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WinXP vs Win98 - for 866 MHZ PC

Discussion in 'Windows XP' started by Gemo, 2007/08/06.

  1. 2007/08/06
    Gemo

    Gemo Inactive Thread Starter

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    I have a P3, 866 MHZ with 256 MB RAM running Win 98 that I use for my cottage. Mostly the PC is used for email, Internet access, some MS office applns etc and usually works pretty good (although Win98 hangs occassionally).

    My question is would I be any better off replacing Win98 with WinXP - in other words recognizing this is an older machine would there be any performance benefit running WinXP (a newer op system)?

    XP is obviously a more robust, reliable, secure o/s with addl functionality but on this 866 MHZ PC would user performace get worse, stay the same or get better...?

    - and would it be better to do a complete new install of XP (a fair amount of work reinsalling all my applns...) or just doing an upgrade to Win98?

    Appreciate any good advice.
     
    Gemo,
    #1
  2. 2007/08/06
    Steve R Jones

    Steve R Jones SuperGeek Staff

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    If it ain't broken......

    You'd have to add more ram.....

    Do you "need" any of the additional functionality from XP?
     
    Steve R Jones,
    #2


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  4. 2007/08/06
    Arie

    Arie Administrator Administrator Staff

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    It would run with 256MB, but 512MB would run better.

    I wouldn't expect to see any performance gain over Win98. I would prefer XP with service pack 2 though... a more secure option.
     
    Arie,
    #3
  5. 2007/08/06
    markp62

    markp62 Geek Member Alumni

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    I don't think you would get a performance gain running XP. The only for sure way to find out is to add a slave drive, then install XP onto it, leaving 98 on C:. XP's setup will automatically create a dual boot system this way.Then you can try one over the other simply by rebooting.
    If XP is not the thing for it, you would simply disconnect the slave drive, boot with a 98 floppy, and do this command at the prompt "fdisk /mbr ", and the dual boot situation will no longer be there.
     
    markp62,
    #4
  6. 2007/08/07
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    My system is based on a 1GHz Athlon and it started with 256MB PC133 SDRAM. I noticed a difference when adding another stick making it 512MB and the system was "flowing" better. A third stick from a scrapped computer, making it 768MB, made no difference (that I can notice). I have reduced the number of processes loading from startup to a minimum (according to Black Viper - SAFE) and my system runs as nice and fast as any other system up to the "2GHz-1GB" range. It started its life on WinME and migrating to WinXP was not a step but a leap forwards and in terms of performance, after adding the second stick of RAM, it didn't suffer from WinXP .

    I have installed WinXP on a few computers in the "500MHz-256MB" range and even when Viper-tweaked, it was a disappointment on each occasion.

    In your case, if you add another stick of 256MB RAM, I think it would be worth a test with WinXP. Don't expect much of a performance increase but if you're lucky, there will be no penalties.

    I didn't even consider upgrading my WinME system due to its instability. If it had been a Win98SE system, I would still have taken it from "square one" with a clean installation. You could try an upgrade at this time and do "the right thing" when WinXP SP3 is released next year.

    Christer
     
    Christer,
    #5

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