[B.C.]

I have a Dell

OS Name Microsoft Windows
Version 4.90.3000 Build 3000
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name
System Manufacturer Dell Computer Corporation
System Model OptiPlex GX110
System Type X86-based PC
Processor Pentium® III processor GenuineIntel ~930 Mhz
BIOS Version Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A06
255.0 MB RAM

I want to know can i upgrade to XP ?

I also want to install a 320 gb Hard drive (Maxtor)

Can i do a clean install ?

If i'm able to upgrade to XP and install the hard 320 gb HD, should i partition it.

If so how do i do this and should i part. a drive this size.

T Y I A ,
B.C.

Edited by B.C., 28 August 2007 - 11:18 PM.

[Advertisements]

Hi B.C.,

Short answer is yes, your platform will run XP. And yes, you can do a clean install IF you have the cd for a previous version of Windows (your Dell CD MAY work for this, but I'm not absolutely certain). If you don't, you'd need a full version of XP to get the clean install.

The big Maxtor might work best if it were partitioned into two equal partitions (or more if you so desire). XP has been known to have problems with extremely large drives.

You'd also benefit with a bump in RAM. XP will run on what you have, but to have any kind of performance at all, you'll want at least 512 MB of RAM on board.

wannabe1

[wannabe1]

Hi B.C.,

Short answer is yes, your platform will run XP. And yes, you can do a clean install IF you have the cd for a previous version of Windows (your Dell CD MAY work for this, but I'm not absolutely certain). If you don't, you'd need a full version of XP to get the clean install.

The big Maxtor might work best if it were partitioned into two equal partitions (or more if you so desire). XP has been known to have problems with extremely large drives.

You'd also benefit with a bump in RAM. XP will run on what you have, but to have any kind of performance at all, you'll want at least 512 MB of RAM on board.

wannabe1

[==SpuD==]

Yes i agree with wannabe1, I have a laptop running xp with only 256mb RAM and you cant do alot that requires processing power, but its ok if your just checking emails and using word and stuff.

-SpuD-

[fleamailman]

XP requirements

300 MHz CPU *
128 MB of RAM *
1.5 GB of available hard disk space *
Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher-resolution video adapter with at least 8 MB of video RAM and monitor
CD-ROM or DVD drive
Network adapter
Sound card and speakers
Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device

the above is bare minimum in my view, not going to have a farrari with it, but it will work

[B.C.]

Thanks,

fleamailman, ==SpuD==, and wannabe1.

I will up the RAM to 512 or more.

[==SpuD==]

no prob
i recomend 1Gb upgrade as i did that on 1 of my desktop, really gives it some decent performance
www.crucial.com (very cheap from)

[Tyger]

To add to what the others have said, use the disk that came with the Maxtor drive to partition and format it. It will have no trouble seeing the drive, unlike the XP install disk. If you didn't get a disk you can download the .iso for it from Maxtor and burn it to disk.

I actually saw a machine with 300mhz and 64mb of ram running XP. It was pretty darned slow.

[==SpuD==]

64mb? and xp??
That must have taken ages to do anything!

[pyrocajun2707]

The regular copy of XP Pro/Home initialy only supports 137Gb of HDD space due to it's utilization of old-fashioned 48-bit LBA support. XP Pro x64 edition supports much larger hard drives, but it only supports 64-bit CPU architectures, thus is unfortunately incompatible with your current hardware. I believe there is a patch in XP Pro to support larger volumes, and it is utilized by computer manufacturers, but I have yet to experiment with it for myself, as I have since moved on to more advanced operating systems.

As for the hard drive I suggest you order (if you don't want to do a whole $h^#Load of research on doing something that might just destabilize XP even further) getting a Seagate 120GB ATA 133 IDE hard drive. For top performance, make sure the rotational speed of the platters is at least 7200 RPMs and the integrated buffer is at least 8Mb. Tigerdirect and Newegg should have good deals on these. That IS, of course, if you haven't bought the Maxtor drive already.

EDIT: I just noticed what Tyger said, too, and he's right about the Maxtor utility disk. That should work too if necessary.

Note: Do NOT buy a Serial ATA (SATA) drive. Your motherboard was designed before this hit the general-user market, so it has no place to plug it in.

Edited by pyrocajun2707, 30 August 2007 - 06:43 AM.

[pyrocajun2707]

no prob
i recomend 1Gb upgrade as i did that on 1 of my desktop, really gives it some decent performance
www.crucial.com (very cheap from)

With that kind of CPU speed (keep in mind it's a 933mhz PIII), after 512MB RAM the CPU will be the bottleneck unless he is running multiple low-draw programs at once. (I highly doubt he will see the need to have 15 simultaneous Rich Text Documents open at once. ). In a system like that, 1Gb is kinnd of a waste of money. After that AND a HDD upgrade, it would be more cost-effective to get a new system.

[fleamailman]

I am not too great a fan of large harddrives for my running system, since they tend to give me two problems, first if I ever have to do some sort of system scan it takes forever(reinstall for example), and also if I have a large harddrive I tend to fill it up forgetting to back it up elsewhere(my signature), - now I am not suggesting using 6gb with 256ram (like I do) but I suggest having a normal size harddrive and two large external harddrived (to cross backup one harddrive against the other)

[==SpuD==]

With that kind of CPU speed (keep in mind it's a 933mhz PIII), after 512MB RAM the CPU will be the bottleneck unless he is running multiple low-draw programs at once. (I highly doubt he will see the need to have 15 simultaneous Rich Text Documents open at once. ). In a system like that, 1Gb is kinnd of a waste of money. After that AND a HDD upgrade, it would be more cost-effective to get a new system.

Opps forogt about his processor
Yer not sure hed run 15 word documents at once, so i suppose 1gb is a bit pointless