How did we used to run old machines with XP?

BillytheImpaler said:
I'm posting this on an Athlon XP 2400+ with 512 MiB RAM (2x256 DDR333). It's running XP Home SP2 and has been on this installation since the machine was new. It's very fast. I've quite a few windows open and it's not struggling. Perhaps it's just that your parents' rig is bogged down with some crapware?
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Had the same spec here up until about a month ago. I'd use that, my Centrino laptop or the family's new (ish) Pentium D 2.8Ghz/2Gb machine. The 2400+ wasn't noticeably slower in any day to day tasks.
 
I used to have a celery 900mhz before i got my p4 3.2ee (way back in 2003) it ran xp dog slow but i didnt have any experiance of anything faster so i assumed it was quite good.

When i got my p4 i was astounded at the speed :eek:
 
RAM is really the only limiting factor to whether XP runs OK. My 24x7 download box is a very old Celeron 400Mhz, however it has 512Mb RAM and runs XP just fine for browsing, downloads and the odd office-type usage.
 
I'm still running XP with an Athlon XP3000+ and 1 GB of RAM and it manages everyday tasks as good now as it did when I first had it.

However it is showing it's age with the latest games (and a Radeon X850 XT - AGP) but this is to be expected and I intend on buying a new 64 bit PC next year along with a copy of Vista.
 
Any system 1000+ with 256mb of ram setup right should handle XP like a dream, if it does'nt then there's something wrong with your system, my mate only a year ago had XP installed on AMD K6-2 450 with 256mb ram and it used to run fine,



some people here have tested windowsXP running on 8mhz systems with 20mb of ram :eek:

http://www.winhistory.de/more/386/xpmini_eng.htm

Fourth result: socket 3, Pentium Overdrive 8 MHz & 20 MB RAM
 
I've run XP on a 200Mhz Pentium (overclocked to 233Mhz) with 64Mbs of EDO RAM and it was useable after stripping it down to the bare minimum. Parents used it for a year or so for internet and office until I gave them a S754 Sempron 3100+ @ 2.2Ghz with 512MBs of Mushkin PC3200, certainly made it a much more pleasant experience for my day to day use but they probably never even noticed (they still have dial up internet :mad: ).
 
The slow downs you are probably experiencing are probably from a slow component such as a slow hard drive or a cheap motherboard.

A 2400xp should run Windows XP without a problem. I've used loads of machines slower than a 2400xp with 1Gb of ram and found no problems at all.
A year ago I used to run a 2800xp with 1Gb of ram, Yes my 3800+ is a lot faster but I wouldn't of called my previous setup slow within windows and multitasking.

A few years ago for a laugh I installed Windows XP Pro on a Cyrix 333mhz (Clock 250mhz) with 64mb of ram. I was surprised on how well it ran!
 
yeah know what everyones saying but its a clean install, asus nforce 2 mainboard (not 'cheap') all good componants, running what iv listed above also logitch stream point, yeh yeh im sure to you guys it would run 'quick', and now its got a gig ram, its fine i suppose, but when you step down from úber pc you really dont half notice

Also iv been messing with PC's since the 286/386 days, i know what im doin, the install is sound, but as said stepping down its odd feeling you really do notice the difference a good pc makes
 
Combat squirrel said:
yeah know what everyones saying but its a clean install, asus nforce 2 mainboard (not 'cheap') all good componants, running what iv listed above also logitch stream point, yeh yeh im sure to you guys it would run 'quick', and now its got a gig ram, its fine i suppose, but when you step down from úber pc you really dont half notice

Also iv been messing with PC's since the 286/386 days, i know what im doin, the install is sound, but as said stepping down its odd feeling you really do notice the difference a good pc makes
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Very true, when stepping from a úber pc. But to them, I doubt they would think its slow, like when I upgraded my Mums PC from a PIII 500 to a 2.8Ghz Athlon. :eek: :D

I notice a big difference when I'm trying to do web design at work compared to at home, Esp a certain work PC has a onboard Intel graphics card :(
 
semi-pro waster said:
But for no. Why would you possibly need 60 windows open? I admit I'm struggling to comprehend simply because once I get over about 8-10 open I lose track of what I'm doing so I need to start closing down the unused ones. :o

I'm currently using a PIII 850mhz, 128mb Ram laptop that I gave my parents and I find it excruciatingly slow at times but that is almost purely down to the fact that it has 128mb Ram, if I could a) find the Ram slots because the maker has seen fit to properly hide them and b) find suitable Ram then it would still be a decent enough machine for most of the tasks I do every day other than gaming.
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Its called MSN. :D Only 12 at the moment but I am on my main rig.

Thoroughbreds being hot! Pah to that!

Stick a Akasa Silver Mountain 2Q cooler with 60mm Delta screamer on top onto it, that will cool it in the 40's. :p

You may want ear protection as well.
 
i was runnning a 2000+XP, 512SDRAM, 80gbATA133 and a ati9600XT untill about 5 weeks ago and a couple of years before that i had a duron700 with 256ram and a 40gb drive
 
I think my first XP rig was either an AXIA T Bird 1Ghz @ 1.6 or a 1700+ at 1.65Ghz on an ol skool K7T Turbo LE with 768Mb PC133 :D, Devilsown at the time :D
 
i've found the biggest thing that makes windows slow is the ammout of stuff that runs at startup and eats memory

nearly everything these days has a tray app that loads at startup and eats memory. these all have to be manually configured not to. Media players, spyware apps, antivirus apps, disc burning apps etc..

all try and load at startup. Banish them and free up your system memory !
 
MrLOL said:
i've found the biggest thing that makes windows slow is the ammout of stuff that runs at startup and eats memory

nearly everything these days has a tray app that loads at startup and eats memory. these all have to be manually configured not to. Media players, spyware apps, antivirus apps, disc burning apps etc..

all try and load at startup. Banish them and free up your system memory !
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Yup remove all startup processes, use services.msc to disable a whole load of useless services xp runs by default, turn off all the visual effects and you can get xp running on even ancient machines.
 
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