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Tom's Hardware > Forum > Windows 7 > General Discussion > XP to Windows 7...Is it worth it?

XP to Windows 7...Is it worth it?

Forum Windows 7 : General Discussion XP to Windows 7...Is it worth it?

My computer:

ASUS K8N-E Deluxe socket 754 motherboard
Athalon 64 3200+
Nforce 3 250 gb chipset
3 gb pc3200 ram
ati radeon hd 4650 1gb agp
550 w power supply
XP w/ SP3

I am currently not having any issues with XP and everything is working fine for what I use this computer for. That being said and considering my set up is an upgrade to Windows 7 worth it? Is Windows 7 really that big of an improvement over XP? The only thing that is even making me consider an upgrade to Windows 7 is for the chance to use DirectX 11.

However, I've read that some older setups are having a hard time getting Windows 7 to work correctly because many of the necessary drivers needed for the computer to operate correctly are no longer supported. I know for a fact the last updates that were released for my BIOS and my motherboard chipset were in 2006. Will they even work in Windows 7? Is it worth my time and money to even pursue this?

Reply to eamesj1

Your motherboard and CPU will work fine with Win7. Your CPU's performance may not be able to handle Win7 too well, but it will work.

You can certainly wait until you upgrade your system to get Win7. I would certainly advise on your next system to get Win7.

Reply to evilgenius134

Have run Win7 32-bit on even less powerful hardware with satisfactory performance. Not a lot of DX10/11 games outhere, most companies still targeting DX9 as its a numbers game. May change over the next year as they should start looking at DX10.

If the system is doing everything you need under XP, save the money up and upgrade in a year to a new Win 7 x64 system.

------------------------------ HP Pavilion DV7-3020EA Entertainment Notebook PC + Win 7 Pro SP1 x64
GA-870A-UD3 + AMD PH-II X6 1100T BE + Hyper212+ + 8GB DDR3-1600 + GTX460 + Win 7 Pro SP1 x64
GA-870A-UD3 + AMD PH-II X4 840 + 4GB DDR3-1333 + ATI 3450 + SVR08 R2 SP1 x64
Reply to das_stig

Oh yes , it will run on your system. Your system will be much more resistant to malware. Just make sure you get the 32 bit version.

Reply to dfusco

Your GPU does not support DX11, so upgrading to 7 for that reason alone is useless. I would recommend it purely because of the improved security and stability, plus better hardware support.

Reply to Herr_Koos

Well, lets consider the other side of this.
Spend $100+ for Win 7, or holding out(or spending more) for a machine that can definitely handle Win7 for $450 which also includes win 7 from tigerdirect. I would go the $450 route and chuck the old system to the kids lol

Reply to memadmax

it will run on your system, but as Herr says, not dx11, and your 4650 will struggle in dx10 as well! and yes stay 32bit in your case for better compatability.

Reply to moricon

mayankleoboy1 wrote :

^ +1

if you already use a antivirus, win7 does not have any more security features.

one annoying thing about win7 is that there is a lot of disk activity that gets very irritating and frustrating.

Disagree with you on these points. Windows 7 is inherently much more secure compared to 10year-old XP. You still need antivirus, but 7 is not as easy to compromise as XP was (and is).
The disk activity is most likely indexing, but this stops once your drive is fully indexed. After that, you shouldn't notice any disk activity unless you have something running in the background that constantly accesses the drive.

Message edited by Herr_Koos on 04-07-2011 at 09:09:38 AM

Reply to Herr_Koos

Buying Win 7 now would save buying it later, only problem is that when you do upgrade your system you will most likely go with win 7 64 bit, primarily so that you can go to 4 + gigs of ram - bottom line is that you will have spent $100 - not sure the benifit is worth it.

(1) I love win 7 and would not go back. Still have XP and Vista on Backup computer.
So let me play devils advocate.
(2) All good and valid points favoring win 7.
That said, I'm NOT sure it is worth it since you are not having a problem and unless you have a compeling reason, your call. Win 7 does have some negatives: (a) much more bloat - this does not show in newer, faster systems, but can slow down (Yes it will work) some older systems. (b) My biggest complaint is the Dam*((^%( DRM gargbage the added in (big share of the bloat )

They are just now upgrading the XP to Win 7 at work (Skipped vista) and you should here the complaints - But by and large, it is the old resistance to change and not valid reasons - just some things in win 7 are diff.

