Windows 7 vs. Windows XP for a music laptop

What have we learned??????...... either will work, provided you take care in installing and tweaking it to your needs.

Long term, Windows 7 hands down....updates for XP will cease in 2 years.....unless you're will to start over at that point Win 7 is your answer.

 

I have an older machine running XP and another with an upper end i7 that is about a month old running Windows 7 64 bit. The XP machine gets less and less use. Partially because of the speed difference but mainly because of Windows 7. Get a new computer with Windows 7. You won't regret it.

 

Yes and yes and yes.

I have monkeyed a LOT with XP, to no avail.

On the one machine, the fan still kicks up every 9 minutes, as some odd process spikes the processor. Yet, it only does this at home. Network related? (Which could be hardware) Dunno. All the machines tend to be slow or unusable for the first minutes after startup, due to who knows what. Unnecessary items are supposedly disabled, but probably updates and almost certainly antivirus.* I could not diagnose it well enough via Activity Monitor and then just got disgusted and gave up.

Clean install might be good.

Here's another twist: just scored a
IBM Thinkpad X41 Pentium M 1.5GHz 1GB 12" WiFi Tablet
off eBay real cheap. Good shape, but no OS.

Soooooo...XP or Win 7 on that machine? And what if I want to use the discs on multiple machines, like if I want to overwrite the XP on my other machines? Does MS prevent that somehow?

(*had MSE, then it Security Center said I was unprotected, changed to Avast...another bunch of monkeying around).

 

Prentium M? Not sure but I wouldn't expect to much - I assume the laptop is maybe six or seven years old, so 7 will probably run, but how well is an unknown.

As for the disc question, it's not a question of discs when it comes to MS, it's a question of your actual key. Assuming it doesn't allow for multiple activations (like an Enterprise key) then you can only use that key on one system, generally. If you try to activate and the key is already in use, activation will fail.

 

IME this is a vast understatement.

There is no reason to use XP.

My old ca. 2006 laptop is a gen1 "Centrino" - Core Solo - Yonah Core, running at 1.8GHz with 1GB RAM. Windows 7 runs ten times as fast as Windows XP did on that machine - both clean installs.

 

Try a google search for the model/machine type and windows 7 - you will get some forum results for IBM folling that will likely answer your questions, even provide specific driver fixes if applicable.

If you need XP, PM me for a copy....I have a developers edition (which requires no activation/registration)

I would most definitely find more memory and if you have some cashola, spring for a solid state drive.....will make that tablet fly!


I am running an old Dell laptop, 4 GB RAM, and a 128 SSD drive....from power button push to typing this post is 48 seconds.

 

OP, check the amount of RAM in the laptop you purchased.

The Lenovo site lists 256 MB or 512 MB as options for your laptop with 2 GB as the expansion limit. With 256 MB of RAM, you laptop will not be usable for playing music. It may be vulnerable to glitches in playback even with 512 MB.

You should have 2 GB of RAM. That will be very comfortable for XP but minimal for Win 7.

Next consider disk space. The lenovo site lists 30,40 and 80 GB hard drive sizes as alternatives for your laptop. XP will take ~ 10 GB of space. Win 7 might take more like 30 GB. If you rip CDs to a lossless format like Flac or Apple lossless, plan on 3 CDs of files to a Gigabyte.

> videos

maybe not HD content.

Bill

 

Well, not sure if I'll use the X1 for the music. Bought it on a whim, really, said Pooh ha ha. I've always kinda thought 12" is small for general use but we'll see.

Good point about the SSD-did that in my old iMac, and it is noticeably faster. Probably cooler too in a laptop
--> If I get yet another laptop besides the X1 I'll check if Crucial has an SSD & memory for it first, that's a good strategy.

For the X1 Crucial shows 1 slot, and 4GB for $23. Or, 8GB for !!$129!! wow that's a big jump. They also offer the same 128GB SSD as my iMac for $165 (64 for $93 but to me that's not enough savings, I'd do the bigger if I did it at all).

A T60 I got can support 3GB, which seems not great but enough to run W7.

 

Oh, and about those Windows discs...I think the T60 has a COA on the bottom, so if I had an XP disc I could reinstall that.

