XP and RDRAM Memory

[Major Malfunction]

I have a PC built around Intel's VC-820 motherboard with 128 Mb RAM and a
600 Mhz PIII processor. It is a pretty plain vanilla PC, no trick video
card, no CD burner. Single hard drive of about 10 Gig, one DVD and one
CD-ROM drive. The PC was originally setup under Win98 and everything was OK.
I did a clean install of Windows XP Pro and did not run into any
installation problems other than a minor problem with XP Plus! That problem
is covered in a separate thread an involved a driver from Microsoft not
recognizing my video card's memory.

One thing I noticed, even before the driver issue noted above, is the system
seems to be doing *a lot* more background tasks than before and task
switching seems slower than under Win98. Is this normal? I have scanned the
system for any parasites, viruses or other hidden programs, and none are
resident. I did not install XP expecting any speed gains for this system,
but I did not expect a drop in performance either. Could this be linked to
the either the type of RAM, Rambus as opposed to SDRAM, or will adding more
memory clear this up? I expected 128 Mb to be adequate as this is my kids'
computer for doing homework and the like, not a corporate database server. I
am willing to add more if that is all it needs, but I'd hate to spend the
money and still be left with the problem.

 

[V7iktor]

This is totaly normal. Of course you should expect a drop
in preformance (don't believe those "fastest OS ever"
slogans when installing).
128MB is generally to little for WinXP. Get 256 or 512
(no need for more on the other hand) like you planned.
Good luck.

 

[Bob Day]

I have a PC built around Intel's VC-820 motherboard with 128 Mb RAM and a
600 Mhz PIII processor. It is a pretty plain vanilla PC, no trick video
card, no CD burner. Single hard drive of about 10 Gig, one DVD and one
CD-ROM drive. The PC was originally setup under Win98 and everything was OK.
I did a clean install of Windows XP Pro and did not run into any
installation problems other than a minor problem with XP Plus! That problem
is covered in a separate thread an involved a driver from Microsoft not
recognizing my video card's memory.

One thing I noticed, even before the driver issue noted above, is the system
seems to be doing *a lot* more background tasks than before and task
switching seems slower than under Win98. Is this normal? I have scanned the
system for any parasites, viruses or other hidden programs, and none are
resident. I did not install XP expecting any speed gains for this system,
but I did not expect a drop in performance either. Could this be linked to
the either the type of RAM, Rambus as opposed to SDRAM, or will adding more
memory clear this up? I expected 128 Mb to be adequate as this is my kids'
computer for doing homework and the like, not a corporate database server. I
am willing to add more if that is all it needs, but I'd hate to spend the
money and still be left with the problem.

Windows XP likes gobs of memory. Consider upgrading
to 512MB. I'm not just guessing here. I was running with
256MB for about a year, just doing normal stuff like email
word processing and surfing the Internet, and the response
time was pretty slow. When I brought my computer up to
512MB, it speeded up nicely.

-- Bob Day

 

[Brian Kannady]

I agree with the other posts in regard to you needing more memory. 512 MB
makes all the difference. May I make an additional suggetion? Rather than
buying more of the expensive RDRAM, upgrade your entire PC with a new
motherboard, CPU and DDR SDRAM. It will cost a little more (if you are
going to 512MB of RAM, less than $100 more), and you will get a more
comprehensive upgrade than just buying more of a dead technology.

Brian

 

[Donald Link]

More RAM, More RAM, MORE RAM!!!!!