Truth about minimum system requirements for XP

[Guest]

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

 

[Gus Davis]

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.

 

[joust in jest]

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,

 

[Alex Nichol]

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.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

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.

 

[jimbo]

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

 

[Bruce Chambers]

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/home/howtobuy/upgrading/advisor.asp

--

Bruce Chambers

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[Tommy]

Ive ran XP Pro on a Pentium 2 with 128MB of RAM, slow as
heck but it will run.