XP on a 667 mhz Pentium III system?

[techwanabe]

I've been thinking about installing Windows XP on my sisters computer because it needs to be "refreshed". It is an older Dell Pentium III 667 mhz computer presently running Windows 98. I've about had it with 98... it's had a good run, but I"m thinking she would be better off with Windows 2000 or XP. Will either of these run alot slower on that system? What OS would be best... put 98 back on? What say ye?

 

[xcript]

667 MHz is /plenty/ for Win2K/XP.

However.. RAM wise you'll want atleast 128MB (minimum), with 256 being optimal (any more obviously can't hurt).

I had XP running on a P200 with 160MB PC66 at one point, and surprisingly enough it didn't run like ass.

Later.. :beer:

 

[kurt454]

If it has got at least 256 megs of ram, go with XP. Might could sqeak by with 128, if you set the gui to classic mode.

 

[TheCorm]

Ran it on a PII 300 with 192MB PC66.....ran fine.

 

[wjsulliv]

Ran it on a p-II 233 with 128mb ram, it was a touch slower during boot, but everything worked fine after boot.

 

[lostu]

I think it will work good on that sistem , i installed XP on my sisters computer .. 500 MHZ , 128 RAM , no problems.

 

[txxxx]

It'll run , just dont expect to be very smooth with a few apps loaded + 128MB ram.

 

[rmrf]

it depends on what the computer will be used for. 2k/xp are based off of the same kernel, but xp is supposed to be more optimized for gaming. if it is just going to be a word processor, and internet surfing machine, go with 2k, it will run smoother, and it will be what she needs. if it is just going to be a word processor and internet machine for now, but you can see in the future that someone will want to play games, make photo albums, or edit any sort of home video, I would go with xp. hope this helps.

 

[Lonyo]

I installed 2k on a P3 600MHz, 384MB RAM Dell system, runs pretty much the same as Win 98 did in terms of speed.

 

[SpeedFreak03]

I can relate pretty well to your situation. I have a Pentium 3 500MHz, 256MB PC100, 128MB DDR ATI Radeon 9000 AGP, etc. Anyway, I ran XP Pro for a while when it first came out. Then I bought my Radeon(after around a year). I went from an ATI xPert98 8MB PCI, and that helped ALOT. Then, just recently, I built a killer system for a friend, and of course I used it (burnin, installing drivers/programs, etc), and when I gave it back to him and started using my computer again, I couldn't take the slowness. So, now I run Windows 2000 Pro, and it is WAY faster than Windows XP could ever be. It works fine with any game I throw at it (unreal tourn. 2003, GTA vice city, NFS Hot Pursuit 2, etc). So, I recommend Windows 2000, except if you are going to do the things rmrf said, or if your sister isn't too computer literate (because in WindowsXP, most things are wizards). Just my $0.03.

 

[Bulldog13]

Win XP runs fine on my old p3-600 with 384 megs RAM. Games decently too.

 

[elzmaddy]

It's all about RAM. 667MHz is fine, but you need a good amount of RAM for it to run smoothly. I recommend 192MB+ for Windows 2000; 256MB+ for Windows XP. If you go with XP you may want to use the less-graphical 'Windows Classic' interface and also optimize the system for best performance (right click My computer --> Properties --> Advanced Tab --> Performance Settings). In doing so, my 500MHz PIII Celeron/256MB RAM system runs as smoothly as a Windows 2000 would.

 

[pac1085]

It'll run good, just turn off the themes service

 

[Matt84]

Used to run XP on a 733 P3 with 128MB RAM and was bit slow even with Classic desktop. I bumped it up 2 256MB PC133 and it ran fairly well with standard desktop and exactly the same as 2K with classic desktop.

 

[0roo0roo]

256mb min. 128mb is a joke.

 

[cleverhandle]

Originally posted by: rmrf
2k/xp are based off of the same kernel, but xp is supposed to be more optimized for gaming.

References? Certainly, XP gives the NT kernel a desktop slant with its emphasis on decreased load times, automatic disk optimization, and similar things. But that's not gaming specifically, just desktop usage compared to server usage.