Running Windows 10 on slow/older/low power hardware? How's it working out?

[Open Minded]

Hey everyone.  I've got a 2-1 that has the Atom Z3735F SoC with 2 GB RAM that's waiting on a Windows 10 upgrade from Windows 8.1.  I'm wondering if I'm going to see a speed increase by going with Windows 10.  So if you're using older hardware or an SoC/CPU meant for low power scenarios (Atom, Core M, i3/5/7 U or Y series for example) I'd love to read what you think of Windows 10 so far.  Is there an improvement speed wise over Windows 8.1 or Windows 7?  Any driver issues or unsupported hardware or software? 

Along with your experiences, please post what CPU, GPU and the amount of RAM your rig has if you know it off-hand and wouldn't mind.

Thanks for your input!

[MaverickVA]

I would do a clean install. If your system ran 8.1 with no problems, I would suspect that 10 would run better.

[Southern Patriot]

That should run fine with Windows 10. My wife's netbook, with a lower powered Atom than yours, runs it pretty well, at least as well as 7 ran on it.

[TDT]

For me, it's quite a lot slower than Win 8.1 or 7. I installed it on a Sony Vaio with a Intel dual-core 2.26Ghz cpu, 4GB of ram, 300GB hdd and a mobility radeon 3470 gpu. No driver issues, but the OS feels laggy for some reason, even if there's no cpu or hard disk activity. Also there's the cpu fan issue that I reported on another topic, the damn thing is very noisy and it runs almost constantly, mostly when playing flash videos. This happens only on Windows, I also have Linux installed on it and it's quiet as a mouse there.

So Win 10 is not an option for me on that notebook. I do use it on my desktop, but this has much better specs than the notebook.

[nekrosoft13]

Hey everyone.  I've got a 2-1 that has the Atom Z3735F SoC with 2 GB RAM that's waiting on a Windows 10 upgrade from Windows 8.1.  I'm wondering if I'm going to see a speed increase by going with Windows 10.  So if you're using older hardware or an SoC/CPU meant for low power scenarios (Atom, Core M, i3/5/7 U or Y series for example) I'd love to read what you think of Windows 10 so far.  Is there an improvement speed wise over Windows 8.1 or Windows 7?  Any driver issues or unsupported hardware or software? 

Along with your experiences, please post what CPU, GPU and the amount of RAM your rig has if you know it off-hand and wouldn't mind.

Thanks for your input!

is that windows 8.1 with bing?

upgrade 8.1 with bing to windows 10 pro 10166 insider build, it will upgrade your bing license to pro, then login to insider build, and it will upgrade again to final 10240 build and you have windows 10 pro license.

[JustGeorge]

I'm running it on an old Dell Optiplex GX620 (P4 w/2GB RAM, Radeon 5450) and it's given this POS a new lease on life compared to Windows 7. Not a speed demon, but much more responsive vs. W7. Perfectly fine for Web/Office/Email.

[Open Minded]

I would do a clean install. If your system ran 8.1 with no problems, I would suspect that 10 would run better.

I was planning on a clean install when the upgrade was ready.  The "Get Windows 10" icon says it's not ready for my machine yet.  When I ran the preview, it was a mess.  Problems with the KB and trackpad as well as the touchscreen.  I'm interested to see if it's ready with working drivers despite what Acer and Microsoft say.

That should run fine with Windows 10. My wife's netbook, with a lower powered Atom than yours, runs it pretty well, at least as well as 7 ran on it.

Nice.

For me, it's quite a lot slower than Win 8.1 or 7. I installed it on a Sony Vaio with a Intel dual-core 2.26Ghz cpu, 4GB of ram, 300GB hdd and a mobility radeon 3470 gpu. No driver issues, but the OS feels laggy for some reason, even if there's no cpu or hard disk activity. Also there's the cpu fan issue that I reported on another topic, the damn thing is very noisy and it runs almost constantly, mostly when playing flash videos. This happens only on Windows, I also have Linux installed on it and it's quiet as a mouse there.

So Win 10 is not an option for me on that notebook. I do use it on my desktop, but this has much better specs than the notebook.

