Windows 7 or Windows 8 for old laptop?

[arvatoth]

I have an older laptop that originally came with WIndows Vista Home Premium.

It has a Pentium Dual Core T4200 processor, 3GB RAM (expandable to 4GB, I believe) and a 250GB HDD, probably 5400rpm. Fairly basic stuff, nothing fancy, and about 5 years old.

I thought I would upgrade the OS to a newer version. With no upgrade discounts available, I would have to pay the full price, but that's OK. I just don't know whether to purchase a Windows 7 licence or a Windows 8 one. Am familiar with Windows 7 as that is what I use on my desktop PC, and I quite like it - in fact it is the first-ever Windows edition I unconditionally love. 🙂 However, I am ready to install Windows 8 on the aging laptop if you say that is the faster and more efficient OS.

 

[Shneiky]

The main problem is - will there be drivers for your hardware under Windows 8. I am fairly certain that there will be some if not all for Windows 7, but I am not sure about 8. This is something you must check yourself.

 

[knight_of_baawa]

Unless your laptop's graphics are the mobile form of the GeForce 8 series or above, you won't be able to run 8.1, period; there simply are no graphics drivers for intel integrated graphics for anything below Gen 2 core series, and nothing for anything less than I think the Radeon HD 2000 series. nVidia has supported the 8 series and above with 8.1.

Also, if your graphics is the 915 integrated: you can't run Win 7. Intel does not have a Win 7 driver for it, and it is not built in to 7. Hopefully you have at least a 945.

 

[arvatoth]

Good points - I ran the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant and it said the secure boot feature and the app docking function would not work. The Broadcom bluetooth software would also have to be updated. knight_of_baawa, the graphics controller is an Intel GMA 4500MHD.

Sounds like I would be asking for trouble if I installed Windows 8. Fine, I am OK with Windows 7.

However, the question is, would the laptop perform better under Windows 7 than under Vista?

 

[orlbuckeye]

Well if you did an upgrade from Vista it would not perform better because the same things that slowed Vista down would still be on the machine. A clean install would show better performance even if you reinstalled Vista.

 

[knight_of_baawa]

As above, it will perform better in 7 vs Vista, especially if you do a fresh install. And your graphics chip can handle 7 (it is a mobile 4 series), but not 8.