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Truth about minimum system requirements for XP
What is the real world experience with minimum system requirements for
running XP? I have a Dell with Pentium III 450 mHz processor and 256 RAM. Will This run XP somewhat efficiently? I'm a Mac user and have very little experience with Windows. Please advise. Thanks in advance. Clark |
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#2
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Truth about minimum system requirements for XP
Clark,
Based on those specs, you should run XP just fine. But don't expect a whole lot since what you described is very minimal. "Clark" wrote in message news What is the real world experience with minimum system requirements for running XP? I have a Dell with Pentium III 450 mHz processor and 256 RAM. Will This run XP somewhat efficiently? I'm a Mac user and have very little experience with Windows. Please advise. Thanks in advance. Clark |
#3
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Truth about minimum system requirements for XP
Yours is a subjective question that depends entirely upon your level of
patience and expectations. I have XP on a test-bed 400 MHz machine with 128 MB memory. Compared to my 2.4 GHz machine with 1 GB memory, it is slow, but it is adequate for my needs as a test-bed computer. Per Microsoft, minimum hardware requirements: * 233 megahertz (MHz) Pentium or higher microprocessor (or equivalent) * 128 megabytes (MB) recommended (64 MB of RAM minimum; 4 gigabytes (GB) of RAM maximum) * 1.5 GB of free space on your hard disk * VGA monitor * Keyboard * Mouse or compatible pointing device * CD-ROM or DVD drive If you have a modicum of patience, and if you do not have high expectations acquired by using XP on a faster machine, you will find that your hardware is adequate for learning to use XP. Before you decide to load XP on this machine, view the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) at the Microsoft Web site: http://www.microsoft.com/hcl/ Before you begin an installation of XP, visit Dell's web site and obtain XP drivers for your hardware. Good luck, -- steve remove _thenut_ to reach me "Clark" wrote in message news What is the real world experience with minimum system requirements for running XP? I have a Dell with Pentium III 450 mHz processor and 256 RAM. Will This run XP somewhat efficiently? I'm a Mac user and have very little experience with Windows. Please advise. Thanks in advance. Clark |
#4
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Truth about minimum system requirements for XP
Clark wrote:
What is the real world experience with minimum system requirements for running XP? I have a Dell with Pentium III 450 mHz processor and 256 RAM. Will This run XP somewhat efficiently? I ran very happily on such a machine during the betas. It is very much a matter of whether you want to load very many programs at once; and whether you want to do heavy multimedia. To view DVD movies I would want one of the graphic cards that supports doing the major decoding work in its own hardware. -- Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows Technologies) Bournemouth, U.K. (remove the D8 bit) |
#5
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Truth about minimum system requirements for XP
Clark wrote:
What is the real world experience with minimum system requirements for running XP? I have a Dell with Pentium III 450 mHz processor and 256 RAM. Will This run XP somewhat efficiently? I'm a Mac user and have very little experience with Windows. Please advise. Thanks in advance. Clark Based on that info, XP should definitely install/run, but if at all possible, bump up your memory to at least 512 and you'll be a lot happier. Also, what's your HD size? And you'll want to make sure you get the latest XP drivers from Dell - I'd download the NIC, video & chipset drivers and keep them somewhere handy - just in case WinXP doesn't detect them correctly. Then you can update the rest later after your installation. |
#6
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Truth about minimum system requirements for XP
Well, I have a Sony laptop, Pentium III, 450 MHz processor, 128 MB ram
and a 6 GB hard drive. WinXP runs just fine. But a lot depends on your intended use. I don't do much more than surf the web, E-mail, download photos from a digital camera, plan trip routes with Garmin Mapsource, play some of the Windows games, play an occasional CD and watch an occasional DVD movie. I have a wireless PC card installed and I connect to my local network and use cable internet connection as well as dial-up via the built in modem when travelling. The computer came with Win98se and WinXP installed without any problems, no new drivers were needed. Good luck, jimbo |
#7
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Truth about minimum system requirements for XP
Clark wrote:
What is the real world experience with minimum system requirements for running XP? I have a Dell with Pentium III 450 mHz processor and 256 RAM. Will This run XP somewhat efficiently? I'm a Mac user and have very little experience with Windows. Please advise. Thanks in advance. Clark "Sluggish" is the term that comes to my mind, I'm afraid. If you turn off all of WinXP GUI eye-candy, it will still be quite slow, but it should be usable for simple word processing, email, web-browsing, etc. It won't be any good for graphics-intensive applications, and most newer games. (During the public preview period, I tested WinXP on a 500 MHz machine with 256 Mb of RAM, and it was slower than I like.) 1) Right-click the Task Bar Properties Start Menu, ensure "Classic Start menu" is selected. 2) Right-click an empty spot on the Desktop Properties Themes select "Windows Classic." 3) Right-click My Computer Properties Performance Settings Visual Effects, ensure "Adjust for best performance" is selected. However, with a PC this old, it's essential to make sure it's components are WinXP-compatible _before_ proceeding. Have you ensured that all the PC's components are capable of supporting WinXP? This information will be found at each of the PC's component's manufacturer's web sites, and on Microsoft's Catalog: (http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hcl/default.mspx). Computer components designed for use with Win9x/Me very often fail to meet WinXP's much more stringent hardware quality requirements. Can you obtain OS-specific device drivers for your PC's components, and any necessary motherboard BIOS updates? Additionally, you can download and run Microsoft WinXP Upgrade Advisor to see if you have any incompatible hardware components. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/h...ng/advisor.asp -- Bruce Chambers Help us help you: http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once. - RAH |
#8
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Truth about minimum system requirements for XP
Ive ran XP Pro on a Pentium 2 with 128MB of RAM, slow as
heck but it will run. -----Original Message----- What is the real world experience with minimum system requirements for running XP? I have a Dell with Pentium III 450 mHz processor and 256 RAM. Will This run XP somewhat efficiently? I'm a Mac user and have very little experience with Windows. Please advise. Thanks in advance. Clark . |
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