Hello MDL, The time has finally come for my mom to move away from windows xp (Thank God), but before I install windows 7 on her pc I wanted to get some advice about what version she can use (if any). She has a eMachines EZ1601 All-In-One PC. Here's the specs: Intel Atom N270 1.6 GHz Processor Intel 945GSE Express Chipset Intel GMA 950 Graphics Realtek High Definition Audio 512KB L2 Cache 1GB DDR2 RAM 160GB HD 8X DVD±RW Drive 802.11b/g Wireless LAN 4-In-1 Card Reader Can she actually use window 7 without it running slow?
If he should keep XP, then I don't see any point in increasing the RAM. However, he's saying that his mom wants to let go off XP. @adrian2055 maybe you should install Ubuntu too. Make your mom use the best of both worlds.
I didn't know there was a windows 7 home basic. Thanks! As soon as I figure out how to get inside this puppy I will install another GB or RAM, but she wants to upgrade. She wants to learn how to use the newer OS works so that when she lands a better job she won't be behind. She's also upgrading to either office 2007 or 2010. I would, but there's no way in hell she could learn that. She tried it one and demanded I reinstall windows....she was on my laptop LOL!!! Man you guys are fast!!! Thanks for all the replies
Hardware and memory requirements for win7 are the same, irrespective of edition. I've installed different editions on the same, oldish hardware at different times and never noticed any performance differences. But it'll be better if you optimize memory usage by cutting down on unnecessary builtin features as well as no. of simultaneous open apps. Since this is an AIO, it may not be very upgradeable though opening up the case will tell you exactly.
His mom wants to get off XP, pretty much just like all the rest of us did, and there is no reason for her not too. Windows 7 will run just fine on her machine. Maybe with a little tweaking of menu animations but 7 runs beautifully on the two minimal Netbooks we have and both of them are essentially the same as hers as to power and general capability. In fact, I have 7 running on a test machine with 1GB RAM and an old AMD XP3000+ single core CPU. Can't play anything but the most simplistic of games (Solitaire and Mahjong for instance) but I doubt his mom is a serious gamer given the computer she has.