XP or 7 ?

[aeronauticsrock]

Im reformatting a computer for someone- its pretty sick and pretty old.

Intel Celeron M 1.4GHz
1GB RAM

Im leaning towards putting XP on it. It needs to be ROCK SOLID STABLE.

Would I see way better performance with 7 on such a bad computer to start with? What do you think?

Thanks!

 

[Noles]

I'm assuming this person just needs a computer to do some basic stuff, right? If that's the case, I would just go with what has been around and stable - Windows XP. Performance wise, I would think XP would get better results.

 

[Mark]

I think Windows 7 would be faster but as far as more stable, well probably not, after all it is still a BETA and it will expire after a year and he will need to do a fresh install after that.

 

[aeronauticsrock]

Yep. Browsing, office, itunes. Thats about it.

Next question- is there any way I can legally get XP? The comp is already liscensed to run it- is has a product key on the bottom. But no disk.

What should I do?

 

[Mark]

Not legally but you can get it on torrent sites, but I would say getting one without some malware or a virus or at the least had some sort of activation crack would be slim to none.

 

[aeronauticsrock]

suck. I have to do this all on the up and up.

I had heard you could DL XP from MS (a while ago).. no more I suppose.

 

[swarfega]

I would certainly think about giving Windows 7 a try, they might find it easier to navigate. But do bare in mind that they will need to purchase it once the beta runs out. So they might seek your advice again for that.

In my oppinion Windows 7 is just as fast and stable as XP was but without the fisherprice interface.

 

[Joe]

I agree as well. Give 7 a try. The RC won't expire until March 2010, giving you plenty of time to test drive it.

 

[RST101]

Also I find 7 to be just as stable as xp.

 

[Shak 10]

I recommend to use the Win7 RC it won't run out till next year its worth having a play. Just as stable as Xp to me

 

[Zanarkand]

Win7 is stable enough for most common applications but there can be any problem anytime with any application. If your friend likes to try Windows 7 and play with it, and won't use it for programming or something serious then go with 7. Other ways XP is still the most compatible, software and hardware is still a lot more reliable on XP than 7 I think, especially in an older PC like that. If he had 2 or more gigabytes of ram then 7 is a lot better for speed.

 

[Asgaro]

Im reformatting a computer for someone- its pretty sick and pretty old.

Intel Celeron M 1.4GHz
1GB RAM

Im leaning towards putting XP on it. It needs to be ROCK SOLID STABLE.

Would I see way better performance with 7 on such a bad computer to start with? What do you think?

Thanks!

You should know that asking this on a Windows 7 forum the chance of the answer being Windows 7 would be rather high...

 

[Iknewitwin7]

suck. I have to do this all on the up and up.

I had heard you could DL XP from MS (a while ago).. no more I suppose.

If you have a Key, it will be legit. Use a retail version of XP, and use the Key.

 

[LarryLaser]

Yep. Browsing, office, itunes. Thats about it.

Next question- is there any way I can legally get XP? The comp is already liscensed to run it- is has a product key on the bottom. But no disk.

What should I do?

Hey aeronauticsrock
Yes you can get the Windows XP Home or Pro CD on about a dozen web sites, I have bought copies over the years and the cheapest cost me $6.95.
All of these I am talking about are not with a License, just the CD only.
Last month I bought another Windows XP Pro x64 with a license for $64.95 for another Computer I built. Also If you have a legal license you can download a copy from torrent or some sites without any legal issue. Even Microsoft use to let you download it from their site, without any registration till after you installed and activated it. Today you can still download copies of servers (from 2003-2008) and Vista and MS Virtual PC and Server 2007 from MS and ofcourse Win 7 for a little while yet.

And I do recommend that you use Windows XP on that box. No matter what others say about Windows 7, it is still in beta mode, and it is not stable for any operations you use. I am Still debugging it on a regular basis on 6 different computers (old and new, x86 and x64) and still sending MS reports about any and all crashes and instability issues for hardware and software.

Hope this helps.
Larry

 

[PhreePhly]

Yep. Browsing, office, itunes. Thats about it.

Next question- is there any way I can legally get XP? The comp is already liscensed to run it- is has a product key on the bottom. But no disk.

What should I do?

You need to find out if it is OEM or Retail XP. In other words, was the OS on the computer when your friend bought it? Is it a name brand? OEM keys won't work on Retail and vice versa. If it is OEM, MS usually will sell a new CD for around $10.00 including shipping. If you torrent a copy, and use the key on the PC, your close enough to legit. The problem is knowing that you have an unaltered iso.

PhreePhly

 

[DocBrown]

Hello aeronauticsrock

I put win7 x32 on an old Pentium II 600mhz computer. It runs, but you can't do a whole lot of stuff at one time. So with just 1gb ram I would stick with XP for you main OS, or increase to 2gb ram if your MB will recognize it for win7 x32.

Just my 2 cents worth of opinion, from years of testing puters.