I have never had a security problem with XP (@ home), and I've used it since it came out. Have had a problem @ work - about 3 time.

Message edited by RetiredChief on 04-07-2011 at 09:50:27 PM

Reply to RetiredChief

I'm not saying there aren't other good reasons (e.g. security), but I think the only compelling reason to get Windows 7 is if you want to get a SSD and have support for TRIM. Even so, I think the newest controllers are doing their own background garbage collection, so they may be acceptable to use with WinXP.

Reply to jtt283

As others have said Win 7 will run well on your system. Win 7 is a stable, clean, and efficient OS. You should use the 32 bit version for your existing system.

Right now Newegg has a Family 3 pack upgrade version of Win 7 for $123. I have seen this same pack for as low as $99 at Fry's Electronics. This Family pack comes with discs for both 32 bit and 64 bit versions of Win 7 Home Premium and a license that can be used on up to 3 PCs. With that you could try it on your existing system and be ready for when you get a new system with the OS in hand.

It is an upgrade version but it is still possible to do a full clean install using it. Just make sure you choose the option to erase the old partition and create a new partition for the fresh install.

------------------------------ ____________________
Intel Core i5-2500K @ 4.75Ghz/ASUS P8P67 PRO/EVGA SC GTX 560 Ti/CORSAIR 850HX PSU/Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB SATA III/SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 1TB x 2 (Raid 1 Storage)/CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB DDR3 1600/CM HAF 932/CORSAIR H70
Reply to pacioli

Quote :

It is an upgrade version but it is still possible to do a full clean install using it. Just make sure you choose the option to erase the old partition and create a new partition for the fresh install.

You can't upgrade an XP install to a 7 install, you MUST do a clean install. I think the upgrade install only works from Vista. But also the upgrade is sold at a lesser price to people that already own a qualifying copy of the OS even if they plan on doing a clean install.

From a user's standpoint, there isn't any real reason to go to 7 over XP. I was running XP at home and wanted to go to 7 partly because of all of the hype. I bought in during the pre-release sale for $50, I probably wouldn't have done it if the price had been the full price. My workstation at work is still running XP. I use both machines every day. I don't see much difference and I don't have any problems switching back and forth between them. 7 is prettier though.

It's really up to you- is having the newest and prettiest worth the cost to you.

Reply to cadder

Another reason he may want to stick with XP, is that Windows 8 is on the horizon. Why fork out $100 when new version is likely to be out in 9 -> 12 Months
Quote: Jun 29, 2010 ... The Windows 8 release date has been shrouded in a cloud of rumors. Most experts expect a late 2011 early 2012 release of the operating . End quote - He could go with win 8 RC (Freebee) until the real deal is realeased.
Ref: http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy [...] e4dee1b3fc

Also
Quote:So with all of this activity when will Windows 8 be released? Most of the rumors show that a full-fledged beta of Windows 8 will be available by September 2011, ahead of its release candidate and the actual launch of the program will occur sometime in 2012. End quote Ref: http://windows8news.com/2011/03/30/windows-8-oems/

In ref to using upgrade ver on XP: Win 7 upgrade version does work BUT -Win 7 will save your settings and "some" of your xp in a folder (Think its called "Old windows" ). then it basicly does a clean install - It just will not import any of your programs, you will have to reinstall all of your programs. I normally do my own back up and just select the custom install.
In my wife's system that was NOT an option. I had to install win 7 on new system then using a 3rd party program import her "selected" programs from XP - She had lost installation disk for a couple of programs and one program would have been nie on to impossible to reinstall - would have had to reinstall all version 1 -> current as they were all upgrade and version one required a parallel port donggle and version (what ever) required a serial port speacial disk writer (Not a floppy).

Message edited by RetiredChief on 04-08-2011 at 05:34:17 AM

Reply to RetiredChief

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