Windows XP, on a 600mhz computer?

[jmc41]

My grandfather has a 600mhz AMD computer, probably socket 7.
It's got 384mb of ram, made up of various sizes, a 512 for a start but think there is also a 128 and a 64 (I realise this is more than 384mb!).

He is also running Windows 98. Which aside from the obvious issues, has led to it crashing a lot.

One of my suggestions for a while has been to try out XP. I believe it works off of 128mb RAM and a 233mhz processor. However I can't find anyone who has tried this and fear that it may blow his computer.

The other option obviously is to try and upgrade... But to be realistic I can't see this costing much under £200 given what would need to be new!

[Mark]

It'll be rather, er, slow due to the puny CPU, but I've run XP in 384MB and it's OK-ish.

It won't do any harm anyway (unless something in the system is already near death).

[semi-pro waster]

It will work but is unlikely to be very fast, I've run Windows off a P233mhz with 256mb Ram (I think it was) and it worked, once it had booted which took the better part of a day.

Lack of Ram is what seems to kill XP with lots of disk access for the swapdisk. I've got a PIII 850mhz laptop with 128mb Ram and it is rather painful to use compared to something with at least 512mb Ram.

By my reckoning you should have about 704mb Ram there which ought to be ok but if the computer isn't recognising all of it then that could well be the problem rather than Windows 98 which is a great OS.

[Zirax]

For years I ran win 2k on a P2 400 with 386mb ram. I think M$ are still supporting updates for it so that could be a good compromise.

just had a quick look at dell, 260 for a starter system with no monitor. 280 for dual core

[Mark]

I'm running Win2K Pro on a P3 550 with 256MB RAM right now (the last time I turned this machine on was June 20th 2004 ). It's surprisingly quick actually. Certainly quick enough for web/email/office etc. Extended support runs to 13/07/2010.

Currently giving it a once over to see if either of the disks are any good, then it's a motherboard swap (to a somewhat faster XP1700+ and 512MB RAM) and off to Lostkat.

[divine]

A Friend runs it on an old slot based PII which can't be that fast and 256MB of RAM.

It's not great but it's useable.

2K would be better though I expect.

[jmc41]

Thanks guys, an update from last time that apparently there is now a "whirring" noise coming from the case.

I think I'll wait and see it it is still alive in a week or so's time and then decide. 2k is a good option though, hadn't considered that.

[Admiral Huddy]

haha Some of you may recall i was looking for some PC100/PC133 recently. A woman brought in a 500MHz PIII, 96 MB RAM, 30GB HDD.. with XP .. Strangley, it was running ok although she wanted it to perform better.

I managed to grab some more RAM, disabled a number of services and set the XP to performance without the flashy graphics element. Runs fine