Did you do a clean install or did you upgrade?  I've found that on my GF's desktop (yet to clean install, just upgraded through many preview builds) that Defender just uses the CPU and SSD like no other.  After turning it off there were no more issues with speed.  There shouldn't be as her PC is a FX8350, 8GB RAM, 250 GB SSD and a GTX 560.  On her computer it does run better than Windows 7 after turning defender off.  Games are faster and look better and Windows just feels more snappy.  She really likes it and there's been no driver issues for months now.

 

 

is that windows 8.1 with bing?

upgrade 8.1 with bing to windows 10 pro 10166 insider build, it will upgrade your bing license to pro, then login to insider build, and it will upgrade again to final 10240 build and you have windows 10 pro license.

Yes sir it is and thanks a lot for that tip!  My only issue is drivers (see above post) at this point.  I've already done a factory backup to a USB drive so it's no big deal to go back to Windows 8.1 with Bing if 10 doesn't work out.  Finding my 10 preview disc now and doing the upgrade so I can get Pro.  Thanks again.

[Open Minded]

I'm running it on an old Dell Optiplex GX620 (P4 w/2GB RAM, Radeon 5450) and it's given this POS a new lease on life compared to Windows 7. Not a speed demon, but much more responsive vs. W7. Perfectly fine for Web/Office/Email.

That's great to hear.  I'm selling an old Dell Optiplex 740 to a friend for her daughter to use and it's got Windows 7 on it now.  I might run the upgrade for her to 10 later today.

[B26354]

I upgraded an Acer Aspire One ZG5 (updated with 1.5gb of memory and a 7200 rpm Hard disk) and it works fine, not great but fine for what I use it.

[TDT]

Did you do a clean install or did you upgrade?  I've found that on my GF's desktop (yet to clean install, just upgraded through many preview builds) that Defender just uses the CPU and SSD like no other.  After turning it off there were no more issues with speed.  There shouldn't be as her PC is a FX8350, 8GB RAM, 250 GB SSD and a GTX 560.  On her computer it does run better than Windows 7 after turning defender off.  Games are faster and look better and Windows just feels more snappy.  She really likes it and there's been no driver issues for months now.

 

Clean install, I never do upgrades. I don't think I have the Defender issue, because there's really no activity at all, except Chrome (or Firefox) opened with a flash video playing. And yet, the os is laggy when I open something, even the start menu takes about 2 seconds to pop-up.

[jaffar]

One of my PCs is  7 years old Dell with only 1 GB RAM and Core duo CPU while the GPU is integrated Intel GPU

With WIndows 7 I always had problems with svchost process CPU usage and no hardware acceleration in Internet Explorer , all of this gone with WIndows 10

[jaffar]

That's great to hear.  I'm selling an old Dell Optiplex 740 to a friend for her daughter to use and it's got Windows 7 on it now.  I might run the upgrade for her to 10 later today.

5 years old Optiplex 780 with Geforce 9300 GE works as a new Windows 10 PC

Edited August 11, 2015 by jaffar

[JustGeorge]

That's great to hear.  I'm selling an old Dell Optiplex 740 to a friend for her daughter to use and it's got Windows 7 on it now.  I might run the upgrade for her to 10 later today.

Somethings of note. When it ran Windows 7, it was practically unusable before I swapped the standard P4 for a Hyperthreading version, and installed the 5450. Just keep that in mind before you upgrade it.

If its running 7 well, it should run 10 even better.

[binaryzero]

Just installed 32bit on a Inspiron Mini 10 lol, 1GB RAM. Seems fine. 

[techbeck]

That should run fine with Windows 10. My wife's netbook, with a lower powered Atom than yours, runs it pretty well, at least as well as 7 ran on it.

What make/model netbook?  I have an old Acer netbook with Win7 home installed.  May upgrade if performance is decent.

[Open Minded]

Somethings of note. When it ran Windows 7, it was practically unusable before I swapped the standard P4 for a Hyperthreading version, and installed the 5450. Just keep that in mind before you upgrade it.

If its running 7 well, it should run 10 even better.

Thanks for the heads up.

Just installed 32bit on a Inspiron Mini 10 lol, 1GB RAM. Seems fine. 

Wow.  That's impressive.

[Southern Patriot]

 

What make/model netbook?  I have an old Acer netbook with Win7 home installed.  May upgrade if performance is decent.

Dell Latitude 2100. Has one of the old 1.6 Ghz Atom processors (single core with hyperthreading).

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

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