Gaming Quick computer question!!!

[Deleted member 133311]

My neighbor was tossing out an old computer so i asked her if I could get it, she said yes so now i have an old out of date, compaq..
Specs
=----=
699 Mhz Processor
10GB hard drive
256 ram
Windows 2000

the question is wether it can handle windows XP.. i have my installation disk and stuff, or should i just strip it down and use it as extra parts. It runs well, but doesn't really meet my Computing standards

lol.
Any recommendations are gladly appreciated

 

[CockroachMan]

It can handle XP, but I wouldn't recommend it.. keep Windows 2000.

 

[gov78]

Put a Linux OS on it Nuff Said.

 

[Deleted member 133311]

linux? where do i get this?! i will probably keep windows 2000 cuz it has office 2003 installed and validated. Probably give it to my sis, since she needs a computer to type up her homework.
that computer is nothing compared 2 mines! lol

Here's my specs
=----------------=
Lappy Top
2.41 GHz Processor
2 GB Ram
320 GB Hard Drive
Windows XP SP2..

Post your specs

 

[Phynx]

Definitely keep 2000 on there, functional enough to do most modern computer activities while being able to play some decent older games, assuming it has a decent video card. It's probably go nicely with a geforce 4200 or so, that'd only cost all of ~$10 on craigslist.

 

[Renegade_R]

It can handle XP but it'll not handle it very well. You can download a light build of Linux if you are feeling up to the task.

 

[strata8]

Get a linux build with XFCE. Runs well on older computers.

I use Linux Mint, which you can download at linuxmint.com.

 

[Cermage]

if you want xp, get a nlited versoin of it like tinyxp or something. retains basic functionality but requires much less hardware wise

 

[FAST6191]

If it has 2k on there then I would leave, nothing that requires XP will run on that anyhow. If you do Incomplete has the right idea although I would be reluctant to download a fully hacked version like that (the original version sure but it is a gamble elsewhere (if you can get the md5 hashes and match them then great)).

Back to linux while linux mint is great (one of my favourites) I am not sure that machine can handle even the xfce version.

Have a go with puppy linux.
http://www.puppylinux.org/
It has a web browser (mozilla, note not firefox which can easily get though), office apps capable of MS office reading/writing (abiword but open office is available) and all the other trappings of a modern OS.
Most linux distros run off a CD/DVD these days and this one goes a step further and is geared towards it.

I have got it working on a similarly specced machine (700Mhz athlon with 192 ram) and aside from high end H264 video (which makes most machines think twice) I was happy to use it as my main machine for a few months while this one was down and I was too lazy/poor to fix it. Better it did the same thing on a old pre pentium machine I tried it out on.

 

[Raki]

if you want xp, get a nlited versoin of it like tinyxp or something. retains basic functionality but requires much less hardware wise

or fo nlite yourself...I did this for my eeePC and it works very well (although my messed up desktop PC crashed so often...)