Windows 7 on an older computer.

My mom is using an older Dell. It is one of the slimline models, so I did what I could with it.

i845G motherboard
Pentium 4 2.66 GHz (Northwood)
1.125 PC2100 DDR SDRAM
128MB Geforce FX5200 PCI

The motherboard would probably run a 3.06GHz P4C, but I don't know that it meets the higher TDP required by that CPU. I don't want to blow the MOSFETs or something. The BIOS also lacks the ability to enable HT. Can't put a better GPU both because the PC lacks a PCIE/AGP slot and because it has only a 180W PSU.

Windows 7 runs pretty well. Aero is functional with no glitches. I do, however, find that Adobe Flash content generally causes the computer to have trouble.

I've heard Windows 7 can be crippled by only 1GB of RAM, but I don't know how true that is. I used to run an Athlon 64 X2 4000+ and Phenom X4 9750 on 1GB of RAM, and they worked fine; they had significantly higher memory bandwidth and were far superior CPUs, though.

Is it possible to make this PC run any better than it does? It IS ten years old, so the fact it runs Windows 7 remotely well is amazing.

Actually, Windows 7's "minimum" requirement of 1GB of RAM is a complete fabrication. The OS will run with far less. As I said, 1GB of RAM with both an Athlon 64 X2 and Phenom X4 worked perfectly well.

DDR SDRAM prices aren't amazingly cheap compared to DDR2/3 prices, either. $30 for 1GB isn't bad, but it isn't great either.

Do you really believe the glass effects are to blame? I was under the impression that Aero was entirely GPU accelerated and deloaded the CPU.

Hm. I've only got 271MB shared VRAM. Is there any way to change this setting? Is it proportional to your amount of total system RAM?

So far, what I'm seeing is this:
Aero off resorts in graphics loading very awkwardly; they literally load from the top of the monitor to the bottom as programs/windows open.
Aero on/transparency off does not do this.
Aero on/transparency on shows no obvious performance loss from transparency off.

Maybe I should just find a cheap stick of RAM on Ebay.

Well, I should've done my homework before I dumped that P4 2.66 in there. Apparently Dell just failed to update their documentation as newer CPUs came out.

The board should support any CPU with a CPUID of 0F27h, meaning the 3.06 GHz P4 can run in there. I don't know if it falls within the TDP limits of the board, though. The 2.8 model certainly would, however.

I'll probably pop in a second 1 GB stick and a 3.06 in there. Probably a $10 upgrade, overall.

If you have spare cash you can bump the RAM to 2 GB or more & also add a HD4650 AGP 8x graphics card.

This will enable HD decoding & also accelerate flash content.

There's absolutely no way I could put a better GPU in. The PC only has PCI slots, and the PSU is only 180W. It wouldn't even run an 8400GS.