But how about W7?

On Amazon I see "Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64bit (Full) System Builder DVD 1 Pack" but the licensing is not graspable in 2 seconds. If I'm making my own system and support myself, I'm wondering if that product would work. And will it install multiple systems? Otherwise I see mostly "upgrade" products which won't help me.

If I end up buying a system disc from eBay, what do I need to watch out for?

How can I tell if a laptop supports 64-bit?

 

W7 starts to get good with 4GB RAM. With RAM relatively cheap, there's no reason not to have all you can get.

He should either get a bigger HD for the laptop, or store the rips to an external drive. 500GB drives are cheap these days, even with the shortage.

 

W7 is usable with 1GB RAM! Just have to limit the multitasking.

 

Certainly! All I use are OEM Builders versions of Windows. It's the same thing as the retail versions, except that you can add your own logo and stuff on startup like the major computer makers do.

No. One copy, one license per machine.

Illegal copies.

Find out what processor it has. Most modern chips can handle 64-bit, but not all hardware can. If the machine originally had 32-bit Windows on it. it's probably best to just use 32-bit W7.

Here's something you don't know: There is a way to use a retail upgrade version of Windows and make it a clean install. This is how it's supposed to work: just load up the previous version of Windows first, then immediately install the upgrade version on top of that, but do not enter the serial number. It should still install. When you are finished, install W7 again on top of that, and this time enter the serial number. Instant clean install! I have nor personally done it, but that's the way it works. Microsoft will usually not mention this, but it has been confirmed by their tech people that this works.

Yes, but, why would you want to if you don't have to?

 

Yeah, call me Mr. Multitasker. As far as I'm concerned, that is the ONLY day-to-day thing that has gotten "faster" about computers in like 10 years. The machines can do more stuff, it's true, but I'm still waiting for bootup, waiting for MS Office apps to open, waiting for printing.

At least 4GB seems pretty affordable now

 

Two out of those three are instantly resolved by installing your OS and apps on a SSD. I'm running Win7 Ultimate x64 and can get from a fully-powered-off machine to having a 1.5gb, 800dpi LP cover scan fully loaded and editable in Photoshop in around a minute. It's mind-blowing.

 

I absolutely agree, but the OP is ironically bitching about slowness while buying used, old $100 laptops that cost about the same as a reasonably sized SSD.


He might as well be complaining that his 2005 Dodge Ram Charger doesn’t get good gas milage.

 

Christ almighty.

Just stop.


Lets slow things down here.

1. Yes use Windows 7 it is better than XP, even on older gear.

2. Windows 7 will work ok in 1GB of ram. If you are only using it for playing audio then that's not going to hit resources that high. If you can fit 2GB easy then that's better. You don't need 4GB. A lot of older laptops wont even take 4GB as it was almost unheard of back in 2003-4 for a laptop. Best to check. Plus DDR or DDR2 ram isn't as cheap as it was. That's DDR3 ram realm which this IBM wont be.

3. It would be nice if you have a dual core CPU in your laptop. You may well have a single core and only be able to use single cores. This app - http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html will tell you all about your CPU and what chipset it uses. You can then check what CPUs will work with that chipset vie the intel website. Again don't worry about this right now. It's just a consideration if you really want to get your hands dirty. If you could fit a more powerful single core or dual core (maybe) in there then that's a boost for not a lot of money.

4. What we need to do is trim down what's actually working on the laptop at the same time. Check out this resource - http://www.blackviper.com/ This will tell you what and how to shut down all the stuff you don't need in either XP or 7 and still be able to do stuff. This will also reduce the ram needed and probably reduce any stuttering or slowness.

5. Don't bother worrying with a SSD in this laptop right now. First try a clean install of 7 with the services disabled as per 3 and then go from there.

Just don't panic and get all confused. This isn't rocket science. I do this for a living. You have to do it in stages. A few other things I would mention is that a T40 may well struggle with HD material due to low CPU power and also lack of graphics grunt (some do have ATI chips in them though) and that will also hit battery life hard so you will have to get a new battery. Plus a lot of those corporate issue laptops have small HDDs in them and a lot only have DVD combo drives or CD/DVD only drives.

