XP....will it really boost performance?

[PCr]

I am currently running Windows 98SE and want to speed up the performance of my system. Will Windows XP really help much?

[cyberey66]

You won't really see performance gain but you will see a faster boot and much more stability. XP eats resources, I'm surfing the net and listening to mp3s now and task man show my pagefile usage 119megs and my mem usage 160. I was running XP smooth on 128 megs of ram. The upgrade should be well worth it, it's extremely stable and ships with directx 8.1 and the new mediaplayer. It has new features such as support for dvd, cd-rws, and you can actually burn/rip cds directly from media player. Just remember that XP is built on NT so no more dos, just incase you play dos games and such. My .02, XP is worth the upgrade.

[Zuck Gou :)]

It'll speed up your computer a bit, especially after tweaking,but it may actually be a bit slower in games.

Although I wouldn't go from 98SE to WinXP for speed, I'd do it for stability and features.

[PCr]

So I guess that upgrading to a new mobo and processor would be money better spent for a speed upgrade?

[cyberey66]

Originally posted by PCr
So I guess that upgrading to a new mobo and processor would be money better spent for a speed upgrade?

It depends, what are you going to be using your computer for? Your system seems pretty damn good.

[PCr]

I use if for Cad Key mechanical drawing, internet, and such. The rug rats use it for gaming and the internet. Video gets choppy when gaming and playing back any type of video.

[cyberey66]

So you're looking for raw power, then a hardware upgrade would probally be better. If you're ram is sdram, and you're comfortable with overclocking I would recommend a tualatin celeron, it's pricewatched at $88, and most tualatin boards use sdram so you can transfer that. If you want to go amd, I really don't know much about that territory, but prices are about the same for intel and amd now. review of tualatin 1.2GHz (http://www.daocplace.com/index.php?review=xpvstual)

good luck, satan

[MaximusGladius]

Unless you want to waste money, the answer is no.

If you want stabibility, while having Windows 98 like speed, go for Windows 2000.

[PCr]

Thanks for the info everyone!

[MaximusGladius]

My Pleasure, Good Luck. :D

[quegyboe]

I moved from WinME to XP and it is soo much better to me. I like the stability (system running for weeks on end), the performance, (extract files in half the time), and the new look.

[MaximusGladius]

FYI, for all the ME users out there in Windows land. Windows ME is the worst Windows OS since Windows 3.1.

Delete it, and go back to Windows 98. :D

[cyber mouse45]

Here’s some stuff I’ve learned about XP in the last few days:
Very, very stable.
My internet is much faster. Even though I’m still connecting at 44 Kbps, web pages load about twice as fast as they did before. (I still want cable though)
It’s very easy to add extra hardware. Just plug it in, and you’re done.
The once great Voodoo 5 does not work well with XP.
Eats up a lot of memory.
No dos.
Installing XP is very easy. (at least for me it was)
All the programs I’ve installed work with XP.
Most of the hardware I have for my pc doesn’t work very well with XP. (Sound card, graphics card, DVD decoder card and scanner. Even my modem gave me some trouble.)
It seems to be a very good OS.
:)

[turd]

i would liken it to viagra and say it depends what you had before you tried it

I know people that were still using win95 and went to XP and its like SWING, or went from 98 and discovered new control, ME found stability
however ,i did not see "much" dif over my time tested and well tweeked 2k setup, found it much less stable and a lot less secure, and a whole lot more hardwired to march to the tune of Microsoft, we know what u need, so why let u mess with it

[PCr]

Well, after going over all of the possibilities, I broke down and bought Windows XP pro....I have to say that I was totally impressed once it was installed! No searching for drivers, faster performance, and it cured my glitching video....Not to mention the added security features, organization, etc...... A+ in my book so far!

[cyberey66]

Are you using NTFS? I recommend it, less disc errors and defraging. It's a little bit slower than fat32 but it's well worth it.