First post, by Tetrium
- Rank
- l33t++
I came to this idea while posting in this thread: Re: Back to the 2k's! (my 2nd post).
Of course we're all familiar with the official minimum system requirements for the various MS Windows versions, but obviously we all have our own requirements 😉
So now I've gotten curious as to what hardware you typically use when using any particular version of Windows (or DOS 😉).
Heres my personal list:
DOS and Windows 3x (any version)
Not much to say, DOS can run on basically anything!
For Windows 3x I'd prefer using a 386 at the least, with perhaps 16MB ram or so, though 8MB should be fine also I guess.
I'm not too familiar with 3x apart from years 'n years back.
Windows 95
When using 95 I prefer to use one of the later oem ones (95B or 95C).
My preferred minimum system requirements would be:
*66Mhz 486, though I'd prefer to use at least a DX4-100.
Any Pentium should be enough 😜
*32MB ram, though up to 64MB would be preferred to prevent harddrive trashing, and I got the memory available anyway....so why not?
95 could probably get away with 16mb, but as ram is kinda easy to come by these days, theres hardly any reason to go for less then 32MB me thinks
*1GB harddrive, this leaves plenty of room for whatever you might want to add. 95 has a very small footprint and, even though I can't remember exactly how much, I remember it taking up only a very small portion of the 1GB harddrive I used.
98SE
I've used 98FE a couple times and was never happy with it.
98SE I use when I feel like I probably can't get away with using ME. I prefer to have a fast system then a slower one.
*Minimum cpu:Probably anything over a 100Mhz Pentium class, though I'd be tempted to use it on a 486 DX4 as well.
*64MB ram. Many 97-era boards can't cache more then 64MB ram, so I set 64MB as my preferred target. Anything that can cache more will probably receive ME instead.
*4GB harddrive. The minimum harddrive isn't exact science, it's more that on a 98SE rig, I want some extra room so I can install software. I prefer installing 98SE on a separate partition for ease of data recovery if the OS would ever go belly up! 😜
Minimum partition size for 98SE:Probably 1GB or so. I'll use 1.5GB just to be safe
*Graphics card:Anything 4MB or more, but this is more a taste issue, depending on what the system is going to be used for.
ME
As I'm most accustomed to ME, this is my preferred 9x OS
*Minimum cpu:400Mhz of any class. This includes the K6-2 family and the Celeron/P2. cpu isn't really a hard limit, my decision to go with ME has mostly to do with how much memory the system will be receiving.
*Minimum ram:128MB, though my personal minimum would be 192MB.
ME will fly with 256MB and 512MB is ok, if you have the ram available 😉
*Harddrive:Minimum 10GB or so. I've installed ME on 6.4GB harddrives before and even though it will work, ME has a much bigger footprint then 98SE. Installing ME on a 1GB partition will make ME complain a lot about lack of disk space. I try to use a 2GB partition as a bare minimum, but will typically use a bit larger partition of the total drive size permits leaving enough space for games etc.
*Graphics card:I prefer to use a 16MB graphics card, but it's a matter of choice really.
2k
Even though I've used 2k with great pleasure (it worked ok for it's intended purpose back then), nowdays I prefer using XP and ME over 2k any day of the week.
Still I'll list my preferred min specs for completeness sake 😜
*Minimum a Pentium 2 or Pentium Pro. 2k will run on a Socket 7 but I think that's kinda a waste. My preferred minimum speed for 2k would be more in the area of a 500Mhz Katmai or Athlon class cpu.
800+Mhz would be good to use I think, and preferably one of the top-of-the-line 800Mhz cpu's (so no Celeron, and certainly not a VIA!).
*RAM: For 2k to run a bit speedy, I'd prefer to use 256MB at the least. 512MB seems like a better number
*Harddrive:As 2k always seemed slow to load for me, I prefer to use a fast harddrive for it's size (so a later generation 10GB harddrive is preferred over any 1st generation 10GB harddrives).
As shown below, I prefer to use either ME or XP over 2k, though 2k isn't completely out of my mind yet 😉
XP
My preferred OS for anything that meets my minimum system requirements.
I have 2 different sets of minimum requirements for XP.
The 1st is for an offline system (so no need for gigantic updates) and one for internet usage.
*CPU: I prefer to run XP on at least an 800Mhz Coppermine class cpu (for an 800Mhz Celeron I'd prefer ME).
For internet the minimum cpu for me is about the same, but I've noticed on a 1Ghz Coppermine, internet can runa little slow, but it runs 😉
For an internet rig I prefer to use an Athlon XP at the least (or perhaps a Northwood).
*RAM:My preferred minimum would be 384MB, though I personally prefer to use 512MB. I'll probably never run XP on less then 384MB, in such a case I'll pick ME.
For internet I'd go with 1GB ram at the least if I can though 2GB is better for my needs (helps when I have 30+ browser windows open...+2 other browsers with as many windows at the same time 😜 😁)
*Harddrive: XP has a much larger footprint then ME. a 10GB harddrive is what I consider to be a bare minimum, though something over 6BG will work as long as you stick with only 1 partition.
20GB's minimum is preferred for XP imo.
When the rig is supposed to be online, I prefer to use the largest harddrive I have available, the more, the better. Anything 100GB or more should be enough 😉
Well now, these are my personal minimum system requirements. What are yours? 😉
