How well does Windows NT 4.0 with SP6 run on lets say, a Pentium 75. What about dual 75's on a 430nx board with 96-512mb ram? (Thinking on another new "far in the future" build project)
Dedicated Windows 95 Aficionado for good reasons:
http://toastytech.com/evil/setup.html
Should run just fine. With lots of RAM, better than fine.
"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium
Yea, I spent my days on my Pentium 133 in NT 4.0 mostly. Worked like a charm. 32+ MB is recommended. I would say it was my best Windows experience ever. Very smooth and fast.
It probably runs well on a 486 even, but getting 32+ MB into a 486 was not a simple task back then.
The CPU shouldn't be the limiting factor at any rate.
It runs well. NT4 is my preferred OS for a regular Pentium if it's doing some practical task and not playing games that require a different OS. It's faster than Win98 or 2000 because it uses the classic shell, and it's way more stable than Win9x.
Many years ago I installed NT4 SP6a on my sister's P133 laptop. We maxed out the RAM to I think 80MB. It was fine for basic usage until the internet got all modern and scripty.
More recently, I've installed NT4 SP6a on a P75 laptop which I use for car diagnosis. That machine has less RAM but it's enough for how it's used. It runs smoothly, but I don't do much with that machine.
People I knew always used to say that NT4 "isn't for laptops", but I disagreed and still do. No, it doesn't have many power management features, or maybe none at all, but that's a petty issue compared to stability. Pentium-era laptops were rarely used for games, and if they were then it was games that supported NT4 anyway. I wanted Pentium-era laptops to be reliable workhorses, and NT4 makes them so.
I agree that 32MB RAM is probably the minimum to consider, but preferably more.
I remember a computer lab in school that had NT4 with 24MB RAM, and that made it unusable. The program we were using for that class kept crashing every 5-10 minutes due to lack of RAM. Some students who were dependent on that lab started complaining to the administration because they couldn't get any work done.
it should be adequate, so long as you have 64MB of RAM .
not necessarily the optimal choice but it will work
After getting a new P2 400, I installed NT4 and Office 97 on the the Dx2-66 with 64MB ram, as its gaming days were over.
Once booted (loading took a bit) it felt quicker and definitely more stable then Win95 that was on it before and made for a great computer to type on.
Round the same time I had a NT4 "server" running Proxy 2.0 It was just made up of spare parts, Low end Pentium I think 32MB ram, and whatever HDD's I had lying around. It was slow to use but as far as the services it was providing (PDC, DHCP, File sharing, Proxy 2.0 for sharing the dialup) it was ok.
Now I'm running NT4 Terminal server edition on my Proliant 1600 with x2 P3 600's Its ok but 2000 is more useful as an OS and NT Terminal server edition seems a bit more buggy then regular NT4 server. Like any old PC the 2nd CPU is nice but not really that useful.
