Windows 7 or 8 when replacing XP [closed]
Strictly speaking your computer falls within the minimum requirements for both Windows 7 and 8, so either should work, but Windows 8 has seen a number of performance improvements that would make it the better choice.
The 50GB HD is small, but, depending on your needs, it should be enough. My C:\Windows currently uses 11.8GB (Windows 8).
Where you are likely to run into trouble are with the drivers. Many older devices simply don't have Windows 7 or 8 drivers, although sometimes the Vista driver may work. This is the case with my XP laptop, where the ATI X1400 GPU doesn't have any official drivers, and the Vista drivers are wonky.
The Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant will let you know about many problems: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/buy
But the best way of finding out if it works is to get the 90 day trial from here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/jj554510.aspx
At minimum for either OS, you need:
- More RAM, 2GB is about minimum for decent performance for either OS.
- Bigger hard drive. At 50GB you have enough room for the base OS, and a couple mid sized installs before you run out of room.
Assuming you can make those upgrades, the two OS's are very similar, 8 is actually slightly lighter / faster. If you are OK with the Modern GUI, that would probably be a marginally better choice.
From what I've seen, Windows 8 works somewhat faster than Windows 7, but I'm not sure how your hardware would be supported. On Microsoft's site, they state the minimum hardware requirements. Your configuration seems to be supported. A quick search for benchmarks returned this link: Breathe New Life into Your Old PC — with Windows 7
From my experience, systems that ran XP could run 7, but there were some performance issues, and 8 is supposed to be better than 7, performance wise. Check the availability of your laptop's drivers for windows 7 and 8 (if 7 supports your devices, it is likely that 8 does too). I would try 8 (but maybe wait for the 8.1).
Go the microsoft site and checkout the MINIMUM hardware requirements for Win 7 and Win 8. I believe you are going to find that 1G of memory is insufficient for either. Also 1.66 GHz processor will be pretty slow.
If you really want to continue using your laptop, a linux release might just work for this type of hardware.
But if you still want to stick to Windows OS, then you are going have to upgrade to something a heck of a lot better performance wise.