Gaming Windows 7 System Requirements

[Senbonzaku101]

I recently purchased an Acer Emachine Netbook with the current standard notebook specifications.
(Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz Processor, 1GB RAM, but 250GB HD)

It came with Windows 7 Starter Edition Pre-Installed, and I've found it has quite a few restrictions on customizations and ease-of-use. I can't find any concrete information, besides the netbook inability to run Aero, that says the system requirements for Windows 7 editions vary. I've run the Windows Update Anytime software on Windows 7 SE, and it doesn't mention anything regarding this issue. I can't remember, but I don't believe there was any difference in XP Home or XP Professional differences, but I have a nagging feeling this isn't the case in Windows 7. Any input?

 

[Deleted member 35947]

Other versions of Windows 7 will work on your netbook. I run Home Premium on my own with aero. As for aero working, that would depend on the gpu.

 

[Senbonzaku101]

I figured Aero would be out, but otherwise an upgrade to Windows 7 Professional/Ultimate is feasible? I would ask Microsoft, but the whole Win7SE makes me wonder if they would be eager to approve it without making me upgrade hardware.

 

[Sao Mortel]

There no benefit to have windows 7 over XP unless you have a machine running dual core cpu or more. If you just want the looks, theres stuff you can install in XP that will simulate Areo and sutch or even you can sucessfully install Mac OSX on a netbook just depends what you are looking for....

 

[Senbonzaku101]

Thanks for the input Sao Mortel, but it doesn't quite answer my question.

 

[WiiThoko]

I recently purchased an Acer Emachine Netbook with the current standard notebook specifications.
(Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz Processor, 1GB RAM, but 250GB HD)

It came with Windows 7 Starter Edition Pre-Installed, and I've found it has quite a few restrictions on customizations and ease-of-use. I can't find any concrete information, besides the netbook inability to run Aero, that says the system requirements for Windows 7 editions vary. I've run the Windows Update Anytime software on Windows 7 SE, and it doesn't mention anything regarding this issue. I can't remember, but I don't believe there was any difference in XP Home or XP Professional differences, but I have a nagging feeling this isn't the case in Windows 7. Any input?

Starter edition probably doesn't let you use Aero, it was like that with Vista's Home Basic.
You probably could buy (download

) Home Premium, and Aero would work.

 

[foxgrey]

Other than aero, which you already figured out. I'd say you'll probably be fine.

I know from personal experience, that a trimmed down, and tweaked version of ultimate can run fairly good on a 1ghz mobile celeron, with about 1gb of ram. It was very useable, but no speed demon as expected.

I would throw more ram into your machine, if you can. That machine with 2gb of ram, would probably run any version of 7 rather well. As long as you don't turn on the shineys!

 

[Senbonzaku101]

Thanks to you two as well, I'll definitely try with Windows 7 Ultimate then. I'll check around Acer/Emachine to find the correct RAM module for an upgrade, thanks again.

 

[Deleted member 35947]

Any version of Windows 7 should run just about as well as the Starter edition on a netbook. Windows 7 is better optimised then Vista in that regard and cuts out many services unless they are actively being used. It has been reported on the official Windows 7 blog that netbooks can run other versions of 7 quite well and that the starter edition shouldn't be referred universally as the netbook SKU.

 

[myuusmeow]

I've been running Windows 7 Ultimate since the beta (then RC, then RTM) with all bells and whistles turned on on my AAO (original 8.9") with no problems at all.

 

[Senbonzaku101]

Did you happen to install any extra RAM in your AAO?

 

[myuusmeow]

Did you happen to install any extra RAM in your AAO?

No, I stuck with the default 1GB RAM and 160GB HD.

I've even installed it on an old Athlon 64 PC with 512MB of RAM and an ancient unsupported GPU. No Aero, but still VERY snappy. 7 is the eyecandy of Vista with the speed of XP.

 

[WiiThoko]

Did you happen to install any extra RAM in your AAO?

No, I stuck with the default 1GB RAM and 160GB HD.

I've even installed it on an old Athlon 64 PC with 512MB of RAM and an ancient unsupported GPU. No Aero, but still VERY snappy. 7 is the eyecandy of Vista with the speed of XP.

I had the same with my old desktop, only 512MB of RAM, bad video card, no Aero. Vista was really slow and shitty (obviously, WITHOUT AERO), but 7 ran really fast.

 

[Senbonzaku101]

You all are a great help. I posted the same exact topic on another site, not named but focused on computers exclusively, and they actually recommended against upgrading, claiming that the extra strain would kill my PC performance. Now running Win7 HP without a problem and I'm not sure if Aero is working in full HP support (I understand that HP has lower Aero intergration than Pro and up) but I believe the features like sneakpeak and all are fully working without noticeable delay.

 

[coolbho3000]

From Microsoft themselves:

As we continue to say since we announced the Windows 7 editions in February, all editions of Windows 7 have been optimized to run on the broadest range of hardware ranging from small notebook PCs all the way up to high end gaming machines. Windows 7 Starter should not be considered “the netbook SKU” as most machines in this category can run any edition of Windows 7. Many of our beta users have installed Windows 7 Ultimate on their small notebook PCs and have given us very positive feedback on their experience.

http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/...-7-starter.aspx

 

[Deleted member 35947]

Home Premium has the same features of aero as the other higher versions, such as aero glass. Aero wasn't working properly on my netbook until I updated my drivers and ran the 'Windows Experience Index'. I then enabled it under appearance options.

My netbook is an Intel Atom Z530 with 1GB ram and a GMA 500 gpu.

 

[uberbdon]

There no benefit to have windows 7 over XP unless you have a machine running dual core cpu or more. If you just want the looks, theres stuff you can install in XP that will simulate Areo and sutch or even you can sucessfully install Mac OSX on a netbook just depends what you are looking for....

Exactly. I've been using Linux for the past few years now and, when deciding which windows to install, went with 7 because XP would've wasted my dual cores. If you've got dual cores go with 7. If I was using a netbook I would no doubt go back to linux, as gaming really isn't even an option for netbooks, which is why I switched to windows.