The IBM T series laptops make good general use back up machines but they are not great multimedia setups. Especially if you have to buy a new battery, optical drive, ram and maybe even a new CPU. You are probably only $50 short of a new laptop with 5 times the power and all the new toys.

You will be pushing this old girl from 2003!

 

Good luck too!

One last thing though, those laptops probably have crippled old 40-60GB IDE HDDS in them with 4200rpm speeds that have less data output than a USB stick..

Try running HDD Tune - http://www.hdtune.com/download.html You only need the free version lower down. To see what Data speeds in MBps it pushes.

My 640GB WD Black pushes around an average of 95MBps. If you are pushing below 30MBps then that's not great.

 

I run MediaMonkey on a W7 laptop and an XP desktop. I prefer it on the latter. Perhaps it's because the computer, while older, and ostensibly built with less spec, just has less crap running on it. The point I guess is that W7 versus XP may not make a big difference. You'll get asked for updates with both. Better just to keep your media PC as clean as possible, the fewer programs the better; and if you already have a free copy of XP, I wouldn't go out and buy W7.

Definitely use MS SE for anti-virus.

 

Three years free of problems.
I can run a Word program, DVD, live TV and surf the web at the same time. No problem.


Steve

 

Lots of abstract advice in this thread. Some practical matters haven't been discussed.

The Lenovo specs for the laptop describe the onboard audio as AC97. 48 KHz sample rate only and poor audio quality.

The Lenovo site lists no Vista or Win 7 drivers. Forget about onboard audio if you go to Win 7. The lack of Win 7 drivers may be a showstopper for other laptop hardware too. Keep in mind that neither Lenovo nor Microsoft is likely to have put any effort into making this ancient laptop run with Win 7.

1 GB Ram for Win 7? Does this laptop use main memory for the video memory? If so, then Windows will have less than 1 GB to use. 256 MB for video is pretty common. Using a PC with a marginal amount of ram for audio playback is a recipe for pain and suffering. Just scrolling in a window can cause glitches.

OP, you can buy a very competent modern laptop with an Intel i3 chip, 8 GB of Ram, Win 7 and a 250-500 GB hard drive for $ 400 - $ 500. I wouldn't spend much on enhancing a Pentium M laptop.

I've run XP on several PC in my home for years without significant problems. My dedicated MusicPC with a 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo CPU and 2 GB of Ram has runs for years without glitches in audio playback.

I'd try out the laptop with the already installed Win XP. It's free and it has drivers for your hardware already installed.

If you get a fresh copy of XP and install it, download the latest drivers before you start.

Get a Win XP PC working, leave it alone and turn it off every night. Use a minimally intrusive anti-virus like Microsoft Security Essentials if you need it. You should be fine.

Bill

 

Well, you got a lot of people who get a kick out of trying to use old hardware till it disintegrates.

 

Put Ubuntu on it.

 

Wow, thanks for all the advices.

I must have been on crack during my early posting-the laptops on hand are:
- X41 (not X1) = 1GB MAX, ugh, well it was super cheap.
- T60 (not T41 or whatever I said). Also cheap.

The T60 is already worth it as it showed me that A) a 14" screen would work fine for me, at least in 4:3, and B) It is much slimmer than the old Dell monster I'm using, and C) no glass over the screen makes a HUGE difference in eyestrain.
--> A big reason, besides $$$, that I'm not jumping on newer laptops.

Yes, complaining about speed on these old things is kinda like complaining my pickup gets bad gas mileage. Then again, not really. I'm not complaining about SPEED really, but about startup problems which seem to accumulate in every XP machine I use despite removing unneeded processes (I think the problem is needed processes all trying to resource hog at once upon startup, like Avast and a Smartboard app and other stuff)
- I'll look at those tuning softwares mentioned.
- And if the machines seem good, convert to SSD.

 

Uh...but now I'm kinda back to the original question.

Given a limit of 1 GIGABYTE on the Thinkpad X41, should I install XP or Win 7?

I'll install either from scratch, so could tweak any install options.

 

^ This.