Hey Guys,
So....my mom's computer is really old and slow. I've posted here about it..it's a PIII 866Mhz, 128MB RDRAM, with Windows XP. It's time for her to format the computer again, but I think it would benefit her if I installed Win98 back on the computer again.
So what I wanted to know is, do you know how far the computer will be protected in terms of windows updates? I know that Microsoft discontinued the OS, but are there updates for it? This computer will only be on until summer when I can build a new computer and give this current one to her. Thanks guys!

I would suggest sticking with XP. Just turn the eye candy off. I ran XP Pro on 3 Pentium III 800Mhz machines for a long time, two were game servers and the other a file server. With the eye candy off, it's not too bad a resource hog. I believe the latest Windows 98SE update was sometime in 2003. It won't be as secure as XP, nor as compatible with newer programs she might want to run.

I would stay with XP as well. I had an old Gateway P3 450 that originally came with 98 , I formatted and installed Xp and was a little sluggish until I added ram. I ran fine after that, good enough to give away to someone who thought I gave them a kick @$$ comp !!.l0l0l0l0l

Just add more RAM man and it will be fine. As much as will fit or as much as you can afford.

xp is fine for that system, just turn off the eye candy and upgrade ram like the others said.

256 totoal ram is just right, with 128 the system will bog down when accessing apps and such.

if the mobo can support and if you find a great deal, try to find a 512mb stick and then the stystem wont be limited by he mem anymore and will run smooth as silk.

I agree with NoSlak on the RAM. It worked for my old Slot A Althlon 600. It should be ok with 512MB or more.
Afterall, 256MB is the minimum recommended for XP.

Well, it'll be hard finding cheap RDRAM these days. DELL gave us one stick of 128 MB PC600 and a wierd little stick in the other RAM slot. From what I've heard, RDRAM needs 2 identical sticks to run, and I dont know how they managed to pull off only 1 stick.

In order to increase to 512, I'd have to get rid of my current stick(128MB RDRAM PC600), and the only RAM available now is PC800 which is quite costly.

2 sticks of
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820151102

Which puts us way past our limit. I was thinking about just getting a new 40GB HD since this computer will only last until this summer. After that, my dad will put it in his business and use it to run Quickbooks or something like that. I know I said that I would dedicate this rig to folding, but my parents found a use for it.
Currently, the HD is incredibly loud when it accesses data from the drive. I think it has always been like this, but next to my current rig, it's monstrously loud. Question is, does DELL Have proprietary HD's? Or can I go out and get a 40GB one?

With all that said, is it still feasible to keep Win XP on that computer?
Specs: (well over 6 years old)
PIII 866Mhz
128MB RDRAM PC600
32MB Geforce 2 GTS
SB Live! Value
30GB HD (Quantam Fireball?)

Ahh, it's RDRAM, that makes a difference. Well, Win XP does recommend a minimum of 256MB of RAM but doesn't specify which kind (Hell, I ran XP on my Athlon 600 with 512MB of PC100) and it ran fine (well, at least stable... slower than dirt though).
If you have a copy of Win2000 I would use it instead of Win98. If not, 98 will work ok for the short time you will be using it (shudder).
As for the HDDs, I have replaced 2 HDDs on seperate Dells so there shouldn't be any problem there, even though one of them was SCSI.

and there's the word.. 2000...

Just install win 2k turn off a whole load of the services, give her avast and some other resoruce friendly firewall, then the usual ad aware stuff + firefox.

Your mum should be sorted till summer that way easy.

edit:
my mum's using a p2 300 w/ 64 mb ram and 2k does the job.

oh and try to use some kind of defragger, preferably one that can defrag based on how often the files are used.

I ram XP on a old (very old) laptop, P2 365 and 64mb of ram, turned off all the advacned features and shut down all the services and it ran pretty well, at least well enough to play the origional half life which i think is a benchmark for a computer.

Quote: Originally Posted by Reza I ram XP on a old (very old) laptop, P2 365 and 64mb of ram, turned off all the advacned features and shut down all the services and it ran pretty well, at least well enough to play the origional half life which i think is a benchmark for a computer.

True, shutting down most of the eye candy and unnecessary stuff in XP will (in effect) make XP act/look like Win2K so that is another viable option.

Ok, windows 2k SP4 fast cheap.
As for ram here a link http://www.starmicro.net/SearchResul...f-e24b6be670ce

I agree with all other statements made here... I've got a "lowly" Celeron 400A Gateway, currently
in use as an ftp-server/printer server... received it as a gift.... when it arrived it had 128mb of memory...
and Windows 98 SE on it....

What I did was fit a serial ATA controller plus a 160GB S-ATA Samsung drive, plus a stick of 128MB PC133
I still had lying around...


I installed Windows XP, shut down all "eye candy" & took a very close look to which services of Windows
XP I wanted to "autostart", "manual start" or have "disabled"... of course, I used the lowest-on-resource
anti virus product I could find (Nod32) and passed on each and every "toolbar" gimmick I could pass on...


The unit ran pretty smooth... but I have to admit it really ran smooth after an Aussie friend of mine
supplied my with two sticks of 256mb (16 Chip... the Gateway needed it) PC133.... 512MB got this
óld rig running so smooth... well as an ftp server/printer server.... no swapping at all!

TDR

Thanks guys for the replies
So, does anyone have a guide to turning off the eye-candy in XP? We dont own a copy of windows 2000.
worst comes to worst, a new HD and format/install of 98 should be ok for a few months. Whatever it is needs to be able to run quickbooks for my dad's business later on, so i'll look into a copy of 2000 down the line.

Be aware that the version of Quickbooks he has may (or may not) run on both 98 and XP. Some programs have different installs for seperate OSes. I would check into that first and foremost.