Should I Upgrade My Older PC To Windows 10?

Hi all,

I have a PC that is older that I've customized to be a gaming PC for my wants and needs.

Here are the specs:

CPU: Intel core i5 650 dual core 3.20ghz
MOBO: Intel DQ57TM
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
RAM: 12GB ddr3
HDD: 250GB Western Digital
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 2GB vRAM


I'd like to buy windows 10 after I get myself a new hard drive mainly so I can have a longer support lifespan and for if I ever want to get another game in the future, I won't have to worry about it not supporting Windows 7.

My concern though is will my PC be able to handle Windows 10, primarily my CPU?

I mean, I know it can be run, but will it drop my FPS, or affect my game play negatively since it's an older PC? Will it slow my PC down?

Later down the road in a few years I'll get a true, new gaming PC(hopefully build one ), but for now I'd like to stay with this one.

What are your experiences with running Windows 10 on an older PC? (assuming you have)

Thanks in advance.

UPDATE:

I have updated my system specs under my profile

You are right that the weak link there is the CPU. I have a few PC's and as it would happen one is exactly the same as yours there ( except mine only has 8gb of RAM ). It's actually a pretty capable machine, but you will notice that some CPU intensive games will suffer. It can happily run most games though, at pretty decent frame rates. I have run Windows 7 on that PC and also it currently has Windows 10. Can't say to be honest that I notice much difference in speed. For all they say that Windows 10 is faster, well, it seems to run games about the same. I have to say, though, that of late I have seen a lot of games players moving back to Win 8. Also, some games that run on Win 7 won't work on Win 10. So I don't really know what to recommend. Given that you also have to put up with Microsoft's invasion of your privacy, and the loss of control of your own PC, it's perhaps not an easy decision to make.

It will have no problems running it. Download the ISO from Microsoft.com and give it a spin.

10 actually runs faster on the Intel Core 2 Duos than previous OS's. That is in part to better RAM and CPU management.

davefaz said:

You are right that the weak link there is the CPU. I have a few PC's and as it would happen one is exactly the same as yours there ( except mine only has 8gb of RAM ). It's actually a pretty capable machine, but you will notice that some CPU intensive games will suffer. It can happily run most games though, at pretty decent frame rates. I have run Windows 7 on that PC and also it currently has Windows 10. Can't say to be honest that I notice much difference in speed. For all they say that Windows 10 is faster, well, it seems to run games about the same. I have to say, though, that of late I have seen a lot of games players moving back to Win 8. Also, some games that run on Win 7 won't work on Win 10. So I don't really know what to recommend. Given that you also have to put up with Microsoft's invasion of your privacy, and the loss of control of your own PC, it's perhaps not an easy decision to make.

I personally don't mind the whole privacy issue because it's not like I do weird things, I only use the tower for twitch.tv, gaming, and youtube.

Yes, I have also heard of some games not working on Windows 10. The games I play though I know will work, and I rarely play games that are really old, like 2010 is the lowest I go on games.

That's interesting that people are going back to Win 8. I happen to have a windows 8 product key but have never thought of using it because of the fact that it ends a few years after windows 7 and I have no idea how long games will support windows 8.

bro67 said:

It will have no problems running it. Download the ISO from Microsoft.com and give it a spin.

10 actually runs faster on the Intel Core 2 Duos than previous OS's. That is in part to better RAM and CPU management.

Better cpu and ram management? That's cool!

The kernel footprint is also a lot smaller, leaving more breathing room for doing things. I remember to have installed w7 on a older 1GB Intel's Atom netbook and it almost choked to death after booting up. Launching a web browser was a nightmare. On the same netbook, w10 won't run fast, but way way better than w7. Your mileage may vary, of course.

eLPuSHeR said:

The kernel footprint is also a lot smaller, leaving more breathing room for doing things. I remember to have installed w7 on a older 1GB Intel's Atom netbook and it almost choked to death after booting up. Launching a web browser was a nightmare. On the same netbook, w10 won't run fast, but way way better than w7. Your mileage may vary, of course.

Thank you for sharing your experience!

logo897 said:

I'd like to buy windows 10 after I get myself a new hard drive mainly so I can have a longer support lifespan and for if I ever want to get another game in the future, I won't have to worry about it not supporting Windows 7.

May not be a problem for some years to come. Support for Windows 7 ends in 2020. Software is generally written to run on any currently supported Microsoft OS.

Client operating systems	Latest update or service pack	End of mainstream support	End of extended support

...

Windows 7*

Service Pack 1

January 13, 2015

January 14, 2020

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/...cle-fact-sheet

I never was a fan of the free upgrade because I couldn't do a fresh install as well as me not being open until it was too late :P

Yes Bree that is true but I am thinking of windows vista and how support hasn't even ended for it and people are already cutting off support to it. It's mainly that I'm not sure how long DX 11 will be around, and I rather just get the upgrade over with. I see what you mean, though.

Also, I've seen about assistive technologies but would not be comfortable getting it that way.

I've just bought a win 10 pro product key online for a good price. I'll get back on how everything turns out.