Is the Athlon XP designed for Win XP?

[vilex]

Does the Athlon XP processor perform the best in Windows XP? I ask because I was thinking of going back to Windows 98 for various reasons.

 

[Nodsu]

Arhlon XP was not designed for Windows XP. They just took advantage of the MS marketing machine touting the "XP" trade name.

XP containing newer drivers and code may better take advantage of the CPU architecture but the performance difference will be unnoticeable. If you don't have a very good system (e.g. 256 MB RAM or less), it will run Windows 98 faster.

 

[vilex]

Thanks for the quick reply I have 512 DDR2100 RAM , do you think 98 would run noticably slower than XP on my machine?

 

[agissi]

I dont recon it would at all. I doubt slower but then again I doubt faster Why are you thinking of dropping back to 98?

 

[vilex]

Good question Well I've decided I want to format my computer and get a fresh start just for the heck of it, and I remember 98 was always the fastest OS out of all that I've tried, including 2000 and windows ME *gags*. Not only that but it takes less space on the hard drive, and I only have this measly little 10GB 7200rpm Maxtor.

I've noticed some problems with XP I've never had with any other OS, like sometimes everything skips, whether it's my mouse movement around the desktop or in a game, things frequently skip. Wierd, I know.

 

[PreservedSwine]

Just remember driver updates will be hard to come by for WIN98, as MS isn't WQHL'ing drivers for WIN98 anymore

WinMe drivers will usually work in their place:grinthumb

 

[Telexen]

The XP name was just marketing crap from AMD and MS

If you have an AthlonXP and 512mb of RAM then WinXP should run very well on your computer...there must be something else wrong. Win98 won't take advantage of 512mb RAM ... so it's really a waste.

 

[Nic]

Soon you may not even be able to use Windows Update for win9x series OS, as they will no longer be supported by Microsoft.

 

[vilex]

Well it looks like I'll format back into XP then and see if my problems cease Thanks everyone for the replies, very helpful.

 

[Shiney]

Change your hard drive if you can, thats what seems to be letting down an otherwise decent system. XP is by far the best OS so far, so look to get it working properley and you will not regret it.

 

[vilex]

Which hard drive would you recommend? My 10 GB HD has been tolerable since I bought it in 1999 so I don't need anything really fancy

 

[Phantasm66]

Basically, I would recommend ANY other new hard drive other than your 10GB. You might want to keep it as a secondary drive but you should be able to get a decent new HDD which will be a lot bigger for not much at all.

There's no reason to run Windows 98 any more, except as a trickly "for rare backwards compatibility" dual boot with XP. A hard drive upgrade would be just the ticket for you right now.

 

[vilex]

That's what I needed to know, thanks much.

 

[SubKamran]

More RAM (see: 512) will make your computer *seem* super-ultra fast and I have a Pentium 3 so take my word for it Upgrading RAM is inexpensive.

 

[JimShady23]

Yeah buddy, I'd reccomend keeping XP there is no reason that XP would not work flawlessly with your current hardware. Most likley just reinstall XP, run Wndows Update and search for the most current drivers for your hardware. chipset (via your motherboards manufacture website) Video. sound, lan, ect...and that will raid them damn bugs out...win98 might run a hair faster but like the other reply's stated "driver support is limited on new hardware and also with windows update" My suggestion to your hard drive delema is to get an 80 gig 7200 RPM drive. If you have super wal-marts in your area they are a valuable resource for some of your more basic componants and have a very nice selection to say the least. Video, hard drives, sound, keyboards, varius pci adapters ect...They carry a 80 gig Seagate Barracuda IDE drive for $98.99. You might be able to find the same online for cheaper but it could be OEM wich is not always a bad thing, but you cant beat wal-marts return policy. Drop the thing in a puddle of mudd, just as long as you have the receipt, bring her back no problems. For instance I had purchased a Geforce FX 5200 for a spair machine from them back in July and it burnt out the other day. Braught it back the day before yesterday and got a refund no questions asked. Try doing that at best buy or many places online after having the product for 6 months, you might get a replacement but you are gonna have to do an RMA lol. And for installation your new drive if you opt to get one that is. Set your current 10 gig as your boot drive. And you use the 80 gig for your file back-up. Others may reccomend the opposite but just having 10 gig for windows and program files is usually more than enough, especially if you have gotten by with it for 4 years now lol. Use the 80 gig or what ever you may choose for all your media and backup. That will make finding specific files alot easier than searching through 100 folders on your primary boot drive. Hope I have been a little helpful in my reccomendations.

 

[vilex]

Hey thanks once again This is definetly the best technical support site I've visited. I wish I could do my part in helping others since I've recieved so much help in the last few days, but I barely know as much about computers as the majority of users here

 

[Charles Hammond]

There is a lot of information on useless WinXP services that can be turned off at

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/winxp.htm

This guy was on Tech-TV Last Night. His site is pretty interesting.

 

[vilex]

Ok now's the time to order a new hard drive. I have around 40 dollars I can spend. What would be the best bang for my buck?

 

[agissi]

Do you have a Circuit City/Office Depot/Best Buy around? Believe it or not I just bought a 120GB Hard drive /w 8MB buffer for $50!! (from circuit city). I'd check the sales ads for any of those stores, as they all seem to be selling hard drives very cheaply lately.

If those stores are out of your reach, and you can bring up $13 more dollars I would get this:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=100652

That hard drive is $2 more then the 20GB hard drive.