Windows XP System Requirements
Windows XP can be installed on surprisingly low system requirements contrary to popular opinion. With the average life cycle of a regular PC being roughly 4-6 years, just about any PC being used today can run Windows XP. Unless you are running Windows 2000 and are in a business environment their is no reason you should be running an outdated and unstable OS such as Windows 95, 98 and ME anymore. The following requirements are Microsoft's "official" minimum system requirements which I have tested to work fine with the exception of only 64 MB of RAM (prefetching performance is reduced). Increasing your RAM to 128 MB would be the only upgrade I would strongly consider as my absolute minimum Windows XP system requirements. 
Windows XP is still supported by Microsoft through April 8, 2014.
Windows XP Home Edition
Retail: $189.99 - Upgrade: $99 - OEM: $89.99
Minimum:
233 MHz CPU *
64 MB of RAM (may limit performance and some features) *
1.5 GB of available hard disk space *
Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher-resolution video adapter and monitor
CD-ROM or DVD drive
Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device
Maximum:
1 Physical CPU (Multi-Core + Hyper-threading supported)
4 GB of RAM
4 GB of Virtual Memory
4 GB FAT16 Partition
32 GB FAT32 Partition (Formatted during Setup)
2 TB FAT32 Partition
2 TB NTFS Partition (Basic Volume)
2 GB FAT16 File Size
4 GB FAT32 File Size
2 TB NTFS File Size (Basic Volume)
* > 137 GB Hard Disks require SP1 or higher (48-bit LBA-compatible BIOS Required)
Recommended:
300 MHz CPU *
128 MB of RAM *
1.5 GB of available hard disk space *
Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher-resolution video adapter with at least 8 MB of video RAM and monitor
CD-ROM or DVD drive
Network adapter
Sound card and speakers
Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device
* Actual requirements will vary based on your system configuration and the applications and features you choose to install. Additional available hard disk space may be required if you are installing over a network.
- Description of the FAT32 File System in Windows XP (Microsoft)
- Limitations of the FAT32 File System in Windows XP (Microsoft)
- Maximum partition size using the FAT16 file system in Windows XP (Microsoft)
- Multicore Processor Licensing (Microsoft)
- NTFS compared to FAT and FAT32 (Microsoft)
- Windows XP Home Edition System Requirements (Microsoft)
Windows XP Professional Edition
Retail: $269.99 - Upgrade: $184.99 - OEM: $139.99
Minimum:
233 MHz CPU *
64 MB of RAM (may limit performance and some features) *
1.5 GB of available hard disk space *
Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher-resolution video adapter and monitor
CD-ROM or DVD drive
Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device
Maximum:
2 Physical CPUs (Multi-Core + Hyper-threading supported)
4 GB of RAM
4 GB of Virtual Memory
4 GB FAT16 Partition
32 GB FAT32 Partition (Formatted during Setup)
2 TB FAT32 Partition
2 TB NTFS Partition (Basic Volume)
16 TB minus 64 KB NTFS Partition (Dynamic Volume - 4 KB Cluster Size)
256 TB minus 64 KB NTFS Partition (Dynamic Volume - 64 KB Cluster Size)
2 GB FAT16 File Size
4 GB FAT32 File Size
2 TB NTFS File Size (Basic Volume)
16 TB minus 64 KB NTFS File Size (Dynamic Volume - 4 KB Cluster Size)
* > 137 GB Hard Disks require SP1 or higher (48-bit LBA-compatible BIOS Required)
Recommended:
300 MHz CPU *
128 MB of RAM *
1.5 GB of available hard disk space *
Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher-resolution video adapter with at least 8 MB of video RAM and monitor
CD-ROM or DVD drive
Network adapter
Sound card and speakers
Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device
* Actual requirements will vary based on your system configuration and the applications and features you choose to install. Additional available hard disk space may be required if you are installing over a network.
- Description of the FAT32 File System in Windows XP (Microsoft)
- Limitations of the FAT32 File System in Windows XP (Microsoft)
- Maximum partition size using the FAT16 file system in Windows XP (Microsoft)
- Multicore Processor Licensing (Microsoft)
- NTFS compared to FAT and FAT32 (Microsoft)
- Windows XP Professional System Requirements (Microsoft)
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
The "x64 Edition" is not to be confused with the "64-bit Edition", as the latter was designed for IA-64 (Intel Itanium) processors. They both are commonly referred to as "64-bit Windows" by Microsoft due to their similarities from the developers' point of view.
Retail: NA - Upgrade: NA - OEM: $139.99
Warning - Windows XP Professional x64 Edition cannot be successfully installed on x86 (32-bit) systems or 64-bit Intel Itanium-based systems. 32-bit device drivers are not supported on Windows XP Professional x64 Edition.
