Is winxp professional right for this system?

[ManBearPig]

Ok guys, i have an old computer im giving to my bro now that hes living with us. So this brings me to two questions:

1)is a 1ghz cpu, 128mb ram, and 40gb hdd enough to run the OS?

2)i have a winxp disc ive used for this system im on, am i allowed to put it on the other one? Or more importantly, CAN i?

Thanks a bunch!

 

[Zugzwang152]

Originally posted by: Heen05
Ok guys, i have an old computer im giving to my bro now that hes living with us. So this brings me to two questions:

1)is a 1ghz cpu, 128mb ram, and 40gb hdd enough to run the OS?

2)i have a winxp disc ive used for this system im on, am i allowed to put it on the other one? Or more importantly, CAN i?

Thanks a bunch!

1. cpu is enough, ram you will want 256MB minimum, 512 preferred. 40gb is enough.

2. no you can not. windows xp is licensed for 1 computer only. you will have to purchase another license.

 

[ManBearPig]

guess i already got screwed on the RAM. oh well.

 

[toleraen]

128 is enough...64 is the technical minimum. If you turn off all the unneeded theme crap, it doesn't run half bad on 128. If you do install it, you can turn off all the junk by right clicking "my computer" - "properties" - "advanced" tab - "performace" settings button - then change to "adjust for best performance".

your license will be an issue as the above poster said though.

 

[jackschmittusa]

I think XP runs like crap on 128mb. People always comment on the improved performance when I jack up a 128mb rig. Dell had so many complaints that they don't even ship an XP rig with less than 256 on it anymore.

HD and CPU are fine.

 

[Zugzwang152]

Originally posted by: jackschmittusa
I think XP runs like crap on 128mb. People always comment on the improved performance when I jack up a 128mb rig. Dell had so many complaints that they don't even ship an XP rig with less than 256 on it anymore.

HD and CPU are fine.

Part of Dell's problem was they shipped their systems with the same amount of BS bloatware set to run on startup as a machine with 4 times the RAM. I remember the old Dimension 2400's had an obscene amount of system tray startup icons. with 256MB its still bad, but not as horrible as 128MB.

the difference from 128-256 is much more prominent than the difference from 256-512, although you can still tell that 256->512 helps quite a bit.

 

[Noema]

I'm typing this at work on a PIII 800 MHz with 192 MBs of RAM with Win XP Pro in it and it works just fine (it does take a while for it to load up, afterwards it's pretty usable), though I think 256 is the sweet spot in terms of non-sluggishness.

As a side note, my grandfather actually went and instaled XP in a PIII laptop with just 64MBs of RAM, and it actually ran somewhat decently, provided all the graphical pizzazz was off and no more than one application ran in the background.

 

[Zolty]

2) Can you? Yes, but its illegal

 

[Zugzwang152]

Originally posted by: Zolty
2) Can you? Yes, but its illegal

Then the answer is no. :roll:

 

[surreal1221]

Originally posted by: Zolty
2) Can you? Yes, but its illegal

lol, yup.

 

[Bassyhead]

The specs look ok, more RAM is better.

 

[jamesbond007]

I think Win2K would be a prime candidate, personally. It'd be very snappy, even with 128MB of RAM. As the others have said, XP will run, but it'd be illegal in those conditions without the purchase of another license.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: jamesbond007
I think Win2K would be a prime candidate, personally. It'd be very snappy, even with 128MB of RAM. As the others have said, XP will run, but it'd be illegal in those conditions without the purchase of another license.

Yes it will run, but I would not waste (money) a perfectly good licence on a hardware that old. Save the disc and activation for when you buy new hardware. In the mean time get a copy of windows 2000 or as a last resort windows 98/me.

ANd no, MS will find out about it if you install XP on more than one machine. When they do they will discontinue support and Windows Updates for your Machine.

 

[filterxg]

128MB will run SP1 poorly, its unacceptable with SP2. My roommate has one of those $500 Dell systems he never used (later got a laptop) and we put it out in the living room. P4 2.something GHz but only 128MB of RAM. The XP that was on it ran like crap after an upgrade to SP2. Nobody was going to spend money on it. So I found my old Win98 license (didn't think of Win2000) and its running that. I've got to say that finding all the drivers was a royal pain. But the moral of the story is don't use XP and 128 Ram, 256 minimum, 384 pref.

 

[jamesbond007]

Originally posted by: filterxg
...I've got to say that finding all the drivers was a royal pain.

I hope you weren't talking about the Dell machine there...

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd

Go there, enter the service tag, and tada! All the drivers you need for any OS for the machine. If you had troubles finding http://support.dell.com, you could have looked at your mousepad. (Assuming you use it, of course.)

:thumbsup:

 

[Gerbil333]

Originally posted by: toleraen
128 is enough...64 is the technical minimum. If you turn off all the unneeded theme crap, it doesn't run half bad on 128.

It doesn't run half-good either. For $15 more, the computer will run much better. With 128mb of RAM, XP boots up with about 20-30MBs free. Launch a browser, and you'll be down to about 5. Launch a second window, and you'll jump into the page file. I have to use P4 1.5GHz machines with 128mbs of RAM and XP Pro, and it is not fun. With more RAM, it's fine...