Battle Low-end PC : WinXP or Win7

[Deleted member 178]

ok guys,

My touchscreen mini-laptop here : Asus X102BA review | TechRadar

Cpu : Atom A4 1Ghz ,
RAM: 2Gb (1.44 available)

it is not powerful enough to run Win8/10 smoothly enough; so i have to downgrade it to an older OS.

my requirements:

- Fast performance , i want it to run smoothly, no lags, no hangs.
- Security: the architecture have to give me enough security , however, i can boost it by adding softs to complement it.
- Compatibility: remember , i have a touchscreen (but i can live without it)

so my choices are:

WinXP : obviously the faster choice , but in security , i lose a lot, however i have enough skills to secure it as a fortress.

Win7 Ultimate : seems to be the best choice. but im not sure 1.44 RAM would be enough to handle it.


What do you think?

 

[viktik]

you could go for 32 bit windows 10.

else windows xp will be good.

 

[Deleted member 178]

32 bits will make it even slower. the CPU can handle x64 OS

 

[Captain Awesome]

Win7 Ultimate : seems to be the best choice. but im not sure 1.44 RAM would be enough to handle it

My friend ran win7 in 1gb RAM.

 

[hjlbx]

Win 7 and do your magic... it will be OK.

 

[Omnipotent]

Windows 7 with custom pagefile.

 

[Deleted member 178]

Windows 7 with custom pagefile.

Totally forgot this one, thanks to remind it to me.

 

[Logethica]

I would choose "Win 7"...
IMO ..1.44 RAM would be plenty to run W7 and whatever security you need.
My Asus is only 2.0 RAM but I am running W10-Pro and plenty of software...runs like clockwork.

For me XP would drastically reduce your 3rd party security software options,and IMO that would rule it out.

 

[Evjl's Rain]

one thing w7 is better than winxp is when HDD has a few bad sectors, it automatically fix the bad sectors immediately (pc freezes for a while) then the pc can be used normally until it finds another bad sector, while xp just freezes forever (cpu peaking, cant click anymore) and requires manual disk checking

W7 saved me sometimes in the past. I dont know the exact mechanism, just simply my observation. In this case, I belive w7 can extend hdd lifespan by fixing tiny bad sectors while xp will make bad sectors spread further

please correct me if Im wrong

 

[Evjl's Rain]

you can choose Windows 7 lite edition (500-700mb) )
can be found somewhere on the internet

 

[Deleted member 178]

My Asus is only 2.0 RAM but I am running W10-Pro and plenty of software...runs like clockwork.

on mine i think the CPU is too weak, opening a tab in Edge took a minute...

 

[hjlbx]

on mine i think the CPU is too weak, opening a tab in Edge took a minute...

I think CPU will be OK if you hack away at what is installed.

I mean you can get system partition down into the 15 to 16 GB range - maybe even less, tweak virtual memory and use only what is absolutely needed for system start-up.

My W10 test system is essentially W10 LTSB @ 15.5 GB system partition; as you can tell I did major surgery on it...

Anyhow, with Atom CPU there is only so much you can do... disk I\O rate is the biggest factor followed by RAM capacity.

XP is a dog... You are gonna run into the backward compatibility trap.

 

[Deleted member 178]

ok launching Win7 right now let see...

an old sage said " you won't know until you try by yourself..."

 

[Overkill]

I say XP, 7 starter or Linux lol

 

[hjlbx]

It sure ain't gonna be spunky, but @Umbra can turn W7 Home into the little engine that could...

Even on W7 Home and Home Premium there's a whole bunch of "stuff" that don't need to be loaded into memory. Kill all that rubbish and system should boot to active desktop within 1 min 30 secs instead of 2 mins or more.

That's not the real pain though. The real pain is when beta tester like @Umbra wants to re-clean install OS and set system up again. The amount of time required is a pain in da ass...

 

[Evjl's Rain]

I think CPU will be OK if you hack away at what is installed.

I mean you can get system partition down into the 15 to 16 GB range - maybe even less, tweak virtual memory and use only what is absolutely needed for system start-up.

My W10 test system is essentially W10 LTSB @ 15.5 GB system partition; as you can tell I did major surgery on it...

Anyhow, with Atom CPU there is only so much you can do... disk I\O rate is the biggest factor followed by RAM capacity.

XP is a dog... You are gonna run into the backward compatibility trap.

hi, could you kindly tell us what virtual memory tweaks are? is it just changing the size of pagefile? also why 15-16gb system partition is better than larger values?

 

[Overkill]

It sure ain't gonna be spunky, but @Umbra can turn W7 Home into the little engine that could...

Even on W7 Home and Home Premium there's a whole bunch of "stuff" that don't need to be loaded into memory. Kill all that rubbish and system should boot to active desktop within 1 min 30 secs instead of 2 mins or more.

That's not the real pain though. The real pain is when beta tester like @Umbra wants to re-clean install OS and set system up again. The amount of time required is a pain in da ass...

Are you talking services or other stuff?

 

[hjlbx]

hi, could you kindly tell us what virtual memory tweaks? is it just changing the size of pagefile? also why 15-16gb system partition is better than larger values?

1. Virtual memory tweak is the pagefile tweak
2. Get rid of all the rubbish running in the background that isn't needed; there is a ton of it...

 

[hjlbx]

Are you talking services or other stuff?

All unneeded rubbish running in the background... like damn W7 SMS service = suck your system dry slowly, but surely...

"Vampire" background processes, services, start-up items, etc.

 

[hjlbx]

This is not difficult... if I recall correctly @Umbra wrote a guide or something similar to tweak W7.