on a machine that old, even when that system was considered fast it would just barely limp along with windows 98. What are you planning on using the machine for? For general web browsing and email I'd try one of the smaller linux distros and you won't need to worry too much about a/v software.

 

[lxskllr]

Puppy Linux

 

[Schadenfroh]

Avira Anti-Vir Personal Edition is worth a try. It is using about 20mb in my virtual machine. But, you will see a performance hit on that system with any task that runs in the background that is semi-demanding.

Focus on prevention, see mechBgon's guide.

For detection rate tests, see the antivirus detection rate thread. But, I really should update it one day.

 

[Aquila76]

Wow, that takes me back. That's one of the cartridge-style PIIIs, IIRC. Either avast! (also uses about 20MB from what my system tells me, but I'm on Win7 x64 so YMMV) or Avira are going to be your best bets memory-wise; but like Schadenfroh says, prevention is a better option in your case. Is this your main PC or a tinkerer?

 

[varunmehta11]

This pc is just for surfing and downloading.

 

[BW86]

put linux on it

antivir if you want to keep xp

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: varunmehta11
This pc is just for surfing and downloading.

A xubuntu install might be in order or possibly DSL if you want to go very minimalist.

If you prefer sticking with Windows, XP is more demanding on system resources now than when it first came out, if you have a Windows 2K license around, that would be better.

 

[nordloewelabs]

I have a P3-700 running Windows 2000. it's fine for web browsing, playing DVDs and Xvid. the only problem is playing Flash. but even that can be improved with a r-click > Quality > Low. however, at 450 Mhz, id suggest a light Linux distribution such as Puppy-Linux.

if you decide to stick with Windows, use AntiVir. it's very light!

 

[spikespiegal]

Which is the best and most effective Anti-virus(freeware or shareware,no problem) for my HP Pavilion 8505 Desktop which shall also utilize least system resources, memory and cpu usage, since the pc is quite low on configuration:

It's called, not surfing with admin rights. Free, takes no resources, and virtually 100% effective.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

just curious, is this machine super slow running?

Originally posted by: varunmehta11
Which is the best and most effective Anti-virus(freeware or shareware,no problem) for my HP Pavilion 8505 Desktop which shall also utilize least system resources, memory and cpu usage, since the pc is quite low on configuration:

Intel Pentium III 450 Mhz
384 MB RAM
20 GB Hard Disk
Windows XP Professional SP3

 

[nordloewelabs]

Originally posted by: spikespiegal

It's called, not surfing with admin rights. Free, takes no resources, and virtually 100% effective.

true. that's a great tip. the use of a Restricted User Account is the most effective way to stop viruses right at the door. however, i recommend the use of an antivirus software too. together, these 2 strategies make the system very hard to infect.