Is there a reason people assume Windows 7 is hardware-heavy?

I've put Windows 7 on two older PCs:

P4A (533 MHz FSB Prescott, Socket 478) 2.8 GHz, Geforce FX5200, 768 MB RAM
Celeron (400 MHz FSB Willamette) 1.7 GHz, Integrated Graphics, 1.125 MB RAM

The former has absolutely no problems, even if Aero is running. I'm sure serious multitasking could give it trouble, but it's fine otherwise.

The second runs well with all of the eye canding disabled. The integrated graphics, unfortunately, push the processor a bit further than it would like to go. I'd put a dedicated PCI GPU in it if I knew one with low power requirements. I tried to put a PCI 8400 GS (or something of the sort; cheap nVidia PCI card), and it would POST, but failed to boot.

I've installed Windows 7 on a Duron 800M with 512 MB RAM and integrated video before, but I didn't attempt to run it. I have a feeling that it would run fine if it wasn't for the integrated video.

Why do people assume Windows 7 is very demanding? Anyone have any ideas on a low-power video card for the Celeron?

probably because it is windows..... xp was demanding but no where near as bad as the suck hole known as vista. vista made me change to mac, i couldnt find a battery for my last apple notebook so ended up with this compaq cq56-115dx with windows 7 and windows 7 is a huge improvement, its still not apple quality yet.

outside of having to run an antivirus/antimalware program and having to install a huge amount of microsoft updates and updating the antivirus software windows 7 is a really good os, all microsoft has to do is eliminate the need for av software like mac and serioulsy cut down the number of updates and it may just be perfect. never ran an av on my mac and never had issues...

WolfSoul said:

Vista was hardwareheavy.. 7 isn't, Ive seen plenty of people say they installed it on old hardware and it worked well

Well ...you have to define "worked well" .....?
Sure, wds7 can run on old ..slow system ..like celeron+integratedGPU ...
but to me ..it's slow like HELL .....i mean ...HELL .....
You need at least something like Intel Core2Duo ...to see it fly ...

computerboy2063 said:

outside of having to run an antivirus/antimalware program and having to install a huge amount of microsoft updates and updating the antivirus software windows 7 is a really good os, all microsoft has to do is eliminate the need for av software like mac and serioulsy cut down the number of updates and it may just be perfect. never ran an av on my mac and never had issues...

The need for AV has nothing to do with paltform and everything to do with mainstream use. Quite simply, the vast majority of computer users run Windows. Why bother writing viruses for Mac, etc. when Windows gives you worldwide coverage?

James