Should I upgrade with these specs?

[Guest]

I have an HP Pavilion with a Pentium III 500MHZ processor
and 256MB of RAM. The system requirements for XP are
300MHZ and 128MB RAM. Obviously, I can see that my system
meets these requirements, but would you actually recommend
the upgrade from 98? Would I suffer a large decrease in
overall performance when running applications, including
games that currently work fine?

Thanks in advance .

 

[Kelly]

My first upgrade to XP from Win98SE was on a PIII 450. No regrets or
performance issues at all. Good luck!

More information here for readiness tests, etc.
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_setup.htm



Registry Edits, Tips and Tricks for XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

 

[Brent]

I am running XP on a 300Mhz machine with 256MB RAM and 7200 RPM drive. Runs
like a champ. No performance issues at all.

 

[someone]

I have an HP Pavilion with a Pentium III 500MHZ processor
and 256MB of RAM. The system requirements for XP are
300MHZ and 128MB RAM. Obviously, I can see that my system
meets these requirements, but would you actually recommend
the upgrade from 98? Would I suffer a large decrease in
overall performance when running applications, including
games that currently work fine?

my 1st rule of computing. if it is working fine, don't mess with it.

but we are hot blooded males, so I know how you feel.

it will work. cavaet being right now your system is as smooth as silk, 98
footprint in memory being much smaller than xp. I am running xp home on my
laptop with crusoe chip and 256mb. it accesses the swap drive a lot.

pros of upgrading: usb devices can be hot plugged in and out as many times
as you can get excited about. xp much more stable. more new programs being
xp only, including photoshop cs.

cons: swap file will be very busy. can you add more memory? increase system
ram to 512MB or 1GB, that will solve your performance issue.

 

[Malke]

I am running XP on a 300Mhz machine with 256MB RAM and 7200 RPM drive.
Runs
like a champ. No performance issues at all.

Although your computer meets the minimum specs, run the MS Upgrade
Advisor first:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/howtobuy/upgrading/advisor.asp

Additionally, check tech support for your machine on HP's website for
drivers. My concern for you is that HP used a lot of proprietary
hardware for which there may be no XP drivers.

Malke

 

[Gary Tait]

I have an HP Pavilion with a Pentium III 500MHZ processor
and 256MB of RAM. The system requirements for XP are
300MHZ and 128MB RAM. Obviously, I can see that my system
meets these requirements, but would you actually recommend
the upgrade from 98? Would I suffer a large decrease in
overall performance when running applications, including
games that currently work fine?

Thanks in advance .

With that system (which is adequate for most general tasks on XP),
Replace would be the proper term, as most components in there would be
too old to make an effective upgrade.