Should I also upgrade my laptop to windows 7?

Bluehippo · 29 Jul 2010

I recently upgraded my dell desktop from 2005 to windows 7. It works great. I want to do the same with my laptop, but I am worried the laptop is not good enough for windows 7. According to this site: PassMark - CPU Benchmarks - List of Benchmarked CPUs the laptop's processor is actually better than the desktop's but I'm still not sure. Here are the specs of my laptop:

Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo T5500 @ 1.6ghz
512 mb DDR2 ram
ATI Mobility Radeon X1300
80 gb hard drive

Does anyone have a similar laptop that is running windows 7 good?

Jonathan_King · 29 Jul 2010

The true test is the Upgrade Advisor. Run this and it will tell you.

Free Download PC Upgrade Advisor Windows 7 Hardware Programs Issues

Bluehippo · 30 Jul 2010

Yeah I just finished running that. I need more ram. I think I should just stick with installing xp. But file sharing is gonna be frustrating if I dont install windows 7.

Jonathan_King · 30 Jul 2010

File sharing from 7 to XP is the same as from XP to XP. 7 to 7 only makes things easier.

EPurpl3 · 30 Jul 2010

Ram is the cheapest hardware component of a computer (specially laptops) so you should upgrade and buy 2 gb ram. Very easy.

Bluehippo · 30 Jul 2010

Jonathan_King said:

File sharing from 7 to XP is the same as from XP to XP. 7 to 7 only makes things easier.

Yeah that's what I meant. I don't like to use XP for file sharing. Another thing I just discovered about XP that I don't like is drivers.

Also frustrating.

EPurpl3 said:

Ram is the cheapest hardware component of a computer (specially laptops) so you should upgrade and buy 2 gb ram. Very easy.

Good idea. I might do that someday. I just installed XP though.

bobtran · 31 Jul 2010

To bad you went with XP, with some additional ram that machine would have run Win7 really well.

I have Win7 on and old P4 Dell C640 with 2gb ram and it runs great although I can't get Areo with the graphics card. True transparency will give you transparent windows if you fee the need for older graphics cards.

I've even run it on a really old P3 Dell C600 with 512 ram and it ran better than XP.

As stated above.....Ram is the cheapest upgrade you can do.....just do it and even your XP laptop will run much better.

unifex · 31 Jul 2010

Well, he's talking about a laptop, right? I also have an old laptop with 512 MB RAM, but there are no empty slots there, there is no way to upgrade the memory. So that one will live out the remainder of its days running XP.

mitchell65 · 31 Jul 2010

RAM is certainly the cheapest way to upgrade a PC but one should always make sure the Motherboard is capable of taking more RAW. If you have two slots in a laptop with a total of 512Mb of Ram and the motherboard will take say 1Gb then the only way is to buy two 512kb modules and replace the originals.

whs · 31 Jul 2010

Just note that you will not be able to use aero peek with the X1300.