A few questions about Windows7 on an..."older" system

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nvusgt

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Well I built my system around Xmas '06...ya dated I know. Since then I've been out of the hardware and HardForum circle for quite some time. Please bare with me.

So it seems both my HDD's have died, neither are recognized in my PC nor in an external setup for data retrieval. This brings me to my questions and hopefully a low cost upgrade to an old system.

1. Will my system support (details in sig below) Windows 7?
2. What, if anything should be upgraded?
3. What's the concensus on putting Windows 7 on an SSD? The recommended size of said SSD?

Last thing, my budget is very tight, I'd say enough for an SSD and that's about it. I'm really hoping that the rest of my system is enough to support the jump to Windows7.

Thanks to anyone for any info, I greatly appreciate it.

nvusgt
 
You could use more RAM if you're going to be running games. Win7 runs better on 2GB than Vista did, and I have a friend who gamed on 2GB/7. That system as it is, however, will be absolutely fine running Windows 7 as-is.

30-60GB SSD (if you're just throwing the OS on and a game or two). 120GB if you have a lot of stuff to throw there.
 
WindowsXP, is what was loaded on there before the HD's died.

Also no gaming will be done. Back in '06 I did built this system for some light gaming but have since resorted to my consoles for any games. Don't ask me why I built it using what I did if I wasn't a big gamer, cause I couldn't tell you. Guess I got caught up in the building of my first rig and wanted it to "compete" with the [H]ardcore here at the forums.

What I've been wanting to do actually is sell the HUGE case for something smaller and sort of turn it into an HTPC. I'll mainly use it to surf the web and watch movies. So no need for a big hard drive in the PC, we have an external for that. I have a smaller HD I'm hoping to put in there to store any programs needed, ie. VLC, any spyware progs and the like. Thought about an SSD because I hate boot up/shutdown times.

So ya, thanks for the info and any more would be welcome.
 
it'll run windows 7 just fine.

I have a copy of win7 32bit running on an old Dell laptop and it runs beautifully. Intel C2D CPU, 2GB DDR2 and standard 5200 RPM laptop drive.


If you're on a tight budget, I'd just go with an inexpensive 7200 RPM mechanical drive. They still do a good job and you'll get a lot more storage space for your money. SSD's are awesome, but unless you have a secondary HDD for data storage, you'll probably regret it (unless you have the cash for a 128-256GB SSD)
 
I have installed W7 on 2004 Athlon XP and it runs just fine+games from its time and aero working. You will be ok.
 
You're system is far beyond anything that won't run 7 properly. I would go to 4GB of ram though but 2GB will get you started.
 
This is exactly why I love this forum. Quick, I mean really quick repsonses.

Thanks guys.

Since the build, this new stuff thats hit the market is leaps and bounds ahead of mine so much so it's not even funny. Makes me think my rig is getting really outdated. Eh, I suppose that's how we roll in this tech world.
 
I ran Windows 7 for quite awhile on:

e6750 // 2gb DDR 800 // eVGA 8800 GT // 1TB WD Green HDD

and played quite a few games on it (WoW, Oblivion, MW2, BF BC2, Metro 2033, and other newer games); the OS ran fine and games ran fine for the most part at similar settings as in Windows XP.

I recently upgraded my ram to 4gb and it's made a pretty considerable difference in overall performance, as expected.
 
Ok so a decent HDD rather than an SSD, that way I could opt for an additional 2gigs of ram to help it run a bit better? Stupid question but could I get just 1gig of ram to make a total of 3? Or is that weird and more common to stick with even number of gigs.

If that's the case given my Buffalo Stix, what Ram and a good 7200 HDD would you recommend?
 
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nvusgt said:
Ok so a decent HDD rather than an SSD, that way I could opt for an additional 2gigs of ram to help it run a bit better?

If that's the case given my Buffalo Stix, what other Ram and a good 7200 HDD would you recommend?
Click to expand...

Just get the exact same ram that you already have... that way you wont run into possible compatibility issues or anything like that. If you're looking to replace it, however, I've always been a fan of G.Skill.

For a HDD, that depends on how much you want to spend. I'd, personally, go with a Western Digital Caviar drive. You can get a 1TB on newegg for around $70.00
 
Shite! The Egg doesn't have any Buffalo Firestix....

As for HD and RAM I would like to stay as low as possible without sacrificing quality. I guess I'm not sure which to go with, either SSD + HD or HD + RAM...
 
If all you are doing is surfing and watching movies on it, there is really no reason to get an SSD - they are very fast, but you aren't doing anything to really use/notice the speed, particularly if you are on a budget. I would just get a WD Caviar Green drive (low power, so you could go with less cooling for HTPC use) and then maybe some RAM (although to be honest, my wife's machine is similar to what you have and it runs Win 7 fine with 2GB).
 
Awesome info thanks.

I'll stick with a high gig green HD for now and if it looks like the OS may need a bump I'll look into some ram.
 
Acer_Sheep said:
I have installed W7 on 2004 Athlon XP and it runs just fine+games from its time and aero working. You will be ok.
Click to expand...

What about drivers for that Athlon system? I still have an old Athlon dual CPU system that I just use for "scratching around."
 
you could always just install Win7 on the machine, don't put in a CDKEY and get the 30 days to figure out how well its going to or not going to work.
 
System is fine to run 7, however, if you plan on running 4gb of ram you will need the 64bit version of win7, 32bit will still only allow 3.5gb of usable memory.
 
eViL_M@LuM said:
System is fine to run 7, however, if you plan on running 4gb of ram you will need the 64bit version of win7, 32bit will still only allow 3.5gb of usable memory.
Click to expand...

Whoa. You had me going for a bit, then I woke up and remembered that this is a 32-bit system. :p
 
I'm writing this on a C2D E4500 with 2gb ram, a 8600 GT and 1tb + 320 gb Hdds

Window 7 runs fine, since you are not doing gaming then I see no need to go 4gb.

I also have an athlon64 with 1gb and windows 7 runs quite well for web surfing and movie watching. Flash based games are slow, but they run the same on a similar rig with XP.
 
nvusgt said:
Well I built my system around Xmas '06...ya dated I know. Since then I've been out of the hardware and HardForum circle for quite some time. Please bare with me.

So it seems both my HDD's have died, neither are recognized in my PC nor in an external setup for data retrieval. This brings me to my questions and hopefully a low cost upgrade to an old system.

1. Will my system support (details in sig below) Windows 7?
2. What, if anything should be upgraded?
3. What's the concensus on putting Windows 7 on an SSD? The recommended size of said SSD?

Last thing, my budget is very tight, I'd say enough for an SSD and that's about it. I'm really hoping that the rest of my system is enough to support the jump to Windows7.

Thanks to anyone for any info, I greatly appreciate it.

nvusgt
Click to expand...

For 1 and 2. I'm actually running Windows 7 on the specs below. It works okay for me.
 
Windows 7 will run fine on your system. It would help to have more RAM, but even with only 2gb it should run fine. I've ran Windows 7 Ultimate on my netbook with a N280 and 2gb of RAM. I run Windows 7 Ultimate on all the systems in my signature.
 
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