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what's the lowest system that will moderately run winxp sp2?

M

Maverick2002

Diamond Member
Ok, I need to build another machine, specifically an analy protected fileserver to back up all the data off mine and my gf's comps. My budget is about $100 max (don't need keyboard/mouse/monitor since I'll be using a KVM), meaning I'll most likely be getting all used parts. I already have a case, PSU, and CD-ROM. So basically I need:

Motherboard, CPU, hard drive, RAM, and video/LAN (integrated would be fine).

My question is this: what's the lowest machine that will run WinXP Pro SP2 decently? There will also be a software firewall and AV running concurrently. One of the comps I built for my mom was my old Duron 600@750 with 384mb PC133 on an Abit KT7, and that seems to run WinXP ok.

EDIT: HDD shouldn't be factored in the cost; I'll be using a large capacity (expensive) drive. However, the other hardware should have no problems with 250GB+ drives (I might invest in a Seagate 400GB).
 
Well, my home computer is a P2-450 with 512MB of PC100 and an ATA 66 hard drive. It runs what you have described in addition to my hotsync software. The biggest issue I run into is boot and load times, but once it is all going I don't have much problem. I also have it running VoodooII-STB Velocity cards for 3D-2D acceleration and an old ISA 10Mbit LAN card.

I originally had only 256MB of ram, and it worked, but there is a difference with 512. I imagine the slower processer and hard drive accentuate the difference.

On the other side, I know computer systems here at school running all the way down to a 233 with XP on them.
 
How is file copying? That's my main concern. This machine will be running 24/7 (or almost 24/7), and I'm going to set up a nightly routine to back up specific folders from all my comps onto it, as well as av scanning and other goodies. I'd like for all this to take no more than a few hours. I don't anticipate more than 100GB of data for quite some time.
 
I ran xp pro xp2 on my old Duron 900 no problems. 384mb of ram, crappy ECS mobo, geforce2, etc etc. Everything ran fine.

I heard before that 1ghz was the recommended minimum. But the actual minimum is apparently much less.
 
Well, when I truck this onto campus to do network downloads I can get 25MB of updates in less than a minute. So I imagine that file copying will mostly be dependant on the hard drive and your network setup.
 
To get a good idea of what you can get for your money, go to MWave Motherboard Bundles and look at their motherboard combos. Unlike most combos, they also include RAM in theirs - so you can price it very easliy. Finally, for only $9 more (last I checked it was $9) you can have them mount the CPU and RAM and test it out for you. Although I always remount my CPUs and use real thermal paste, I do like them doing the testing. Not only do you know you are less likely to get a DOA item, but you then know that they will all work together! Not a bad warm fuzzy for $9.

Note that I have purchased from MWave at least a dozen times and never had a problem. Their prices very competitive too. No I don't work for them.
 
Im running XP SP2 on my 3 year old lap top. P3 800 Mhz, AGP x2 Ati, and 256 MBs PC133 SDRAM. For desk top app's, it's pretty fast if you keep it clean. I would not recommend running xp with only 128 MBs of ram. Your system will lag opening up MS Word.
 
well how about running it on a really old system??
say like celeron 333mghz,128mb sdram,20gb hard disk. will it work with optimized for performance option?
thanks for the reply!
 
To run xp at a decent speed you need at least 256mb of ram, I've run XP on some Compaq Deskpros that have P2 350's and 192 megs of ram, it runs fine and even copies and transfers files ok but it's pretty slow. In relaity you need at least 256mb of ram, a 500 Mhz + processor and a modern 7200rpm HDD to run windows XP at a good speed anything less than that and its gonna seem painfully slow.
 
Originally posted by: BD2003
Why run xp? You should be running windows 2000 instead.
Click to expand...

Agreed. win2k is less bloated and just as good. If you keep things really clean, it runs acceptably* with 128mb of ram.

*acceptably is a subjective term. It should be able to do your tasks pretty well I think. Try to get a 7200rpm hard disk though. And of course, it would work better with 256mb.
 
Let me clarify. I'm not asking about which OS to use; I have my reasons for choosing XP. I'm asking what's a decent fileserver setup that will work acceptably with WinXP.
 
Hey, for Maverick2002's use connecting a WinXP backup computer to other WinXP computers is as easy as it gets. Yes he might get 5%-10% better performance in some programs going to Win2000 or Linux. But damn it isn't worth the effort and headaches to learn and handle multiple OSs for such a simple problem. I too would use WinXP if the connected computers use WinXP.

In my experience WinXP starts to lag at under a 600 MHz P3. Yes you can run it with a slower CPU, but that is my personal low limit for moderatly ok performance. Also WinXP can run fine with 128 MB of ram. You don't need a huge memory bank to copy files. Yes it would perform much better with 384 MB (384 is in my opinion the optimum for slower CPUs), but it doesn't require more.

That Duron computer you mention is very close to what I'd say is the minimum acceptable. Focus most on a good fast connection between the computers and a fast hard drive.
 
my p2-400 with 128megs of ram runs xp. Loading time was a little trecherous, but all-in-all it was not bad at all. I installed sp2 in it AFTER it had 384 megs of ram though. It still ran great at that point.

And as for your mobo and cpu, I'd suggest a getting a mobo with the SiS741GX chipset since it has onboard lan/audio/video. I think newegg has the PCChips version (M863G v1.5) for 29.95 + 4 shipping. The thing about the PCChips version is, you can get 2 dollar off for 256mb ddr333 rosewill ram as a combo deal on Newegg. If you want a more reliable company you should probably go with the ASRock K7S41GX instead. ASRock is basically a baby company of Asus. That was what i used for my web browsing pc. If you search for it through pricewatch and click on the ewiz link, it is 40 dollars plus free shipping. (You can only get free shipping through pricewatch) Hopefully you're outside of California so theres no sales tax. You should probably get a sempron 2200+ also, but if you include ram , you might be getting over your budget depending on how much ram you're getting.
 
i run windows 2000pro on a pentium 133, no problem at all!
it runs two monitors with a "slide show" on each, and plays mp3's all at once (informational kiosk in my office)..

a completely worthless sytem reborn!!
 
People have been posting great deals for sempron/motherboard combos at Fry's, but dont know if they have onboard everything though.
 
my friends comp I installed SP2 on was a P2 based Celeron 400 with 192mb ram. It works fine imo, Although for a fileserver you might wanna use a PCI IDE card to get ATA100 if the mobo doesn't support it.
 
I installed WinXP SP1 onto a Cyrix MediaGX PR-233 system with 64MB once... it wasn't pretty. (Not to mention, there are no XP video drivers for that board, with some wierd chipset-integrated video with software-emulated acceleration features, so it was running in software-driven 800x600 16bpp emulation mode all the way.)
 
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