Sometimes you can teach a dog new tricks....

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  1. Posts : 19,383
    Windows 10 Pro x64 ; Xubuntu x64
       #1

    Sometimes you can teach a dog new tricks....


    I decided to amuse myself today and see if I could install Windows 7 Home Premium on my old PC.

    Its a Dell Dimension 4600 running XP that I bought in Ireland in 2004, and according to Speccy it contains:

    Intel Pentium 4 Prescott 2.4 GHz
    - Socket 478
    - L1 data cache 16 KBytes
    - L1 trace cache 12 Kuops
    - L2 unified cache 1024 KBytes
    1.25GB Dual Channel DDR @ 166MHz (2.5-3-3-7) RAM
    Dell Computer Corp. 0F4491 (Microprocessor) Motherboard
    - Dell Computer BIOS Ver. A10 17/05/2004
    - Chipset Model i865P/PE/G/i848P
    - Chipset Revision A2
    - Southbridge Vendor Intel
    - Southbridge Model 82801EB (ICH5)
    - Southbridge Revision 02
    256MB RADEON X800 XT Platinum Edition Graphics Card
    - BIOS Version 113-AA15802-101
    - ROPs 16
    - Shaders Vertex 16/Pixel 16
    - Memory Type GDDR3
    - Memory 256 MB
    - Bus Width 256 Bit
    117GB Seagate PATA hard drive
    - Manufacturer Seagate
    - Form Factor 3.5"
    - Heads 16
    - Cylinders 16383
    - Device type Fixed
    - ATA Standard ATA/ATAPI-6
    - 48-bit LBA Supported
    - Serial Number 3JT46TY5
    - Interface PATA
    - Capacity 117GB
    - Real size 120,000,000,000 bytes
    - RAID Type None
    - S.M.A.R.T
    01 Read Error Rate 068 (063 worst) Data 000CEC5276
    03 Spin-Up Time 097 (096) Data 0000000000
    04 Start/Stop Count 100 (100) Data 0000000006
    05 Reallocated Sectors Count 100 (100) Data 0000000000
    07 Seek Error Rate 087 (060) Data 0022D9967B
    09 Power-On Hours (POH) 086 (086) Data 0000003347
    0A Spin Retry Count 100 (100) Data 0000000000
    0C Device Power Cycle Count 098 (098) Data 0000000AAE
    C2 Temperature 031 (048) Data 000000001F
    C3 Hardware ECC Recovered 068 (063) Data 000CEC5276
    C5 Current Pending Sector Count 100 (100) Data 0000000000
    C6 Uncorrectable Sector Count 100 (100) Data 0000000000
    C7 UltraDMA CRC Error Count 200 (200) Data 0000000000
    C8 Write Error Rate / Multi-Zone Error Rate 100 (253) Data 0000000000
    CA Data Address Mark errors 100 (253) Data 0000000000
    Temperature 31 °C
    Temperature Range ok (less than 50 °C)
    Status Good

    Apart from the graphics card which I installed in late 2004/early 2005, everything is still the original gear, and apparently still going strong.

    Installing Windows 7 from a USB drive was a doddle (I honestly cannot think of anything easier), and, I'm pretty sure this ins't a placebo effect, but this old girl actually runs better than she did under XP. The only issue is Windows doesn't recognise the sound card (I think its a Creative Labs Live something-or-the-other), but nothing that $30 cannot sort out.

    This is the WEI - not half bad considering the old girl is 7 years old.

    Sometimes you can teach a dog new tricks....-capture.png

    Windows 7 just never ceases to amaze me - I honestly never expected this old dog to run so well with a modern OS

    Regards,
    Golden
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 11,408
    ME/XP/Vista/Win7
       #2

    Abit young.

    P3 with Windows 7
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 10,455
    Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Service Pack 1
       #3

    It runs well in VBOX and VMWare Player as well with about that WEI.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 3,371
    W10 Pro desktop, W11 laptop, W11 Pro tablet (all 64-bit)
       #4

    Yeah, it's great fun installing Win 7 on older hardware. Here's the specs of my P3:


    This machine only scores 1.0 on the WEI due to the graphics (16M video RAM!):


    Even with this low of a WEI it runs surprisingly well, at least for browsing and other lightweight tasks.

    As far as I know, everything on this machine is as it came from Dell. It has a COA sticker for Win 2000.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 968
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #5

    I gonna try that with an old presario compaq and see if we can get it working that would be something fun to do..
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 799
    Windows 8 Pro 64-bit
       #6

    I've run Win7 rather well on a laptop with a PM 1.4ghz processor, 512mb ram, and a Radeon Mobility 9000 graphics card (played some online games rather well too).

    Right now I'm running it on a laptop with a 1.7ghz PM, 1 gig of ram, and an Intel 915gm. It runs minecraft pretty well, I've noted.

    My desktop is a P4 Prescott 3.2ghz, 2gb DDR ram, and a Radeon X1650 Pro, and with some tweaking I've maxed Portal 2 on it with decent FPS.

    Windows 7 is awesome.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 19,383
    Windows 10 Pro x64 ; Xubuntu x64
    Thread Starter
       #7

    Wow! There are some real old dinosaurs running around. Yes, you too A Guy
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 53,363
    Windows 10 Home x64
       #8

    Hey! How did I get in this conversation!

    A Guy
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 19,383
    Windows 10 Pro x64 ; Xubuntu x64
    Thread Starter
       #9

    A Guy said:
    Hey! How did I get in this conversation!

    A Guy
    Oh, well the words dinosaur+old did it hahaha
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 19,383
    Windows 10 Pro x64 ; Xubuntu x64
    Thread Starter
       #10

    Golden said:
    The only issue is Windows doesn't recognise the sound card (I think its a Creative Labs Live something-or-the-other)
    Hooray for on-board sound! To heck with this Creative Labs Live SB0200 fossil.....

    On to my next education...partioning an existing drive
      My Computer


 
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