I know i need to upgrade and can't afford a new pc right now. i have the old, old Me and want to upgrade, but i have gotten conflicting reports as to if XP will run fast with only 128MB or RAM.

i know requirements are only 128MB.

are software packages even returnable if it doesn't work out?

thanks for any and all help.

XP isn't great with only 128mb. As Graymadder says, the rest of the hardware would make a big difference; with a decent processor, hard drive, good graphics card and sound card, you'd get away with 128mb. But from what you suggest, this is an old PC, so I'd say it's a none starter.

On the other hand, have you considered more memory? If you can get hold of more to put in, or even replace, a PC designed for Windows ME will easily run XP.

If you do forge ahead, take the advice about a clean install very seriously. Then go into My Computer properties, advanced, performance. Uncheck everything! Oh and don't use desktop wallpaper. Do all that, you'll have an XP system that runs quite well and looks like Windows 98. At which point, you may think why bother? 

Memory is cheap.

If your machine isn't too old to actually get memory for it, then just buy some memory. In general a good advice, memory can always spice up performance... (Although, IIRC, I once read somewhere, that there actually is something like "too much memory...)

Quoting ya_shin:

Quote:
Memory is cheap.

Everytime the company where i work, throws out old computers, i usually take them. I have a good chunk of old motherboards, memory chips, HDD's, processors etc.

Id say getting new memory for an old PC should be usually free. Just need to ask, cause most people think their garbage and no use to anyone anymore.

XP will run ok. It won't be especially fast but it will run and it will be better than ME which must be the the most bug ridden and unstable version of Windows OS ever released. More memory would help and as others have said, it should be cheap.

I'd go for Windows 2000.

thanks for the replies.

i actually only use for internet surfing and the occasional word and excel stuff. really, nothing more. i wouldn't know how to install memory and would hesitate to even attempt.

i have a machine with 60gig hard drives and runs really well with Me, but as you said i have had problems with it as of late. it is a 7 yr old Sony Vaio.

what exactly does a clean install mean?

Continuing from what Achim said, if you were to boot your PC with a Windows XP CD in the drive, you should eventually see a message saying that "Windows has found a previous installation". The next choice is to upgrade that version, or format the drive for a fresh installation.

The latter option is what we would call clean, but so clean you would have absolutely none of your data or applications, or viruses(!), that you have now. 

Is this a laptop then that we are discussing? Being so portable, it would be easier for you to take it into your local computer shop and ask them the cost of upgrading the memory. They will check the sort you need, offer you the various options and costs. They may have to order it because of the age, but once they have the memory, it should take no more than five minutes to plug in. Memory, especially in laptops, is the easiest upgrade and usually requires no software configuration.