Will this laptop run Windows 7 or XP better?

[Windows i7 920]

1 GB of RAM
256 MB ATI Mobility Graphics (I dont know the model, other than it isnt an HD)
1.6 GHz Intel Core Duo

I'm wondering if a PC with specs like that is better off with XP (which it has currently) or to put Windows 7 x86 on it... This laptop is from the "Vista capable" generation

 

[logicearth]

As long as you have Aero it should run perfectly fine. I run Windows 7 on a netbook with a crappier CPU and graphics then that. And yes, you want to be running with Aero on, not Basic or Classic. You want the pretty glass window frames.

 

[ZaLiTH]

1 GB of RAM
256 MB ATI Mobility Graphics (I dont know the model, other than it isnt an HD)
1.6 GHz Intel Core Duo

I'm wondering if a PC with specs like that is better off with XP (which it has currently) or to put Windows 7 x86 on it... This laptop is from the "Vista capable" generation

Considering Windows 7 was built off Vista's code base (check OS version numbers: 6.0 vs 6.1), and that 7 is way better optimised than Vista was... I'd say anything that runs Vista in any remotely decent way will run better with 7.

Edit: By the way, just an interesting note: My mom is running Windows 7 Home Premium on a Celeron 1.6 desktop with 1GB DDR2-667 and on-board Intel graphics (not sure what model). Aero works, so it's not an ancient graphics chipset, but it stutters a bit, so Aero is disabled. Overall, the system is a bit sluggish on startup and when launching programs, but it's still very usable as far as a light home DTP machine goes.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
nearly all laptops - even netbooks will probably run W7 better than XP -- assuming you have enough HDD space. CPU issues aren't normally a problem with just booting the system.

However for running apps like Excel etc one would assume that you will need sufficient cpu power to run the application.

The problem you might find in running W7 on an old computer is that because the OS response time is likely to be better you will really notice any delay in waiting for slow disks to finish their I/O. Slow disks can kill any system including world beating CRAY super computers.

You are less likely to notice delay from slow disks on a slowish computer running XP as the wait won't be so noticeable compared with the wait in the OS itself.

"You pays your money and makes your choice".

I'd tend to go for W7 --it should work --assuming you have a minimum 512MB RAM and 40 GB disk space.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[gregrocker]

1 GB of RAM
256 MB ATI Mobility Graphics (I dont know the model, other than it isnt an HD)
1.6 GHz Intel Core Duo

I'm wondering if a PC with specs like that is better off with XP (which it has currently) or to put Windows 7 x86 on it... This laptop is from the "Vista capable" generation

Considering Windows 7 was built off Vista's code base (check OS version numbers: 6.0 vs 6.1), and that 7 is way better optimised than Vista was... I'd say anything that runs Vista in any remotely decent way will run better with 7.

Edit: By the way, just an interesting note: My mom is running Windows 7 Home Premium on a Celeron 1.6 desktop with 1GB DDR2-667 and on-board Intel graphics (not sure what model). Aero works, so it's not an ancient graphics chipset, but it stutters a bit, so Aero is disabled. Overall, the system is a bit sluggish on startup and when launching programs, but it's still very usable as far as a light home DTP machine goes.

My beach laptop has the same Celeron with a gig RAM and older Intel chipset that won't support Aero which is fine for what I use it for. If it's sluggish I'd run a clean boot, troubleshoot via the logs and other system resources to get better performance: Troubleshooting Win7

Core Duo is better than Vista capable. My advice for the OP is to run the
Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to get a heads up on any issues upfront, then try Win7 for 30 days before activation is required, during which time you can tune it up using the same tips given above.