DeathsyctheHe11 Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 Well, just fixed up my old Dell Dimension 4550: Intel? Pentium? 4 2.4GHz 2x 20GB Hard Drives 2gb DDR ram forgot graphic card should I run 7 on it or XP? Mostly using it to surf the web, watch movies, etc... If I run 7, might have to turn off aero. So which one would you choose? Edit: Geforce 6200, but no windows 7 network drivers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Udedenkz Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 Graphic card matters for movies. Some GPUs do not support DXVA for XP - therefore laggy video playback on XP. Locked down XP otherwise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prince781 Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 Windows 7 and don't turn off Aero. You won't have to, trust me. ;) Was this really even a question? :huh: zombieChan 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeathsyctheHe11 Posted July 19, 2011 Author Share Posted July 19, 2011 Well would windows 7 run fine with these specs? Wasn't sure that's why. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleNeutrino Veteran Posted July 19, 2011 Veteran Share Posted July 19, 2011 you should run 7 if for no other reason because XP is no longer fully supported. ViperAFK 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prince781 Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 Well would windows 7 run fine with these specs? Wasn't sure that's why. Just off the top of my head, the minimum specs for Windows 7 (with Aero): 1Ghz Processor 1GB RAM 20GB Disk space (assuming you'll be running the 64-bit version) You have: 2Ghz Processor 2GB RAM 40GB Disk space ....Yeah, I think you'll be just fine. ;) Chester0 and ViperAFK 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
migo Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 You might not even be able to run Aero depending on the graphics card. Windows 7 will run fine though, even if you're missing out on Aero Peek, it's a better system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
watchthisspace Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 Got Windows 7 running on system made up of an AMD 3500+ (2.2ghz) and 1gb of ram and it's quite snappy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ci7 Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 Well would windows 7 run fine with these specs? Wasn't sure that's why. i would Recommend to put bigger Hard drive for windows. or the installation would be really bogged down and check back the video card , it really make a differences with post-XP OSes goretsky 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrp04 Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 I'm usually a huge supporter of Windows 7, but I think XP would be fine on that system, especially if it already has an XP license and you would need to obtain a 7 license. xdot.tk, ViperAFK, Ci7 and 1 other 4 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeathsyctheHe11 Posted July 19, 2011 Author Share Posted July 19, 2011 Well the card is a GeForce 6200 =/... Also realized they don't have windows 7 network driver, or would that matter? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cork1958 Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 Have Windows 7 installed on 2 machines with that same graphics card. One of them has 256mb video memory and the other has 512mb. Both those machines (1 is a Dell Dimension 2300) only have 1gb memory also. 1 has a 1.7ghz cpu and the other has a 1.8ghz. Both of my machines have bigger hard drives than yours though. My Dell has 2 hard drives in it with 2 different versions of Windows 7. Both machines run 7 just fine. About the most radical thing I do with them is burn music cd's. I turn off Aero regardless of how good the machine is!! Shouldn't even be a question as to which OS to install!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raa Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 I'm usually a huge supporter of Windows 7, but I think XP would be fine on that system, especially if it already has an XP license and you would need to obtain a 7 license. I agree. Looking at those specs, the hard drives could be the stopping point. You won't have much room to move with that limited space. I'd just go with XP unless you have 7 lying around to just play with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d4diesel Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 I had windows vista and later upgraded to windows 7 for the home PC that I used to have for other house members for occasional web surfing (mostly for facebook) and emails and I had p4 processor with 2 gb ram and 250GB HDD. worked awesome even for vista and faster and better with windows 7. This was made with parts lying around. Just spent the money on a nice monitor, keyboard and mouse and no one in the house ever complained. The only thing in your case that i would be worried about is the hard drive. other than that, you should be fine with windows 7 without any problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notuptome2004 Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 Have Windows 7 installed on 2 machines with that same graphics card. One of them has 256mb video memory and the other has 512mb. Both those machines (1 is a Dell Dimension 2300) only have 1gb memory also. 