Would It be worth installing windows 7 on an old machine?

Would it be worth it to install windows 7 on an old computer (say a Pentium 4 with 1GB RAM)?

As I voted for About the Same, the bigger problem in my opinion is the older machines usually have graphics not able to run Windows Aero and looks terrible without the effects. If you can not run Windows Aero then Windows 7 may not be a choice you would make.

One other note P4's run in a wide range of speed's. I would only consider installing Windows 7 on the top end of this spectrum.

Windows 7 looks better and runs faster on my Latitude C640, 8 years old, designed for Win 2K. In fact, it has only 1GB RAM, 40GB hard drive and Pentium 4 processor. I left Win 2K 15GB, gave Win 7 Home Premium the rest. Win 7 would not "sleep", but a quick trip to Driver Max fixed that. No, it doesn't have Aero, but it looks better than Win 2K or XP Pro (which was kicked to the curb), and starts up a helluva lot faster than Win 2K does. Aero isn't everything on an older computer, the main thing to look at is will it run, does it look better than what you had, and is it faster than what you had. I would have to answer yes to all three of those. So my vote is Yes, worth it, fast! Thanks for the poll!

Please note you can't change your poll and you can't vote more than one.

I have 7x64 running on an Athlon 64 3400+ w/2gb ram + a 512mb AGP vid card, runs great. Have 7x86 on my wife's Inspiron 8500 P4 mobile 2Ghz w/2Gb ram but only a 32mb vid. Win 7 runs fine on hers, yes no Aero effects but hers now boots way faster than it did with XP.

Sam

What a great thing! Hearing of older computers running Windows 7. Of course, no Aero, but with the right drivers, Windows 7 will bring new life to an older computer. Aero is great to have, but there's a lot more to the OS than it. It usually cuts boot times in half, if not more, doesn't hog your RAM, loads web pages faster and much more. Were it not for the Aero interface, a lot of computers that the advisor turned away, would be running Windows 7. Back in late spring or early summer, Microsoft sent me an email promoting Windows 7, with prices starting around $49 to $59, provided I had a legal copy of Windows installed. I ran the advisor and turned it down, not realizing everything about Aero. Had the advisor reported it would run, but with less function, I would have bought as many as I could with the promotion, keeping 4 for myself, and selling the rest on eBay. Microsoft probably would have sold 25 to 35% more copies this way, too.

Had another system, a Dell Optiplex GX270 (P4 2.4Ghz, 1.5Gb ram, 128mb AGP video), that I had 7x86 on. Again ran fine just no Aero. Mobo died on it. Have a new Biostar P4M900-M4 socket 478 board coming and will use the Optiplex parts to make another system. 7 x86 should be fine on it.

My daughter is currently borrowing my old Toshiba laptop (Celeron 1Ghz, 768mb). May just try to run 7 x86 on it just to see if it works.

Sam

Go for it! Another member here ran Win 7 on 512MB RAM, although to be honest, he was doing it to prove a point. That's what I was doing with my Latitude C640. I didn't really need Win 7 on it. I did it because I was told that I couldn't. That fires me up. But the lady next door gave me the OS, so I had no money tied up in it. I help her a lot, I was cleaning her PC, and among the ton of dust was a Win 7 Home Premium. She runs XP Pro. I told her I would install it for her, but she refused, and told me to make good use of it. Some would say I made a piss poor choice as to how I used it, but it works fine. Boots up over twice as fast. And when I'm running it, the laptop doesn't get so hot as it does with Win 2K. Until that point, I never realized that an OS could make a computer hot. Especially being that the laptop was built to run Win 2K. But if you do decide to run it on the Toshiba, make a free trip to Driver Max, the program scans your system, and shows all drivers that need updating or missing. For free, you can download two drivers a day. For a few bucks, you can download unlimited drivers. You pay a price for how long you want the service. But you can upgrade every driver on every computer in the house for the price. Just a recommendation, I needed it, too.

I have not voted as I see no point. The answer is to run the compatability tool and see what is needed if anything to make Windows 7 run.

As C_C said, basically it boils down to the graphics card.

If you can't run the Aero interface, to me it's not worth it.

It is amazing though to see how many of the older graphics cards will run Aero.