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Does Windows 7 live well on a 1 GB RAM Atom netbook? It's hard for me to try before I buy at the moment, so any advice from those that are already running Windows 7 would be appreciated.
serg10
Posted 2009-07-17T12:26:39.120
Reputation: 341
Does Windows 7 run acceptably on a 1 GB RAM Atom netbook?
Answers
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Yes, I am using it on an ASUS N10 (1 GB of memory), and it seems to run as well as Windows XP did. There are a few minor driver issues, but nothing bad enough to make me revert to Windows XP.
RedFilter
Posted 2009-07-17T12:26:39.120
Reputation: 506
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I've got it running on a 1 GB Atom Netbook and I think it runs fine. Admitedly I only use it for web browsing, but I can't say I've noticed any performance difference to when it was running Windows XP.
pjbelf
Posted 2009-07-17T12:26:39.120
Reputation: 526
Yep, I have it running on my Dell Mini 9 happily. – Scott Hanselman – 2009-08-20T23:38:53.010
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If they are able to get it working on a Pentium II I think any current generation computer should be able to run it.
Edit: I have it running on a 6-year old HP-notebook. 2.4 Ghz Pentium 4, but only 512 MB RAM. Runs smoothly, only couldn't get my network drivers working, else I would have been able to review it's performance on websites and the like. But a 1 Gb Atom should be more than sufficient
Your biggest concern off course is what you can do with such a system.
Since if you try to multitask heavily or loads tons of superuser pages you can fill up any amount of RAM. 1 Gb should be fine for some browsing and IMing
Ivo Flipse
Posted 2009-07-17T12:26:39.120
Reputation: 24 054
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I believe Microsoft has a specific flavor of Windows 7 for netbooks (Edit: Looks like this was scrapped?) which is pretty stripped down.
I am not sure if a full-blown Windows 7 would be suitable for a 1gb RAM netbook...maybe if you went back to the retro displays and such.
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Windows-seven-Netbook,review-1164.html
TheTXI
Posted 2009-07-17T12:26:39.120
Reputation: 3 551
1Nope, Windows Starter Edition isn't for netbooks. Windows Ultimate or any SKU works great. – Scott Hanselman – 2009-08-20T23:39:24.850
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I have it running on some Celeron's with a 1GB of RAM with no issues whatsoever. It is extremely fast and does not seem to be hampered.
You can still download the Windows 7 RC from Microsoft until the 15th of August to test it for yourself. You can download it here
BinaryMisfit
Posted 2009-07-17T12:26:39.120
Reputation: 19 955
Thanks for the comparison. Haven't bought the netbook yet so not able test unfortunatly. – serg10 – 2009-07-17T17:21:14.597
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I have an Acer Aspire One (160 GB HDD) with 1 GB of RAM and I run Photoshop CS3, Flash, Visual Studio and Windows 7.
Only because I found a tutorial and it was easy I added an additional 512 MB of RAM. But my system ran Windows 7 RC1 perfectly before adding the extra RAM.
With a netbook I noticed that I got a little extra boost by using a ReadyBoost drive as well.
NighTerrorX
Posted 2009-07-17T12:26:39.120
Reputation: 275
Nice detailed answer - cheers – serg10 – 2009-07-22T18:31:52.617
It uses 1GB on my PC idle with nothing running!!! – Coops – 2012-03-25T19:41:01.283