• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

PIII 450Mhz Notebook Performance in WinXP Pro

H

hk29

Senior member
Hi All,

I tried to do a search, but couldn't find any topic. I was wondering how a PIII450 and 196MbRam would perform in Win98/Win2000/WinXp Pro.

I'm trying to understand the mininum amount of money I can spend on a notebook and still run office 2000 or XP, photoshop, internet explorer and cakewalk.

What do you think? Would this computer be a dog or could I get along without being fustrated all the time?

thanks,
hk29
 
Win2k/XP don't require top flight CPU power to run well. What they do need is plenty of RAM. Try to find a laptop that can have at least 256MB. A PIII 450 is plenty to run WinXP. The applications you plan to run may not be as happy though, Photoshop will run like a dog on most laptops not to mention the screens are not ideal for photoediting. Cakewalk probably isn't an ideal application to be running on a laptop for a number of reason as well.
 
thanks for the info. I knew that Photoshop would be an issue. For cakewalk, most likely I will be doing simple editing using a USB midi interface. I probably won't be doing much recording.

thanks again!!
 
Pariah just about said it all. However modern LCD panels are super dupa quality. Try and set your eyes on say an IBM or Dell notebook with a UXGA (1600x1200) screen and you'll like what you see. But yes lots of RAM, 512MB is nice and modern notebooks run Windows XP fine speed wise. You can even get a Radeon 7500 in a notebook version, for ultra fast graphics.
 
I'd like to stay bare minimum hardware for the time being ... I can get my hads on a used PIII450 for about $500-600 vs $1000-$2000 for a super duper notebook. So I was wonder what I could do with a PIII450... it looks like I can run winXP on 256mb of memory (most notebooks don't support anymore than that especially the slightly order models such as a PIII450). But I will notice that photoshop and other graphic programs will suffer.

thanks!!
 
By all means get it if you are contrained by money. However keep your appetite moist for when you do have money as you will want to get a lovely notebook. By then perhaps the new Pentium III notebooks chips will be out AFTER the Pentium 4 mobile chips have had their life. Quite surprising but you'll find Intel pulling the Pentium 4 plug on notebooks only after 1 year and then selling a chip based on the current Pentium III core but developed in Isreal. Also keep in mind if you ever do get a P4 notebook that they do 75% of the work each cycle as a Athlon or Pentium III does. So say a 2GHz Pentium 4 in its current form is about the same as a Pentium III 1.5GHz if one were to exist. Keep that in mind when buying.
 
No reason. Would you recommend one over the other for this PIII450 system? I looked for some reviews and it looks like (besides the drive supports for winxp) the performances are about the same. Am I incorrect?



<< any particular reason you want to go with winxp instead of win2k? >>

 
my home PC is a PIII 450, only 128 MB of Ram, runs XP fine, i put the gui in classic windows mode, to ease up on the cpu utilization, it runs great overall.
 
Depending on the laptop you get, you could always upgrade the CPU at a later time though the priority would be more ram and the fastest laptop HDD you can find.
 


<< No reason. Would you recommend one over the other for this PIII450 system? I looked for some reviews and it looks like (besides the drive supports for winxp) the performances are about the same. Am I incorrect?



<< any particular reason you want to go with winxp instead of win2k? >>

 >>



well.. i like win2k more than xp. i have used xp on a 750mhz celeron with 256ram and savage3d card and with the visuals "on" it was slow. now with all the eyecandy off i guess it works better, but then what's the reason for getting winxp? actually there may be some features that you like that will justify it, and given the prices on win2kpro and winxppro are the same you might as well install xp.

i use win2k at home on a 533celeron with 288ram and it works wonderfully, i highly recommend it. moreover you won't be playing too much games on a notebook i guess, so games compatibility is not your highest priority.
 
A 450MHz CPU (K6-2, PII, Celery or PIII)+256 or even better, 512MB of RAM is really the req's for 2k and XP, so if u're willing 2 put money into some SODIMM's, a 450MHz CPU should be fine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top