Can nowadays standard netbook run Windows 7?

This is a question I’m sure many of you asked yourself. With the new Windows 7 coming in just a week, will i be able to run it on my netbook. And if yes, how good will it work? Well, I’ll try to give you some answers in the rows below. You should know that these are only speculations based on my current experiences with Windows 7 RC1 on two pretty standard netbooks, the 10 inch Toshiba NB205 and the bigger 11.6 inch Asus 1101HA. The final version of Windows 7 might be a little different than the RC1, so I’ll update the post later, once more info becomes available.

First of all, a standard netbook for me will be powered by Intel N270/N280 (or Z520/Z530), with 1 GB of RAM, 160 GB hard-drive and Intel GMA 950 or GMA 500 graphics (with according chip-sets). For a quick comparisons between these two graphic solutions, you should read this post.

The Toshiba NB205 comes with N270, 1 GB of RAM and theoretically the better GMA 950 graphics . The Asus 1101HA however comes with a low power Z520 CPU, 1 GB of RAM and the GMA 500 . I have to say that I installed on both Windows 7 Ultimate RC1 Build 7100. However, most netbooks will be available with Windows 7 Starter or Home Premium, with fewer features and some options turned on.

Anyway, it’s obvious none of these netbooks are very good in terms of graphics, as even if you can turn Aero ON on both of them, it would automatically turn OFF because of insufficient resources as soon as you started two-three different applications. But the Starter Edition doesn’t come with Aero anyway, so… In terms of performances, the 1101HA became sluggish with Yahoo Messenger turned on, Firefox with a couple of tabs, Winamp and Microsoft Word. Sluggish as changing between panels took like 2-5 seconds. The Toshiba NB205 performed a little bit better, but still, it was pretty obvious that Windows 7 Ultimate is a pretty tough nut to crack for the Atoms.

Still, I’m confident the base version will be able to perform decently on netbooks, as long as:

• you upgrade RAM memory to at least 2 GB
• you don’t go for the low powered Z5xx Atom series
• you don’t run too many applications the same time and don’t bother sluggishness from time to time

Recent studies and benchmarks predict that Windows 7 Starter Edition will be around 10% slower on a standard netbook than Windows XP Home. However, there’s one detail that can turn the balance: drivers. We have to acknowledge that most manufacturers don’t yet offer drivers for Windows 7, and the RC1 version works with Windows Vista compatible drivers. So, once the new drivers will get out, Windows 7 might end up working better.

All in one, i consider Windows 7 a viable solution for netbooks, although i for one consider the Starter Edition as a Christmas tree spoiled of all the decorations (lacks lots of features). But, it’s definitely a better, safer and more efficient OS than the 8 years old XP. So yes, i would install Windows 7 on my standard netbook (with the above specs or something similar). But if i would plan to buy a new netbook that would be able to work with higher versions of Microsoft’s new OS, i would go for something with a dual core ATOM or CULV and maybe Nvidia ION. This way i could really benefit from all the “pleasures” Windows 7 can offer, on my netbook.

PS: Stay tuned, this post will definitely get updates in the next weeks.

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Tags: CULV, Intel Atom, Nvidia Ion, Windows 7

Last updated: October 18, 2009 | Published: October 18th, 2009 | See the comments or add yours!