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These are the specs for my Dell Millennium computer:

Processor

450 megahertz Intel Pentium II

32 kilobyte primary memory cache

512 kilobyte secondary memory cache

Main Circuit Board

Board: BCM Advanced Research, Inc. i440BX-W977TF

Bus Clock: 100 megahertz

BIOS: Award Software International, Inc. 4.51 PG 10/22/99

256 Megabytes Installed Memory

30.00 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity

I think I need to go to another Motherboard in order to have XP Home run good, as I believe I will be at the low end of resources.

Not too interested in gaming at this time.

What would be another Motherboard I could update to without a lot of expense?

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If anything, I would throw some more memory at your system and call it good for XP Home. Once you change mobo's, you'll need a new CPU and Memory at a minimum. Then you might as well get a new video card, hard drive, case and PS. You're better off buying/building a new system in my opinion once you get past addding memory to your present system.

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I would stick another 256MB of RAM on that board to install XP Home on for now. During the next year consider building a low dollar system that can run XP capably. My Socket A AMD XP setup with 512MB cost about $500 to build 4 years ago and could be duplicated for far less now. I am considering building a new low budget system that would actually be Vista capable , but XP Pro would get installed. XP Home support will end in a couple of years yet Pro will still be supported until 2011. By 2011 Vista may be improved and cheaper.

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I have XP pro installed on a PII, MHz with only 192 MB ram vintage computer. At first, I thought I would run into driver problems. To my surprise, everything ran perfectly, no additional drivers required! It even recognized my dot-matri printer as well as the printer on my network. Granted, I only have office xp installed for my kids to use for homework, this old computer runs just a little bit slower (a few second lag) than my newer one (P4). I would install xp home to see how fast it runs before I spend more money on that setup.

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I would stick another 256MB of RAM on that board to install XP Home on for now. During the next year consider building a low dollar system that can run XP capably. My Socket A AMD XP setup with 512MB cost about $500 to build 4 years ago and could be duplicated for far less now. I am considering building a new low budget system that would actually be Vista capable , but XP Pro would get installed. XP Home support will end in a couple of years yet Pro will still be supported until 2011. By 2011 Vista may be improved and cheaper.

I think that 256 mb is all this board will take(2x128). That was one reason I was wondering abouit being able to run xp. The other is I can't find a newer bios than 1999.

Since I have two of these Dell Millennium's and thanks to e-bay I believe I have less than $500 in both of them.

I was going to try and find a M/B to fit in this case. Sometimes I have seen M/B's on e-bay with cpu's fairly cheap. But not knowing anything about M/B's never gave them much thought.

Don't know if I will still be here come 2011, so will worry about vista if and when.

Thanks for the replys. Any other thought will be appreciated.

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We have 3 computers running XP with only 256 RAM--I'm typing on one right now. Son only succeeded in obtaining a Blue Screen of Death once in 3 years (and kids gun computers! Mine watch videos, play games, multitask, you name it.) I'd try XP with what you have and see how it works!

If you wait much longer, Vista will be the only OS available, and you can bet Vista won't run on that machine!

Liz

Edited by blim
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We have 3 computers running XP with only 256 RAM--I'm typing on one right now. Son only succeeded in obtaining a Blue Screen of Death once in 3 years (and kids gun computers! Mine watch videos, play games, multitask, you name it.) I'd try XP with what you have and see how it works!

If you wait much longer, Vista will be the only OS available, and you can bet Vista won't run on that machine!

Liz

Thanks Liz, I was really concerned if I would have any problems with my bios as it is only updated to 1999.

I think maybe sometime next month my son and I will go ahead and get XP home. I don't think there will be any trouble on his computer. As for mine if I have any problems I can always find another computer on e-bay that will meet my needs for the amount of money I have to spend. After all that is where I got these two and they work good.

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Ooooh, yeah, which reminds me--DO get the "garden variety XP home". Daughter has XP Media Edition on her computer and it contains more bells and whistles that I prefer, which probably eats up Ram and stuff! One main reason why my new idiot box is a Dell Celeron el-cheapo is because it came with "ordinary" XP home. Less fluff. Easier to use. :thumbsup:

Liz

Edited by blim
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I stuck XP Home on an older Gateway with a Celeron and 256MB of RAM. The customer just uses it for email, games included with XP and surfing the 'net. He is happy. It does take awhile to load even though I tweaked the settings. I also turned off the fluff.

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