Windows 10 on 2004 PC?

Steve C · 26 Oct 2017

I've been experimenting with my old 2004 Windows XP PC. This has an ASUS A8N-SLI, motherboard (NVidia NForce 4 based), 1.1GHZ AMD CPU, 2GB RAM and a 200GB hard drive. I clean installed Windows 7 Ultimate via a cheap licence and it works quite well.

In theory, I understand it may be still possible to perform a free upgrade to Windows 10. I'm using the 32 bit version of Windows 10 since I already spotted AMD CPUs of 2004 vintage are incompatible with 64 bit Windows 10. I'm wondering how the performance and response in Windows 10 will compare with Windows 7 which is quite reasonable. Has anyone installed Windows 10 on a 2004 vintage PC with 2GB RAM and what was your experience?

NavyLCDR · 26 Oct 2017

My experience is that on lower end machines the improvement gained from Windows 10 over Windows 7 is more noticeable than on higher end machines. I would say try it. What have you got to lose, but a little bit of time?

cereberus · 26 Oct 2017

Steve C said:

I've been experimenting with my old 2004 Windows XP PC. This has an ASUS A8N-SLI, motherboard (NVidia NForce 4 based), 1.1GHZ AMD CPU, 2GB RAM and a 200GB hard drive. I clean installed Windows 7 Ultimate via a cheap licence and it works quite well.

In theory, I understand it may be still possible to perform a free upgrade to Windows 10. I'm using the 32 bit version of Windows 10 since I already spotted AMD CPUs of 2004 vintage are incompatible with 64 bit Windows 10. I'm wondering how the performance and response in Windows 10 will compare with Windows 7 which is quite reasonable. Has anyone installed Windows 10 on a 2004 vintage PC with 2GB RAM and what was your experience?

The problem is only 2GB RAM. Tablets get away with that as any pagefiling is done to its steady state hard drive. So if you cannot add ram, next best option is to use an ssd but if pc is that olde, it might have the older ide rather than sata interface, and virtually all ssds will be sata or newer interfaces.

Another issue is if you can get suitable drivers.

Also, you need to to check if the CPU is nx capable (use coreinfo to find out or look on web). If it is not, you cannot install windows 10.

In the end, I think it is bit of a stretch putting Windows 10 on such an old device, but if nx capable, you can always try.

TairikuOkami · 26 Oct 2017

If that AMD is at least dual core, it could be manageable, otherwise CPU will be constantly on 100%.

CleanMem Free is must on that PC. Definitely disable Windows Defender, that is non-negotiable.

If you are just playing with it, try to apply those tweaks, if it is unusable.

[Batch] Windows Defender Disable - Pastebin.com (run twice)

[Batch] Windows Tweaks Light - Pastebin.com

jimbo45 · 26 Oct 2017

Hi there

actually on OLDER machines if you can fit an SSD the benefits will be immediate and probably even better than on modern machines.

You could also install any Linux version on an external USB2 device connected to an SSD via a SATA_USB2 connector and install a Windows VM on the SSD.

Device will boot fine -then start the Windows 10 VM and you might even get better response time than a Native install on the laptop's internal HDD.

Note though if the CPU is not 64 bit capable you will need if using VMWARE for VM's to restrict yourself to rel 10 or earlier,

If your device has in its BIOS VT_X enabled (intel VM) you can actually run a 64 bit GUEST OS (I.e a VM) on a 32 bit machine --although Guest + Host memory cannot exceed 4GB RAM.

On that old machine though the 2GB of RAM will be a problem --I'd see if you can find some (probably DDR2 Laptop RAM) where you could replace the 2GB ram with 4GB -- you probably will only have 1 slot for this but it's easily done on older laptops --they open up a lot easier than modern ones. !!!

cheers
jimbo

Steve C · 26 Oct 2017

cereberus said:

The problem is only 2GB RAM. Tablets get away with that as any pagefiling is done to its steady state hard drive. So if you cannot add ram, next best option is to use an ssd but if pc is that olde, it might have the older ide rather than sata interface, and virtually all ssds will be sata or newer interfaces.

Another issue is if you can get suitable drivers.

Also, you need to to check if the CPU is nx capable (use coreinfo to find out or look on web). If it is not, you cannot install windows 10.

In the end, I think it is bit of a stretch putting Windows 10 on such an old device, but if nx capable, you can always try.

The PC has a socket 939 single core Athlon 64 which has the NX bit. The PC does have a SATA interface. I wasn't planning to spend money on a SSD but I see I could get a 120GB SSD for c. £50 and it can be reused. I'll try the tip for CleanMem in post 4. I have have 4x memory slots fitted with DDR 400 512MB modules. It would be possible to fit 4GB but the cost of c. £100 is too high for such an old PC.

dmholt57 · 26 Oct 2017

Turn that machine into a file server and don't throw any money at it...

cereberus · 26 Oct 2017

Steve C said:

The PC has a socket 939 single core Athlon 64 which has the NX bit. The PC does have a SATA interface. I wasn't planning to spend money on a SSD but I see I could get a 120GB SSD for c. £50 and it can be reused.. I'll try the tip for CleanMem in post 4. I have have 4x memory slots fitted with DDR 400 512MB modules. It would be possible to fit 4GB but he cost of c. £100 is too high for such an old PC.

Of course, just install it on a trial basis first. If it does not work due to lack of drivers, no point in spending any dosh to upgrade.

Bree · 26 Oct 2017

NavyLCDR said:

My experience is that on lower end machines the improvement gained from Windows 10 over Windows 7 is more noticeable than on higher end machines....

My test machine (system two below) is slightly newer vintage, but at 1GB RAM is theoretically below minimum spec* (2GB) for Windows 10. It's now running (x86) Fall Creators Update without a problem - and it's more responsive with any version of 10 than it is when I restore its Win7 image. It's actually quite useable for basic Office tasks and browsing, but as it's main purpose is as a test bed a little thrashing of the swapfile is unimportant to me.

* "It amazes me how you manage to live in anything that small."

Steve C · 27 Oct 2017

Bree said:

My test machine (system two below) is slightly newer vintage, but at 1GB RAM is theoretically below minimum spec* (2GB) for Windows 10. It's now running (x86) Fall Creators Update without a problem - and it's more responsive with any version of 10 than it is when I restore its Win7 image. It's actually quite useable for basic Office tasks and browsing, but as it's main purpose is as a test bed a little thrashing of the swapfile is unimportant to me.

* "It amazes me how you manage to live in anything that small."

Interesting you find W10 faster than W7! I'll save a Reflect image of my W7 installation once configured today then try the W10 update.