Windows 7 on a K6-2

[Cat333Pokémon]

Have I seriously not posted any pics of this thing? A few years ago I commented about how our old Gateway Select 400 Micro ATX tower from the late '90s actually met the Windows Vista minimum specs. Well, I decided to take a stab at actually making it work with Windows 7 Home Premium. Had to Install Vista first due to problems with the Windows 7 disc, though.

Several items have been upgraded due to transfers of original components. The DVD-ROM drive is currently not connected, the old 20 gig hard drive has problems, and the 512 MB of RAM that used to be in there...well, that's MIA. And the 5¼" floppy drive from another old computer is broken.

Processor: AMD K6-2 @ 400 MHz
SDRAM: 768 MB
HDD: 40 GB
Optical: 4x CD-RW
Floppy: 1.44 MB 3½" x2 (incl. USB), 1.2 MB 5¼" (broken)
Video: Onboard ATI, 8 MB?
Audio: (first party incompatible) Creative SoundBlaster Live! 16-bit
Ports: PCI networking adaptor, USB 1.1 x2, USB 2.0 x4, 1394 (FireWire) x2, serial (COM1), parallel (LPT1), PS/2 x2, game/MIDI x2
PSU: 200W

Some screenshots and CPU-Z images are below.

[Buoysel]

Wow.... just that must have taken forever. Bored much?

[FreezeWarp]

Awesome xD

Still, I can't help but ask: does it run well?

[Jaredvcxz]

Windows 7 runs suprisingly well on old systems. We've been playing a bit with it on some old computers in my tech class.

[FreezeWarp]

Originally Posted by Furryvcxz

Windows 7 runs suprisingly well on old systems. We've been playing a bit with it on some old computers in my tech class.

Better or worse than XP?

[Jaredvcxz]

Originally Posted by FreezeWarp

Better or worse than XP?

Have I ever told you how much I hate how everyone compares the new OSes to a decade-old relic without understanding basic concepts like moore's law?


But considering this time it is somewhat relevant I'll skip the rant and say it's about the same.

[FreezeWarp]

Originally Posted by Furryvcxz

Have I ever told you how much I hate how everyone compares the new OSes to a decade-old relic without understanding basic concepts like moore's law?


But considering this time it is somewhat relevant I'll skip the rant and say it's about the same.

Truth is that was why I was asking; people with such a philosophy answer how you did, not making clear the age of the computer (and 2001 feels like a good decade marker )

At any rate, I do find that rather interesting. 'Course, I personally think Windows could still slim down considerably, similar to how Linux's LXDE and XFCE environments are (I consider Aero right on par with Gnome 3 or KDE 4; the difference is the former is much less useful, the latter much more )

[NismoZ]

...Did you seriously run Windows 7 on 768MB of RAM?

[FreezeWarp]

Originally Posted by NismoZ

...Did you seriously run Windows 7 on 768MB of RAM?

Windows 7 should be pretty easy to run on 768MB; it's the defacto requirements of Ubuntu 10.04, to give a point of reference no one will understand, and in theory Windows 7 should be able to manage with merely 512MB.

...Of course, the second you start Media Player/Internet Explorer/Movie Maker/Office/Anything Else... *KABOOM*

[Cat333Pokémon]

Originally Posted by FreezeWarp

...Of course, the second you start Media Player/Internet Explorer/Movie Maker/Office/Anything Else... *KABOOM*

Slow, but not too bad.

[zsaberslash]

Originally Posted by FreezeWarp

Windows 7 should be pretty easy to run on 768MB; it's the defacto requirements of Ubuntu 10.04, to give a point of reference no one will understand, and in theory Windows 7 should be able to manage with merely 512MB.

...Of course, the second you start Media Player/Internet Explorer/Movie Maker/Office/Anything Else... *KABOOM*

I got the open beta to run on 512 MB before. This is pretty cool to see though.

[Jaredvcxz]

Try running OSX on it next.

[.name//Technomancer]

I've thought of running 7 off of my Eee, since it would adapt so well. The only issue is space, since there's virtually none [4-gig SSD].

My question is, how are you able to run an 8Mb-cached video card with 7? That's just odd. Glass must not work or something. >.>; 8Mb of cached mem is terrible with higher-end OS'.

[Cat333Pokémon]

Glass doesn't run, as can be seen in the screenshots above. It's the Aero Basic theme. It is slowest at running websites and installing hardware, but quite a few things still manage to run decently.

Edit: Oh wait, you mean in the installation screenshot. Hm, that's a very good question, as Glass actually was running there.

[Buoysel]

Originally Posted by .name//Technomancer

My question is, how are you able to run an 8Mb-cached video card with 7? That's just odd. Glass must not work or something. >.>; 8Mb of cached mem is terrible with higher-end OS'.

Glass?? It's called Aero. >.>

[KingOfKYA]

Funny thing is virturalbox can run areo/glass with its emulated 8mb card at 800x600 so i think it can be done. Even silver light with 16mb