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Can I reasonably expect a performance gain with XP? 1

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Sashanan

Sashanan

Programmer
Jan 19, 2001
235
NL
Friends have been telling me that my computer, with its specifications, will perform better under XP than under my current OS, 98 SE. I've heard things about better memory management but I'd really rather know from somebody with the experience if, on the following setup, I should expect XP to give me smoother performance than 98 SE does on this setup:

Pentium 3 667 Mhz;
384 mb memory.

What I was told was that Windows 98 SE doesn't take full advantage of this degree of memory and that XP does, but everybody who told me so was vague on the details.

Also, if I did want to switch, how much space should I expect to need for XP? I've currently got my hard disk divided in a system partition that just about holds 98 SE and my swap file and a data partition with everything else, what should I expect to have to increase my system partition size to?



"Much that I bound, I could not free. Much that I freed returned to me."
(Lee Wilson Dodd)
 
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I recently installed WinXP on my inlaw's pc (AMD K6-2 500MHz, 384MB ram) and I noticed that the machine ran much better afterward. It seemed faster and was much more stable. The most noticable speed increase was during booting.
 
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Microsoft says you will need 1.5 gig of disk space for XP however, if you are totally replacing Windows 98 you can recover some of that space by removing Windows 98.

Memory requirements are 128 meg however, my experience is you really need more. My kids machine has almost the same memory as you do and XP works resonablly well. Under Windows 98 their machine would hang, run out of memory and many other problems that would cause a re-boot. Under XP, all those problems went away.

It is quite a shock going from 98 to XP however, once you get over the major look difference, I think you will like it.

Reminder. Some older DOS programs and Windows 98 Games may not work completely under Windows XP even with it's compatability settings. You may be forced to live without those programs or upgrade to newer versions. Sometimes all you will need is just a new driver however, those new drivers may not be available for you old programs.

Speed? Well it boots faster, crashes way less, and the more memory you throw at XP the better it performs. I have 512 meg and XP really flys on my machine but, I also have a really fast processor as well.

Good luck. Maybe someone out here will have a simular experience to yours and can giude you better from their perspective.

etom
 
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Losing support for DOS games isn't disastrous, I've pretty much gotten used to that already (Win98 isn't so nice at it either). Even a few compatibility issues with older Windows games aren't too much of a concern to me, what I want is that those games which according to my specs should run nicely start doing so. :) Trying out WinXP is sort of my last gambit for that before I finally accept that it's time for me to buy a new computer.

The impression I've gotten since upgrading my initial 128 mb to the 384 mb I have now, that Windows 98 never quite knew what to do with that memory. Performance increases were very minor.

Thanks for your insights; I think I'll give it a try.


"Much that I bound, I could not free. Much that I freed returned to me."
(Lee Wilson Dodd)
 
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Main gains for me would be stability (I abandoned 98 for NT over 4 years ago for this reason) and sustained performance (ie, 98 gets noticeably slower the longer a session lasts - needs reboot, and generally over time - needs reinstall. This is much less apparent in XP). I don't think it boots substantially quicker than 98 (it does compared to 2k) - well not on my multi-boot machine.

(My daughter has it running, very well on an AMD K2 450 with 256MB RAM).
 
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I had a positive experience upgrading from Millinium version to XP. I can run more windows, memory/system resources are recovered when I close them, crashes are significantly reduced to an acceptable level for most people, and OS seems more more robust and performs in a more consistent manner.

The desktop and other visuals and be easily changed to appear like your older pre-XP desktop and start menus.

You should borrow an XP CD from someone you know, similar to the type (Home/Prof) you will install, and run the compatibility tests to determine if you will have problems installing XP on your current hardware/software configuration.
 
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The main thing is stability, which XP gets from the way it uses system memory. I upgraded from Win98 last December and have never regretted it. Very few times have I seen the "...has encountered a problem and needs to close" message. No crashes!

I kept the FAT32 file system to minimize possible hassles with older software, but mistakenly sized the C partition too small at 5gb. If you are going to use different partitions for your OS and software, go with 8 to 10gb for XP.
 
