win 7 on a P4?

martinedwards

Win7 sys requirements say 1GHz processor
1GB Ram
16GB hard drive space
dirextX9 graphics.

I CURRENTLY have a P4 with 2GHz,
760MB RAM
and WIN XP

I've been told that WIN7 will chug along on a P4 even with the 2GHz

it it worth the hassle of getting some more RAM?

thanks for your wisdom!

bonzodog2

You'd probably get 2GB RAM for 15-20 euro

Capt'n Midnight

bonzodog2 wrote: »

You'd probably get 2GB RAM for 15-20 euro

depends , because the price for old ram shoots up as it gets scarce.



Back to the original question

Is it worth paying for win 7 to put on an old machine ?

P4's eat electricity, between that and the cost of license and ram and the age of the HDD and the chances that will fail because it's so old , if you have it on 24/7 then just buy a €350 laptop instead.

TBH 16GB free isn't much. You should have at least 10-15% free for optimum performance.


You can't move an OEM copy of 7 to the machine.
There is no point in putting on an upgrade as it would then be locked to the machine forever, unless the machine already has a non OEM windows license - and it almost certainly doesn't


Yes 7 can run faster than Vista, but on an old XP machine it's more of a case that it doesn't run slower. It's not going to turbo charge or inject new life into an old machine. And it won't pull a P4 up to a bargain entry level laptop.

martinedwards

OK thanks.

the reason for the tinkering, is that through work my Mrs can get Office 13 for under £10

and office 13 needs win 7 or later.

our current XP and office 03 combo often runs into "cant open this file" problems with powerpoints & word docs.

finances are tight as I'm unemployed and Herself works part time.

CptSternn

martinedwards wrote: »

OK thanks.

the reason for the tinkering, is that through work my Mrs can get Office 13 for under £10

and office 13 needs win 7 or later.

our current XP and office 03 combo often runs into "cant open this file" problems with powerpoints & word docs.

finances are tight as I'm unemployed and Herself works part time.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924074

http://office.microsoft.com/en-ie/word-help/open-a-word-2010-document-in-an-earlier-version-of-word-HA010370115.aspx

You can download free add-ons for 2003 to open files made with 2007/2010/2013.

bonzodog2

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

depends , because the price for old ram shoots up as it gets scarce.

.

Yes, generally. My estimate was based on 2 x 1GB DIMMs of DDR or DDR2 (my guess on what OP's P4 mobo has), on ebay items that actually sold, in the recent past

martinedwards

Brilliant, I'll try that first!

cheers!

Fysh

I've installed Win7 on P4-era Dell desktops and so long as the hardware requirements are met, it'll run decently enough (though you need to turn off any Aero-related stuff). Based on what you've posted you'd need a RAM upgrade and a new hard-drive - but once you've got that and a reasonable graphics card, you'd be alright.

Another option for handling the newer Office options is LibreOffice, although you may run into compatibility issues for some more complex functions. (For example some macros just won't work unless you're using the right version of Excel). But it's worth a look, particularly since it'll only cost you the download bandwidth.