# Windows 7 on old 478 P4?



## Kaylik

Ok so heres the deal I decided to rebuild my old PC and add some newer pieces to it, and well XP is fine its a lil outdated and i would like to install windows 7.

Here is my build at the moment

CPU: Pentium 4 2.8GHz 533FSB
Ram: 1.5GB DDR266 (1 of my sticks is two clocks lower  )
VGA: ATI HD Radeon 4650 1GB (obviously AGP )
HDD: 2x 80GB 7200RPM IDEs 
MoBo: Asus P4P800 VM

Now I plan on buying (only if i can run 7) 2x 1GB of ram to replace the 2x 256s, giving me 3GBs (32bit can only address 3.5 and i want dual channel so ill stay with 3), and I do have a P4 HT 3.2GHz 800FSB at my dads I just need to get it out of storage so I plan on placing that in. I'm also buying a 500GB 7200RPM SATA2 drive (the mobo is SATA1 but I'd rather just have a good drive for later in the future). now I plan using this computer as a file/media server and im having trouble getting vista to allow my XP machine access to the shared 2TB Hard Drive in the vista machine so I want to install Windows 7 the graphics are there to play guild wars, and a few other games in the same resource area. so what do you think? 

the Final outcome would look like this
CPU: P4 HT 3.2GHz 800FSB
RAM: 3GB DDR400
HDD:500GB 7200RPM SATA1
       80GB  7200RPM IDE (To hold random stuff)
VGA: ATI HD Radeon 4650
MoBo: Asus P4P800 VM

it would only cost me 120 bucks on on the 3 upgrades which is nothing


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## Kaylik

?? any suggestions please would be nice.


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## lucasbytegenius

Looks like you're all set:
Windows 7 requires a 1 GHz CPU, you will have a 3.2 GHz.
Windows 7 requires 1 GB of RAM, you will have 3 GB.
Windows 7 requires 16 GB HD space, you have 500 GB.
Windows 7 requires 128 MB min. of graphics memory for Aero, you have 1 GB.

Not all hardware will work for 7, so I would test-install it on another HD or partition before keeping it. Also note that you can't upgrade XP to 7, no matter what others say.


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## Intel_man

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/get/upgrade-advisor.aspx


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## Kaylik

ok well i dont believe in the minimum requirements for operating systems, they are what is needed to run the OS thats it. Maybe 1 window, example windows xp only needs a pentium 2 (Pentium equivalent 233Mhz cpu) with 128mb of ram (windows 98 computers tended to have that) and well its a terrible experience.

I decided to dual boot it with my current hardware and the OS seems to be snappy with a 3.8 rating due to the processor which is a single thread so that would be obvious on the low score, as windows 7 likes dual core cpus cause its multi-treaded orientated, so i think with the HT cpu even tho its still a single thread the HT should be able to still do something more efficient for anyone that would like to know.

conclusion: windows 7 runs decent on older hardware that Vista would otherwise set to flames.


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## Shane

Windows 7 will run fine on that system,i ran windows 7 home premium on an old Socket A AMD Sempron 2800+ 2Ghz system with 1gb of ram,9600 pro graphics card...to my amazement it ran quite well,so your beefed up system should run it no problems.


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## tremmor

i had xp and upgraded to windows 7 pro with no problem. 
here the link how from microsoft. (XP to windows 7)
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/help/upgrading-from-windows-xp-to-windows-7


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## fastdude

Go for it, dude. You show Micro$oft that outdated machines can still run their precious new OS's


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## lucasbytegenius

tremmor said:


> i had xp and upgraded to windows 7 pro with no problem.
> here the link how from microsoft. (XP to windows 7)
> http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/help/upgrading-from-windows-xp-to-windows-7



Here's the deal, dude: 
*YOU CAN'T UPGRADE XP TO 7.*
What that article is talking about is a clean installation, where you transfer your files afterward. Upgrades do not require such things.


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## tremmor

All right. that may be. I thought you were talking about if ya did not have Vista you could not install 7. Never the less. i did a full format 1st. then installed all file backups afterward. I would want a full install and never a upgrade. a low level format for me and clean install and its done.


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## lucasbytegenius

Yep, exactly. The only benefit of having Vista is that it upgrades ok to 7.


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## sound computers

I have windows 7 on a very similarly equipped machine in the guest room. it works fine. My graphics card is older than yours (also agp) and it gave a wee bit of install problem. I had to install the drivers in compatibility mode for xp sp2. I am not 100% sure, but maybe not all version of 7 can do that. (i may be mistaken) even after that, the OS would occasionally warn me that things weren't all 100% compatible. good luck!


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## lucasbytegenius

I love the way Irishmen speak. "wee". Wish I was Irish purely for the accent.


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## fohawk17

Windows 7 should wipe vista off the planet..... This os is what vista wishes it could grow up to be.  Much better hardware useage.  Go for it


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## G25r8cer

Yup should run just fine with the exception of Aero not working


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## Drenlin

Why wouldn't Aero work with that? It needs DX9, right? The 4650 is 10.1...

You could actually do a bit of gaming on that system. If you like multiplayer, Half Life: Deathmatch, Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, and Counter Strike: Source would run well, and keep you occupied for months, if not years. Throw Garry's Mod in, and you've got some HUGE time-wasting potential.


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## Gareth

I ran Windows 7 on a Pentium 3 850MHz with 512MB of RAM and it run fantastic, so it will run good on that system too


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## G25r8cer

Drenlin said:


> Why wouldn't Aero work with that? It needs DX9, right? The 4650 is 10.1...



I stand corrected 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Aero


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## Shane

G25r8cer said:


> No Aero needs dx11 as Win Vista/7 came with it



Aero does not require DX11,I had Aero on Windows 7 on my old socket A system which has a old school Radeon 9600 Pro graphics card (DX9) . 

Worked just fine right out of the box.


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