Minimum:
AMD Athlon 64, AMD Opteron, Intel Xeon with Intel EM64T support, Intel Pentium 4 with Intel EM64T support CPUs *
256 MB of RAM *
1.5 GB of available hard disk space *
Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher-resolution video adapter and monitor
CD-ROM or DVD drive
Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device
64-bit Device Drivers
Maximum:
2 Physical CPUs (Multi-Core + Hyper-threading supported)
128 GB of RAM
16 TB of Virtual Memory
4 GB FAT16 Partition
32 GB FAT32 Partition (Formatted during Setup)
2 TB FAT32 Partition
2 TB NTFS Partition (Basic Volume)
16 TB minus 64 KB NTFS Partition (Dynamic Volume - 4 KB Cluster Size)
256 TB minus 64 KB NTFS Partition (Dynamic Volume - 64 KB Cluster Size)
18 EB NTFS Partition (GPT Volume)
2 GB FAT16 File Size
4 GB FAT32 File Size
2 TB NTFS File Size (Basic Volume)
16 TB minus 64 KB NTFS File Size (Dynamic Volume - 4 KB Cluster Size)
Recommended:
AMD Athlon 64, AMD Opteron, Intel Xeon with Intel EM64T support, Intel Pentium 4 with Intel EM64T support CPU *
256 MB of RAM or higher *
1.5 GB of available hard disk space *
Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher-resolution video adapter with at least 8 MB of video RAM and monitor
CD-ROM or DVD drive
Network adapter
Sound card and speakers
Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device
64-bit Device Drivers
* Actual requirements will vary based on your system configuration and the applications and features you choose to install. Additional available hard disk space may be required if you are installing over a network.
Windows XP (MCE) Media Center Edition 2005
Retail: NA - Upgrade: NA - OEM: $109.99
Minimum:
1.6 GHz CPU *
256 MB of RAM *
30 GB of available hard disk space (Mobile Systems) *
60 GB of available hard disk space (Non-Mobile Systems) *
64 MB DDR 4x AGP DirectX 9 graphics card *
1024 x 768 Resolution (4:3 aspect ratio)
1280 x 720 Resolution (Widescreen aspect ratio)
DVD drive (Must read DVDs at 4x and CDs at 16x speed)
Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device
Internet Connection:
(Either a Hardware 56 Kbps Modem, Integrated Broadband modem, 100BaseT or Wireless 802.11b Network Adapter)
Maximum:
2 Physical CPUs (Multi-Core + Hyper-threading supported)
4 GB of RAM
4 GB of Virtual Memory
4 GB FAT16 Partition
32 GB FAT32 Partition (Formatted during Setup)
2 TB FAT32 Partition
2 TB NTFS Partition (Basic Volume)
16 TB minus 64 KB NTFS Partition (Dynamic Volume - 4 KB Cluster Size)
256 TB minus 64 KB NTFS Partition (Dynamic Volume - 64 KB Cluster Size)
2 GB FAT16 File Size
4 GB FAT32 File Size
2 TB NTFS File Size (Basic Volume)
16 TB minus 64 KB NTFS File Size (Dynamic Volume - 4 KB Cluster Size)
4 TV tuners, 2 NTSC Standard tuners and 2 ATSC HD TV Tuners (Supported in MCE Rollup 2)
Recommended Options:
TV tuner card (Hardware MPEG-2 Decoder)
MCE Compatible Remote Control
* Actual requirements may vary based on system configuration and the applications and features you choose to install. Some functionality such as Media Center Extender support, use of multiple tuners, or HDTV playback/recording carries higher system requirements.
Windows XP Starter Edition
Windows XP Starter Edition is a lower-cost version of Windows XP available in Thailand, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia, Russia, India, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Ecuador, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Minimum:
233 MHz CPU *
64 MB of RAM (may limit performance and some features) *
1.5 GB of available hard disk space *
Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher-resolution video adapter and monitor
CD-ROM or DVD drive
Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device
Maximum:
1 Physical CPU (Hyper-threading supported)
512 MB of RAM
120 GB of hard disk space
1024x768 Resolution
3 Programs running at one time
3 Windows per program running at one time
Recommended:
300 MHz CPU *
128 MB of RAM *
1.5 GB of available hard disk space *
Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher-resolution video adapter with at least 8 MB of video RAM and monitor
CD-ROM or DVD drive
Network adapter
Sound card and speakers
Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device
* Actual requirements will vary based on your system configuration and the applications and features you choose to install.
End
If your system meets these requirements, use Optimize XP - A Windows XP Optimization Guide to improve both work and gaming performance safely. Windows XP's default configuration is far from optimized. This guide will help you improve your overall system performance.
www.OptimizeGuides.com
