InfoWorld Windows XP performance analysis

[Greebe]

InfoWorld article

In fact, until 2GHz desktop PCs become commonplace, we have a hard time recommending widespread adoption of Windows XP at all. Granted, it appears that for light-duty service on the newest hardware, Windows XP with Office XP is an acceptable choice -- if an 11 percent performance hit, or 53 minutes added to an 8-hour day, is acceptable. But beware of this combination in more demanding environments, whether the workload is greater or the equipment is older.

[Belwarrior]

IT'S A PLOT TO MAKE US WORK AN HOUR MORE
Just dont know whose plot anyway

As for me, I will stick with Win98SE/Win2K and if things get too difficult, I will switch over to SuSE Linux (nothing against RH, I just like SuSE) if only there is support for USB Modems

[Dr Mordrid]

It's also a good excuse to wait until Microsoft comes up with an already necessary Service Pack 1 for XP.

Dr. Mordrid

[Helevitia]

I installed XP(but left win98 on just in case) and I have not gone back. I love XP. It is extremely stable compared to win98 and runs everything I've thrown at it except for one program(Simcity3000). Not only that, but with all the new built in features it makes life easier. I thought I'd be irritated with the integrated features such as CD-RW capabilites but in reality, I like the stripped down version of EZ cd creator. Also, out of the box, it runs 11% slower without me installing a single driver. all of the provided drivers(including the Windows update drivers) have worked flawlessly. Since then, I have installed update via drivers and newer ATI Radeon drivers which make the system -5% to on par with performance of Win98SE.
I am running an older Asus A7V 1.2G @ 1.3G Thunderbird, 512MB ram and it runs great Boot up time is much faster and there is a plethora(sp?) or info on how to speed it up faster. I have barely begun to optimize it and I'm sure once I do, it'll wipe out that -5% loss I've seen.
Some things I really like are:

1. recognizes sony memory stick via USB without third party crappy software and then asks me what I want to do with it such as burn the data to CD, open up the folder, etc...

2. Allows much better control over everything. You can tweak a bunch of crap. My "Start" button has been renamed to "Your Daddy"

3. Burn data to CD's with extreme ease.

4. Mouse frequency can be changed now without third party
software. You cna up it to 200MHz

5. Driver rollback is cool and so is compatibilty with older software. I'll admit I haven't used driver rollback adn the one time I tried to use compability it didn't work.

So, that said, I really haven't found much I don't like about it. I haven't found an easy way to make your own themes(but who cares, hehe).

I admit it, I am a WinXP whore!

BTW, for those wondering, I do have Linux installed as well and I use linux/Unix of all sorts at work. Unix is really great for getting my work done but it is still very cryptic and lacks some user friendly stuff. It's getting there though ok, let the flames begin!

Dave

[agallag]

Helevitia, how do you do 2 and 4? I can't figure out how to make those changes. I can't find those settings anywhere. Not even in TweakUI...

[Kastuvas]

Who cares if its running 11% slower then Win98 personaly i cant see a differance if your folder opens in 0.1 of a second or 0.2

The number of times you have to press restart button would equal 5 hours added to an 8 hour working day And what about a reduced lifetime due to overheating brain sells when your pc crashes and you loose your work that you been working on.

[Wombat]

Games man! Why voluntarily lose 1 frame in nine?

[Helevitia]

Originally posted by agallag
Helevitia, how do you do 2 and 4? I can't figure out how to make those changes. I can't find those settings anywhere. Not even in TweakUI...

To change your Start button name you do need third party software. let me see if I can find it....darn! I can't find it. Maybe I'll look for it later but it is some kind of hex editor that edits your some system file. As far as the other tweaks go, download TweakXP, mcuh better than TweakUI. www.tweakxp.com

As far as the mouse thing, It should be in the mouse control panel. I'm not at home so I can't check it. I'll post back later.

Dave

[Alec]

Not everyone buys an OS to install Microsoft Office... and certainly not everyone is worried about the hours of wait it comes down to at the end of the month. That´s ridiculous. There are DOZENS of factors that contribute to productivity at work (or lack there of). One of them is showing your workers that you don´t worry about such nonsense. That will really loosen them up...

The comparison is between two good OSes, no doubt about that. I personally prefer WindowsXP, because of its new features and good looks. The general speed is rougly the same than W2K on my system (a low-end system), which it´s MUCH faster than W9x/ME.

[orangejulius]

You should be able to get Simcity 3000
to work by running SETUP in Win98/ME
compatibility mode, then running the
game in the same mode.

[TnT]

Originally posted by Wombat
Games man! Why voluntarily lose 1 frame in nine?

In my case that would be dropping 10% of my frames and adding 30 minutes to the time it takes to compress a video.

[mdhome]

One of my minor recent gripes has been the lack of support for CD-RW straight out of the box. Does anyone know if CD-RW capability is built into XP or do you have to install some 3rd party software.

regards MD

[Duty]

mdhome - > CD-RW support is there from the get go. I have been using it for a few weeks for video editing and so far love it. Rip raw footage from the vid camera and burn it to a disk for backup. Works lovely.



Jeff

[SuRGV]

With XP, my UT's min FPS in Intro goes from 40 to 45..That's a lot. However, I feel verything else is slower.

[Snake-Eyes]

For those wondering about the mouse sampling setting, you can get to it in the device manager (My Computer -> Properties -> Device Manager -> Mice and other pointing devices -> [your mouse entry] -> Properties -> Advanced Settings -> Sample Rate drop-down). Mine's an Intellimouse Optical, and I can also get to it by going into the mouse control panel (from the System Tray) -> Hardware tab -> Properties button -> Advanced Settings -> Sample Rate drop-down.

It asks for a reboot after you change the setting (just changed mine, but I told it not to reboot yet, heh).

L8r