Can this old Windows XP pc run Windows 8.1?

JohnD13 · Sep 4, 2015

So my parents' old pre-built PC running Windows XP is getting extremely slow so I decided to install Windows 8.1 32bit to upgrade things up a notch. Here are the specs:

CPU: Intel Pentium D 2.66 GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-8I945PLGE-RH
RAM: 2 GB
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GT 240
PSU: 400W
OS: Windows XP 32bit(I think) SP3
2 HDDs: 25.5 GB and 11.7 GB

According to these 8.1 32bit system specs it should be ok but I'm worried about the 25.5 HDD, whether it will be up to the task.
Do you kind people think I can pull this off without buying a new HDD?

edit: They use the computer for light work like Microsoft Word, browsing the internet, listening to music or watching videos.

bjsm · Sep 4, 2015

Yeah i would buy a new hdd the 25 gb will get full really fast. It would still work with the 25 gb hdd but will probably be quite slow.

rgd1101 · Sep 4, 2015

By installing windows 8.1, it not going to make it run any faster. It time to get a new one.

inerax · Sep 4, 2015

per microsoft

If you want to run Windows 8.1 on your PC, here's what it takes:

Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster with support for PAE, NX, and SSE2 (more info)

RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)

Hard disk space: 16 GB (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)

Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver.

It might run faster if you wipe everything off the HDD for the reinstall. But you wont have much space.

Better option might be to reinstall XP fresh. Or buy a new machine. Even a cheap machine would run better.

JohnD13 · Sep 4, 2015

rgd1101 :

Maybe but I haven't given it a format in way too many years so a simple clean install of a new OS is bound to refresh it a bit. I just this new OS to be win 8.1.

JohnD13 · Sep 4, 2015

inerax :

Buying a new machine is what I'm trying to prevent here. I'll probably go ahead and buy a new HDD for it.

blazorthon · Sep 4, 2015

A Pentium D at 3GHz is MUCH slower than a Haswell Celeron at 1GHz, beware of MS's minimum recommendations with that. Also, it is unlikely that drivers exist for some of your hardware, so it might not be possible regardless of the performance situation which Windows 8.1 would not help at all.

If you want to improve the speed, the best thing would be to reinstall Windows XP and everything else after wiping the hard drive. A less drastic measure would be to try cleaning unnecessary things like massive old caches (I shudder at the possible size of the internet browser's cache) and then letting a defrag run overnight (might take longer, never know with how old it is), programs you don't use, and so on. Going from XP to 8.1 will greatly increase the amount of RAM being used by the operating system and CPU utilization will probably increase too, granted XP's multicore support is a little inferior.

If you're willing to buy a new hard drive for a clean install, then that's your best bet, but I wouldn't bother getting Windows 8.1 for it. Driver support will be poor at best and nonexistent at worst.

All of the usages that you mentioned work fine in Windows XP, so why spend another almost $100 on 8.1?

JohnD13 · Sep 4, 2015

blazorthon :

A Pentium D at 3GHz is MUCH slower than a Haswell Celeron at 1GHz, beware of MS's minimum recommendations with that. Also, it is unlikely that drivers exist for some of your hardware, so it might not be possible regardless of the performance situation which Windows 8.1 would not help at all.

If you want to improve the speed, the best thing would be to reinstall Windows XP and everything else after wiping the hard drive. A less drastic measure would be to try cleaning unnecessary things like massive old caches (I shudder at the possible size of the internet browser's cache) and then letting a defrag run overnight (might take longer, never know with how old it is), programs you don't use, and so on. Going from XP to 8.1 will greatly increase the amount of RAM being used by the operating system and CPU utilization will probably increase too, granted XP's multicore support is a little inferior.

If you're willing to buy a new hard drive for a clean install, then that's your best bet, but I wouldn't bother getting Windows 8.1 for it. Driver support will be poor at best and nonexistent at worst.

All of the usages that you mentioned work fine in Windows XP, so why spend another almost $100 on 8.1?

Since Microsoft has ceased support for XP, I figured it might be better to jump to the newer OS'. But poor driver support is a concern... Oh and I already have various Microsoft OS's for free since I'm a university student.

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Can this old Windows XP pc run Windows 8.1?

JohnD13

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bjsm

bjsm

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rgd1101

Don't

inerax

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JohnD13

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JohnD13

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blazorthon

Glorious

JohnD13

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