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Windows Xp Pro or Home edition for an old pentium 3

Flasche

By Flasche
in Windows XP

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CharlotteTheHarlot

CharlotteTheHarlot

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Why are you doubting my pics :huh:

@Flasche, I'm NOT doubting your discs at all! You misunderstood. Actually I was trying to say that you do in fact have the necessary "full retail" or "system builder" editions that allow you to install on a random computer ( rather than the limited OEM SLP arrangement where Windows essentially dies with its motherboard ). It's all good. :thumbup:

Okay now, that photo is what you needed. That's a super common Asus P3B-F, one of the better boards of the ... last century ;-)

The very good news is that you will have no problem finding everything from drivers to documentation to reviews. Here's a good start ...

The other good news is that Windows XP can be used on it ( the board is 1998-1999 and XP is just 2 years later ) and since it was mid to high-end in its time and popular, the board was well exercised in the XP formative years. A quick look at Google ( "Asus p3b-f with Windows XP" ) shows discussion to read through.

The bad news is the same as the very good news: "one of the better boards of the ... last century" :whistle: IMHO the biggest single killer is the HDD interface at UDMA/33. Even if it were UDMA/66 it would still be too performance limiting. Also, as I expected it is the SDRAM era ( the old 164-pin size DIMMs before 184-pin DDR ). These were 100 MHz speed and no bigger than 256 MB per stick. Theoretically you could max it out at 4*256 for 1 GB ( a very respectable amount for XP ) but you might have a problem locating that RAM now if you don't already have it ( and I see you do have 2*256 MB mentioned above, which is adequate ). Finally the CPU is also limited to the Slot format, although there were a handful of near GHz models at the end of that cycle ( in fact that one link seems to show at least one 1 GHz Slot-1 on the compatibility list, who knew! ). I don't think you mentioned what speed your CPU is, but naturally the faster the better. If you could find that highest speed model for sale used, I bet it would only cost $10 max.

So ... It could be done, with Windows XP that is. :yes: No question at all about it. And the answer to the original question is ... Windows XP Pro.

Good luck!

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Flasche

Flasche

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Posted (edited)

Good luck!

Hey thanks man for all the help and when I get my MTA certification I'll be glad to help out here too.

Also, as I expected it is the SDRAM era ( the old 164-pin size DIMMs before 184-pin DDR ). These were 100 MHz speed and no bigger than 256 MB per stick. Theoretically you could max it out at 4*256 for 1 GB ( a very respectable amount for XP ) but you might have a problem locating that RAM now if you don't already have it ( and I see you do have 2*256 MB mentioned above, which is adequate ).

Hey it just happens I got an extra 2 SDR RAM sticks laying around my house so thats all good.

@Flasche, I'm NOT doubting your discs at all! You misunderstood. Actually I was trying to say that you do in fact have the necessary "full retail" or "system builder" editions that allow you to install on a random computer ( rather than the limited OEM SLP arrangement where Windows essentially dies with its motherboard ). It's all good. :thumbup:

Okay now, that photo is what you needed. That's a super common Asus P3B-F, one of the better boards of the ... last century ;-)

The very good news is that you will have no problem finding everything from drivers to documentation to reviews. Here's a good start ...

Thanks for all of the info now I got a full list to build my XP macnine shall she live like 9x.

So ... It could be done, with Windows XP that is. :yes: No question at all about it. And the answer to the original question is ... Windows XP Pro.

Good luck!

It's all good man now all I need is one more thing, and that is a link to dual booting windows 2K and XP you got me intrigued when you said 2K works well on it for I want both.

Thanks for all of your help your a life saver!!!

Edited by Flasche
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submix8c

submix8c

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Interjection - Thos SDRAM also came in PC-133 as well as PC-100. I have 4x256mb in this old HP Dual-PIII Slot1 (SECC-2) (2x550mhz). It will take the maximum CPU as well. In addition, I have :w00t: a 512mb PC-100 in a (wierd) Gateway w/Celeron, so YES they DO exist. If you note TWO things of interets in the User Guide, it DOES have a 133mhz FSB setting, in addition to the Wiki link specifically stating that it's (440BX) supported (kind of).

Here are the PIII that can more than likely be utilized, in ADDITION to (if you can find them) PC-133 RAM sticks, noting that you can use them with a 100mhz FSB (what I have) but they run at the "slower" bus speed. You MUST use PC-133 with a n*133 CPU (if you can find one).

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Pentium-III/TYPE-Pentium%20III%20%28Coppermine%29.html

Conclusion - You can go all the way up to a 1g CPU with up to 1g RAM.

Sadly, there IS a stipulation (also documented in the User Manual) noted in the Wiki.

Unfortunately, running a 440BX above 100 MHz FSB resulted in the AGP video card being forced to run on an overclocked AGP bus, as the 440BX only had "2/3" and "1/1" bus dividers. Some video cards were tolerant of this, such as various early NVIDIA GeForce cards, but more than a few were unstable with a 35% AGP overclock.[2] The PCI bus was not affected by this problem (there was a "1/4" bus divider for the PCI bus on the 440BX) so users could use a PCI graphics card in lieu of an AGP one. However, this inflicted a performance penalty on graphical performance since PCI has significantly lower bandwidth throughput than AGP.
so it SEEMS to do that you would have to

1 - Use a PCI Video Card

2 - Hope to find a AGP2x GeForce as noted.

HOWEVER, note that as long as the CPU is an n*100 CPU (such as the 1g) you would be good as gold (AFAICT).

Nice board! :thumbup

Side note - good call on the MoBo ID, Charlotte! :yes:

edit - ...and also note that the above is also "not supported" (but MAY probably work fine) as my HP only has switch setting for up to 700mhz (7*100) CPU (82443BX).

Edited by submix8c
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