TRUE minimum spec for Win 7

50Twuncle

I have been asked to deal with an ancient Gateway Laptop (Semperon 3400+, 512Mb RAM) - Currently running Vista - being delivered to me, this afternoon - I had planned on updating to Win 7 / 32 - But now am unsure whether it has enough RAM ?
I believe that I can add another 1Gb RAM (I has 512Mb hard wired) - but see that an even lower spec laptop has sucessfully been built (http://www.computerworld.com/article/2526658/operating-systems/windows-7--how-low-can-you-go-.html)
Can someone please confirm whether 512Mb RAM will be enough to (at least) install Win 7 on - or whether the pre-check will prevent this ?
The alternative is to leave it on Vista and just clean it up ...

Le_Kirk

When I was contemplating doing something similar (XP to 7) I used the Windows 7 upgrade advisor. It checks the PC/laptop and tells you what you need to change.

50Twuncle

Le_Kirk wrote: »

When I was contemplating doing something similar (XP to 7) I used the Windows 7 upgrade advisor. It checks the PC/laptop and tells you what you need to change.

According to MS - The minimum RAM required for 7 32 is 1Gb and a dual core processor is recommended - but are these mandatory ?

bengalknights

50Twuncle wrote: »

According to MS - The minimum RAM required for 7 32 is 1Gb and a dual core processor is recommended - but are these mandatory ?

Are they mandatory no, but more ram will mean you can actually use windows properly.

The processor wont be much of a issue as most programs can get by on single core.

kwikbreaks

Win 7 ran on netbooks which as new were limited to 1GB and only had Atom processors. I had a couple but bumped the RAM to 2GB on one although the other managed on 1.5GB. It all boils down to how sluggish is acceptable.

With an SSD and a couple of GB of memory that machine may well fly but I wouldn't spend money to get it that far - I'd only fit more hardware if I already had it because it would cost more new than that machine is worth. Otherwise I'd look to a lightweight Linux install.

I_have_spoken

>I have been asked to deal with an ancient Gateway Laptop<

Send for recycling!

WAYT

50Twuncle wrote: »

I have been asked to deal with an ancient Gateway Laptop (Semperon 3400+, 512Mb RAM) - Currently running Vista - being delivered to me, this afternoon - I had planned on updating to Win 7 / 32 - But now am unsure whether it has enough RAM ?
I believe that I can add another 1Gb RAM (I has 512Mb hard wired) - but see that an even lower spec laptop has sucessfully been built (http://www.computerworld.com/article/2526658/operating-systems/windows-7--how-low-can-you-go-.html)
Can someone please confirm whether 512Mb RAM will be enough to (at least) install Win 7 on - or whether the pre-check will prevent this ?
The alternative is to leave it on Vista and just clean it up ...

That thing uses the PATA interface. Forget about it.

Britishboy, on another thread, is threatening to dispose of an old Inspiron 1545 with an Intel Pentium Processor T4200 and 2GB of RAM. Al;l you will need is a new HDD if you manage to prevent him from taking a hammer to it.

Then you can set it up for the poor sod who might be still trying to utilise a Gateway ML3108B with 512MB. :eek:

50Twuncle

OK Installed 7 premium on the 512Mb laptop - which is extremely slow - it only has an 80Gb HDD too - so life is going to be fun ....
What (free) antivirus is going to be suitable (low resources remember ....) ?

esuhl

50Twuncle wrote: »

OK Installed 7 premium on the 512Mb laptop - which is extremely slow - it only has an 80Gb HDD too - so life is going to be fun ....
What (free) antivirus is going to be suitable (low resources remember ....) ?

In my experience Avira is the lightest mainstream free antivirus.

MalwareBytes Pro (£30/yr) has antivirus-like features, and is a lot lighter than a traditional antivirus. Not free, nor technically an antivirus, but it's very lightweight.

grumpycrab

I_have_spoken wrote: »

>I have been asked to deal with an ancient Gateway Laptop<

Send for recycling!

Or open a museum?

onomatopoeia99

50Twuncle wrote: »

OK Installed 7 premium on the 512Mb laptop - which is extremely slow - it only has an 80Gb HDD too - so life is going to be fun ....

With your 25 years of proper IT experience, you have been through and disabled all unecessary services that auto start by default haven't you?

One can get Windows 7 / 32 to run with a base memory requirement of about 180MB with a bit of care, which would leave over 300MB for applications.