Windows 7 vs Windows 10 on low-end PC

[djdelarosa25]

32-bit or 64-bit?

 

2GB RAM

C2D E7400

NVIDIA 9400GT

[Jacktastic-Mofo]

At school I'm running MSX on a P4 with hyper threading and it works really well with 2GB's of RAM

[djdelarosa25]

At school I'm running MSX on a P4 with hyper threading and it works really well with 2GB's of RAM

Windows 10?

[TacticalCuda]

i would say Win7 for the optimisation for low end stuff

[Kirky2k15]

Be careful, I tried to install windows 10 and 8.1 on an AMD Athlon 3000+ and it wouldn't let me - eventually I figured out why - These really old CPU's just don't have the architecture and instructions sets (missing SSE2 I believe) to be able to install newer OS's Windows 7 32 bit was as far as I could get with this CPU - It's not even 64 bit compatible...

[djdelarosa25]

It is 64-bit compatible, but I'll just go with 7. Never liked 10's design anyway. 7 felt much more "PC-like" if you know what I mean.

 

P.S. 32-bit or 64-bit?

[Delicieuxz]

64 bit will consume a greater amount of RAM, and about 200 MB more at idle. At the same time, with a 32 bit system, you may not be able to run some applications that are 64 bit only.

 

Microsoft have an article on the subject: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows7/taking-the-mystery-out-of-64-bit-windows

 

If you could find another 2 GB RAM stick, I would then say it's better to go with 64 bit. If you do find another RAM stick, be careful about mixing different brands of RAM: http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2010/07/what-are-the-rules-on-mixing-two-different-types-of-ram/

[Jacktastic-Mofo]

Be careful, I tried to install windows 10 and 8.1 on an AMD Athlon 3000+ and it wouldn't let me - eventually I figured out why - These really old CPU's just don't have the architecture and instructions sets (missing SSE2 I believe) to be able to install newer OS's Windows 7 32 bit was as far as I could get with this CPU - It's not even 64 bit compatible...

I have windows 10 running on a pentium 4 with 512MB's of RAM. Don't know what you're talking about.

[mynameajeff]

Windows 10 uses less system resources than windows 7, so effectively yeah. However there may be driver complications using old hardware on windows 10.

[Kirky2k15]

I have windows 10 running on a pentium 4 with 512MB's of RAM. Don't know what you're talking about.

This:

[GoodBytes]

Correct some CPUs don't support Windows 8/10 due to lack of CPU technology that Windows 8/10 needs.

AMD CPUs on Socket 939 and older cannot run Windows 8/10.

As for the Pentium 4, only the latest Pentium 4 chips (remember Intel was using this architecture for the longest time due to lack of competition), support the needed technology for Windows 8/10. Older Pentium 4 chips aren't supported. Intel was still selling Pentium 4s (and D's, which was 2x P4's stuck together, with Intel crossing its finger it would somewhat work, unlike the true and proper implementation from AMD Athlon 64 X2 chips, and later Core 2 Duo's).