Please help with pentium 2 and windows xp

Hi I was wondering how well windows xp will run on the following laptop:

pentium 2 500mhz
256mb ram
10gb harddrive

thanks.

 

pretty, pretty slow.

the size of XP is going to be at least 30-50% of your HDD space alone. Some say 1.5gb-2gb is going to be the install size-- but then you have to add up drivers, software you intend to run, etc. I think you'd probably approach 3gigs if not more.

300mhz is minimum I think.

128mb ram is minimum.

 

You're better off running linux or something on that.

 

yea xp would be no fun on that - Win2000 would be my vote (besides linux)

 

Linux gets my vote as well. Windows ME just didn't sit well with me, and still doesn't. XP isn't even worth it on there.

 

I was just thinking about 2K for this system. I know it'd run much better than XP. I have an IMB600 @300mhz running 2K just fine.

 

I would go with Windows ME, even though ME is pretty much lame. Windows 2000 would take more hdd space, and its also more for buisness type computers.

 

thanks all for your replies. I guess i'll try win2k.

just wondering, does the processor make that much of a difference when running xp? I've seen xp run on a pII 266mhz processor (96mb ram) before. How much faster would it run on a pII 500mhz, 256mb ram system?

 

Probably much faster, but still pretty slow, if you switch it to classic view though it would probably run great on it.

 

Actually win xp can run pretty well on a P2. My father has two old 400mhz p2 notebooks both with 256mb ram and xp pro is running great on them so it should run pretty well on your notebook as well.

 

I run Win2k on my lappy - the nice thing about W2K is very little RAM is required for minimal use (64mb) and you have 256 which will work great with 2000, would take it any day over ME - and if your not linux friendly then I would leave Linux alone, if not then Linux isn't a bad choice at all

 

thanks for sharing your personal experience. Maybe I will try xp afterall.

No sorry I don't know anything about Linux. I think i'll stick with xp or win2k, i'll keep which ever I feel more comfortable with.

thanks everyone!

 

I ran XP perfectly on a PC with simular specs. but with 128Ram.

I think XP will run just fine on your PC for browsing, word and e-mail.

 

XP was dead slow with a PII 300 and 128 RAM. in my old laptop (PII 366, 256 RAM) win2k was pretty good, though audio would sometimes skip a little every 5 seconds or so when the system idle process did it's thing.

 

I'm going to disagree with most of the comments. XP will run fine on that system.

We run it on a Church Library system without issues on a P2350, 6gb, 256 ram.

 

I also think XP would run ok, note: depending on the programs that you are also running. If you just plan to run windows programs should be great. Yes sound will studder bit when multi-tasking. But just to surf the web, check email be a great backup. GL

 

A friend of mine had a notebook with similar specs. Quite frankly its obselete. It struggled to play a few Video CDs in Win 95.

Linux would be better for basic tasks such as office and email, but itd better quite hard to find linux drivers for such old hardware.

 

While I certainly agree that a Linux distribution running the Xfce interface (like Xubuntu) would be the best option for that machine, Win XP will not kill it. For just some general use stuff, it will be fine. If you're used to a fast, new computer, it will seem really slow, but with a fresh install of XP and minimal afterward software installed, you'll be running things pretty smoothly...

EDIT: I HATE Windows 2000 and had nothing but bad performance and problems with it from the get-go (let alone being extremely insecure), so I will not recommend it to anyone. That is, unless you want to open yourself up to a bunch of worms.

 

I'm getting it for my cousin. She's just going to use it for email, internet, general ms programs (word, excel, powerpoint), adobe acrobat files and the occasional youtube video watching.

 

according to my own experience (PII 445Mhz, 256mb RAM, 11gb HD), win 98SE was the best, ran the smoothest, and most simplistic (esp considering what your cousin's going to do with it). hell, i even played CS (1.1 through to 1.6) on it and totally pwn3d (i bought a geforce 2 pro 128mb graphics card tho)

although i must say XP is easier regarding drivers and stuff (win 98 SE sux if u use a lotta usb stuff like mouse, external HD etc)

was using my awesome PII machine until last june when i bought my xps m1210, returned it and got my asus G1 2 months ago. wot a difference

 

I still have two 333Mhz 128MB computers sitting at home. I've been wondering what to do with them for the longest time. I booted one of them up a few weeks ago, ME ran just fine.

 

I'll be getting the laptop sometime next week, I'll let you all know what happens.

On a side note, does anyone know if I'll be able to notice a difference if I install an additional 512mb stick of ram in my current pc (p3 933mhz, 256mb ram, 40gig hd)?

-there's a $15 of a purchase of $30 promotion that paypal is having. I would be able to get a stick of 512mb pc133 ram for around $15!!

 

I installed XP on a P2 450MHz, 256MB ram, 11GB HDD (this is a desktop) , ran fine for basic internet use, listening to music and such. I have XP installed on a 500 P3, 256MB ram, 8GB HDD right now and it also runs fine. Around these specs are the minimum for XP to run smoothly though (it does run smoothly to me if I'm not multitasking much). If you are confused in why I install XP on older PCs, I refurbish older PCs and sell them to make a little profit, I run XP on whatever it will run on smoothly because it helps sell the PC faster.

To answer toppy23's question: Yes, you would notice a difference in speed with 768MB ram over 256MB. How much, I'm not sure...