Installing below the minimum requirements of Windows 7

Discussion in 'Windows 7' started by suckmyooga, Jul 28, 2009.

  1. suckmyooga

    suckmyooga MDL Junior Member

    Jun 13, 2009
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    is it possible to install windows 7 to a computer/laptop which is below the minimum requirements? My laptop is A9RP Series Celeron M440 @ 1.87 GHz 256 mb ram. Will it be slow when I install windows 7?
     
  2. Bklynempire66

    Bklynempire66 MDL Novice

    Jul 21, 2009
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    Stick to windows xp or get a new system for home basic of windows 7 minimum system requirments is 512mb
     
  3. FuzzyMaster

    FuzzyMaster MDL Member

    Jun 21, 2007
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    #3 FuzzyMaster, Jul 28, 2009
    Last edited: Jul 28, 2009
    First you have to remember that Windows7 (even with the publicized memory usage enhancements) is still the Vista kernel underneath the pretty new GUI. That means essentially that memory is one of the keys to performance.

    In your case, 256MB isn't even enough to load the OS completely. This will result in constant paging to disk for pretty well everything you do, even before you load any applications. Thus in turn means that your CPU will be constantly in use as well as your hard drive. If both of those are slow (quite likely with an older PC) this will compound to the point that you will find it almost unbearable to use.

    The W7 memory performance enhancements are most noticable (measureable) on machines with memory that was around the 'sweet' spot for Vista, between 1 & 2 GB. Machines with less memory tend to perform just as poorly on W7 as with Vista, while machines with more memory (4GB+) will perform just as fast with W7 as they did with Vista, but not perceptibly faster in most cases.

    Bottom line: Get a new machine if you really want to run W7, & go with at least 1GB but preferably 2GB or more if you can afford it.
     
  4. suckmyooga

    suckmyooga MDL Junior Member

    Jun 13, 2009
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    Thank you, Bklynempire66 and FuzzyMaster! I'll just upgrade my RAM to 1GB or 2GB.
     
  5. atifsh

    atifsh MDL Junior Member

    Jun 4, 2008
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    iv installed 7 on celeron 2.6 512 ram and radeon 9700 pro. it came out pretty well, and default it was basic but with aero themes availabe so i just clicked it and it turned to aero. memory usage was 230 mb or somthing under 300 for sure