[Twitched]

Thinking about upgrading from XP Pro SP2 32bit to Win7 Ultimate 64bit.

Right now I'm running on:

Celeron 2.2gig duel core
4 gigs of ram though 32bit only sees 3.5 of that.
On-board graphics (card blew a couple months ago and haven't gotten around to getting a new one)

lol sorry about the crappy specs This was just a budget built and only have $300 invested in it.

Let me know what you guys think, Thanks.

[Raynes]

I'd strongly suggest trying out Windows 7 before making your final decision. Run it in a VM or something if you can.

Anyway, you're going to have to upgrade to something newer eventually. I'd go with Windows 7 just to be on something newer. XP is old, and while it may be impressive, you still have to look to the future.

I say, try it out, and then go for it.

[Tom9729]

Ewwww a Celeron.

What kind of on-board graphics? What are you using this computer for?

Your money might be better spent upgrading your hardware instead.

Also note that if you're a student you can get Windows Server 2008 R2 for free (legally), which is essentially Windows 7 (there is a guide for "converting" it).

[baavgai]

Twitched, on 20 August 2010 - 07:46 AM, said:

4 gigs of ram though 32bit only sees 3.5 of that.

32bit should see all 4GB, it's beyond that ceiling you get issues.

Windows 7, while a considerable improvement over Vista, will still look like a snail on valium compared to XP. The only time Windows 7 surpasses XP in speed is when the hardware is new enough that XP can't take advantage of it.

If you have an old system, the best way to upgrade to windows 7 is when you buy a new system. It's also one of the cheapest ways to purchase windows 7.

[SpeedisaVirus]

2.2 dual core with 4gb should run 7 fine. Windows 7.

[raziel_]

baavgai, on 20 August 2010 - 03:22 PM, said:

Twitched, on 20 August 2010 - 07:46 AM, said:

4 gigs of ram though 32bit only sees 3.5 of that.

32bit should see all 4GB, it's beyond that ceiling you get issues.

Windows 7, while a considerable improvement over Vista, will still look like a snail on valium compared to XP. The only time Windows 7 surpasses XP in speed is when the hardware is new enough that XP can't take advantage of it.

If you have an old system, the best way to upgrade to windows 7 is when you buy a new system. It's also one of the cheapest ways to purchase windows 7.

XP show only 3G ram. the main reason i still have only 3GB ram

still i find that windows 7 start programs way faster then XP (Hell Vista even start them faster) but it take much more resources.

This post has been edited by NoBrain: 20 August 2010 - 08:55 AM

[tlhIn`toq]

I can say I'm very happy with Win7x64ultimate. My PC runs bare bones, then launches VMware into a Win7x64ult environment with my VS10 coding environment. I then debug into other VMware environments ranging from XP3 on up.

[AdamSpeight2008]

Don't you also get XP Mode with Windows 7?

[Twitched]

Yea I think I'll have to get Win7 and at least check it out. I have a feeling that I'll prolly like it and even if I don't I can always give or sell it to a friend.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

[baavgai]

NoBrain, on 20 August 2010 - 09:52 AM, said:

XP show only 3G ram.

Not entirely true. Rather, a 32bit operating system can address, maximum, 4GB. Some of that address domain is given to other things, like ROM (1 MB) and the hardware devices that grab it before the OS even sees it.

Video cards are big villains here. Some sport xGB RAM and have nothing onboard; they just steal it from the system.

Depending on the system, XP can have over 3.5 MB RAM free.

[raziel_]

after a little research it turns out that this was fixed with SP3 i think but in SP2 it show 3.5 max. No one say that it`s fixed ...
http://support.micro...kb;en-us;888137

This post has been edited by NoBrain: 20 August 2010 - 10:52 AM

[moopet]

If you already have one or other licensed for use on a new machine, use that.

If you need to buy one, make sure you check out whether there are drivers for Windows 7 for all of your hardware. Pretty much everything ever made works on XP, but there are still, believe it or not, things that don't and may never work on 7.

Most people don't have a good reason for using one over the other, especially on older hardware.

This post has been edited by moopet: 20 August 2010 - 11:52 AM

[WolfCoder]

Windows 7 runs much better on my tiny laptop than Windows XP, even though it's got 800Mhz a core clock speed with 1GB of RAM. If only there was one way to try a Windows OS without actually installing it to see if it works..

Software from the 90s still seems to work fine on Win7, but I think only the professional version and up tries to do so. As a programmer, you should really vista/7-spot your code so that you can keep up with the market and people can run your stuff with UAC on.

This post has been edited by WolfCoder: 20 August 2010 - 12:05 PM

[Twitched]

Thanks for the help guys, I'm now running on Win7 Ult x86. Seems to be much faster so far...though that may be because my HD was almost full before the install lol but looks go so far.

[Programmist]

I grabbed a low-spec machine a couple of years ago for use as a non-development machine. I installed Windows 7 Professional 64-bit on it and, even though I purchased it for non-work purposes, I've found it way more then enough to do heavy development on. It has 4GB DDR2 and a Pentium Dual Core T4200 2Ghz processor. I can't speak for the Celeron, but the modest T4200 has been plenty fast enough for me.