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Here is copy/paste on what the Specs are.. this is from EULA on Window XP.
Before you install Windows XP Professional, make sure your computer
meets the following minimum hardware requirements:

* 233 megahertz (MHz) Pentium or higher microprocessor (or
equivalent)
* 128 megabytes (MB) recommended (64 MB of RAM minimum;
4 gigabytes (GB) of RAM maximum)
* 1.5 GB of free space on your hard disk
* VGA monitor
* Keyboard
* Mouse or compatible pointing device
* CD-ROM or DVD drive


Frank Smith irc.dhcnetwork.com
gunsling.gif

"SomeWhere in Kansas--"Near Dodge City"
 
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I would advise you to repartition and reformat your hard drive and do a clean install of XP instead of using the upgrade option. I've done it both ways many times and have much better luck on the clean install. The upgrade will work, but you may start getting some weird errors over time.
 
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Alright, so summing it up, I should:

- Borrow a friend's XP CD, which contains compatibility tests I can run prior to format/install to determine if I can expect any problems with XP;
- If all looks okay, obtain a version of XP;
- Fully format both of my partitions (gonna be tricky to make backups because my CD burner is broken but I'll manage);
- Repartition, leaving 8-10 gb for XP and the rest for my software (think I'll go with 8 here, harddisk is only 20);
- Install XP.

That about right?


"Much that I bound, I could not free. Much that I freed returned to me."
(Lee Wilson Dodd)
 
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That sounds spot on, though I would advise that after you install xp, patch your system to protect it against RPC vulnerabilities before you go online with the pc. Or at least have a firewall running which blocks port 135.

Any other questions before you go give it a go? :)

Pete
 
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Ah, right, the famous MS Blaster vulnerability, right? Almost forgot. :)

Well, my main problem right now is determining what absolutely must be backed up before I format. I've done quite a few formats over the last year but always with the luxury of keeping my D: partition with all the data intact. I've gathered quite a bit of stuff on there which I am not willing to lose, but without a working CD burner, there's no way I can make backups. Going to have to decide how urgent giving XP a try is for me, probably want to have the burner fixed first.

Otherwise I think I'm set, have a pretty good feeling now that XP will give me improved performance. Thanks to all of you!


"Much that I bound, I could not free. Much that I freed returned to me."
(Lee Wilson Dodd)
 
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You should be able to set up xp in your other partition without loosing your data, could lead to problems further down the line, but not always, especially if all u have on your D: partition is data. The xp installer should let you quick format (erase) the c partition leaving the d partition intact.

might be worth a look before you go hunting for a new cd burner!

Pete
 
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The problem with that, however, is that I had only 20 gig to spare so I made my C: partition small. Really small. 2 gb small. :)

I suppose I *could* free up enough space on D: to give 3 or 4 gb back to C: or so, getting it up to 5-6 and being able to run XP properly on it. But then I'd need to use a partitioning program that allows me to repartition a non-formatted disk, reliably. From what I hear Partition Magic is not particularly reliable for this, any truth to that?

"Much that I bound, I could not free. Much that I freed returned to me."
(Lee Wilson Dodd)
 
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to be honest i have not tried that particular
trick :)

I have heard nothing but good things about partition magic however so you may be able to pull it off. What i would try is:

free up some space on your d partition - enough for the data you wish to keep. ideally 10-12 gigs Re-partition d into two partitions. Copy the files you wish to keep into the new partition e. Now this is the tricky part :D

hopefully partition magic will let you recombine some of the free space (or all) from the d partition into one bigger c partition.

lol just realised that doesnt really make much sense :)

however you work it with partition magic you need to end up with a c partition of 8-10 gigs, containing your win 98 install, and the d partition containing the rest of the free space and all of the data you wish to keep.
It might be an idea to have a read through the paritition magic documentation and see if its possible!

then you can go ahead and install xp on your c partition.

Pete
 
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Alright. The real question now becomes if it's possible for me to free up 8-10 gig at all, or that I need a bigger hard disk before that is viable. Will XP run poorly with less space than that?

"Much that I bound, I could not free. Much that I freed returned to me."
(Lee Wilson Dodd)
 
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from past experience, anything less than 6 gigs isnt really viable, and 6 gigs is pushing it :)

I would have said at least 8 gigs to be safe,
otherwise you will end up constantly clearing space from the partition

Pete
 
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Can't have that. Well, in that case the whole experiment's going to have to wait for my CD burner then - I can free up 8 gigs but not without deleting stuff I don't want to lose, so I'll have to burn data first.

Thanks again for the help, and with all the time you have devoted to me by now, a star's in order.

If I run into any trouble when it's installation time I believe I'll call on you folks again. Cheers!

"Much that I bound, I could not free. Much that I freed returned to me."
(Lee Wilson Dodd)
 
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