1 has a 1.7ghz cpu and the other has a 1.8ghz. Both of my machines have bigger hard drives than yours though. My Dell has 2 hard drives in it with 2 different versions of Windows 7. Both machines run 7 just fine. About the most radical thing I do with them is burn music cd's. I turn off Aero regardless of how good the machine is!! Shouldn't even be a question as to which OS to install!! and why would you turn Aero off that makes no since disabling features and disabling performance Aero runs via GPU and things are faster with it on. plus with Aero on your eliminate screen tearing duplicating windows While dragging over a non responding window many GDI stuff Jen Smith and neo158 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calum Veteran Posted July 19, 2011 Veteran Share Posted July 19, 2011 Windows XP is a horrible operating system. Windows 7 even using the Windows Basic theme is so much better than XP. An example of how 7 is better: The Windows Explorer in 7 is majorly improved compared to XP. I certainly recommend 7 over XP. Prince781, Sub_Zero_Alchemist, DaViD_BRaNDoN and 1 other 4 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
migo Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 I don't think 40GB is really a stopping point for Windows 7, either way it'll be the programs and files you put on it that fill it up, not the OS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NEVER85 Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 Windows 7, even on that. goretsky 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Warwagon MVC Posted July 19, 2011 MVC Share Posted July 19, 2011 Windows 7 and don't turn off Aero. You won't have to, trust me. ;) Was this really even a question? :huh: Just Turn off the Animations but leave the transparency turned on. Makes 7 and Vista Feel MUCH faster. Windows XP is a horrible operating system. Windows 7 even using the Windows Basic theme is so much better than XP. An example of how 7 is better: The Windows Explorer in 7 is majorly improved compared to XP. I certainly recommend 7 over XP. Windows XP is not a horrible operating system. Sub_Zero_Alchemist 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seizure1990 Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 Windows XP is a horrible operating system. Windows 7 even using the Windows Basic theme is so much better than XP. An example of how 7 is better: The Windows Explorer in 7 is majorly improved compared to XP. I certainly recommend 7 over XP. Not that it's entirely relevant to the original question, but there's a pretty big difference between "horrible" and "outdated" (and XP is arguably still not quite "outdated") Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThaCrip Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 Graphic card matters for movies. Some GPUs do not support DXVA for XP - therefore laggy video playback on XP. Locked down XP otherwise. Well looking around online it appears Windows XP CAN do GPU acceleration (assuming your card supports it to begin with which anything Nvidia 8xxx or newer does and anything ATI/AMD 48xx+ does (i got a Radeon 5670 myself)) but then again it might be not a option for VLC from taking a quick look online but if PotPlayer don't work (which supports GPU acceleration out of the box on it's default install) odds are you need Vista or 7 for GPU acceleration to work. but with a system like the OP's i would definitely shoot for Windows 7 overall. i had a single core AMD Athlon 3500+ (2.2ghz, overclocked to 2.4ghz) with 2GB of RAM etc and it ran Windows 7 fine overall. so unless your PC is borderline ancient (say a slow single core with 1GB of RAM or less) then Windows 7 is the overall better choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xilo Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 I had a PC similar to OP. Same CPU and RAM. Windows 7 ran better than Windows XP on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TAZMINATOR Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 On Windows 7, you can play regular DVD movies without disabling aero but to play blu-ray movies, aero may be disabled automatically depends on what kind of video card you have. If you have powerful video card, then aero may not be disabled during blu-ray movie playback. No worries that aero will be turned back on after you close the movie software. If you are talking about Netflix web-based movies (or other related movie providers such as Hulu), then no need to disable aero. In order to run movies smoothly, 4gb ram will be needed which you need 2gb more of ram and make sure your system is 64bit compatible if so, install 64bit version of Windows 7. And I noticed you have small space. You will need bigger HDDs. I would choose Windows 7 if I were you. But it is really up to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Order_66 Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 I could be wrong but I thought there was a 30 day trial version of 7 that you could download from microsoft, try it out and then make a decision on whether to buy the license or stick with xp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ji@nBing Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 7 by a mile. That system should have no problem running it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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