XP or Windows 7

[exalted512]

I have to reinstall windows on my laptop. It's running terrible the way it is. Right now I'm trying to decide between windows and xp. The laptop itself is a 5 year old dell.

Specs:
Intel Pentium 1.86Ghz processor
1gb ram
80gb hard drive

currently has xp home. trying decide which is better to put on this thing. I dont plan on upgrading ram or anything. Just want to make this thing bearable to work on. Right now, half the time when i type, it freezes the text. Videos dont play at all hardly. And anytime I play sound (including windows start up), the damn thing sounds like its skipping/distorting.

So what say you, computer gurus...XP or win 7?
-Cody

[tcrossma]

With only 1gb and no plans to add any, I'd have to say stick to XP. I do like 7 though, but not with that little memory.

[exalted512]

i figured as much. some day im just going to buy a new laptop. but i dont have a need for one now. I would like my next laptop to have a blu ray player and HDMI outputs. That way I can hook it up to the bedroom tv and not have to buy a separate blu ray player for the bedroom.

That's about all the need I have for a new laptop...for everything else...this one works fine as long as I can get it to stop acting up.
-Cody

[Sherardp]

With the hardware you have, another vote for XP. Windows 7 loves RAM so the more the better.

[exalted512]

XP it is then. Backing up my files now.
-Cody

[DSkip]

To help the cause, IT installed Windows 7 on my desktop at work when my HD went kaput. It runs 2 GB ram and a Pentium 4 3.0 ghz, the highest the MB can support. It ran like a DOG. Tuesday, he is reinstalling XP b/c with the way it runs now, I can't do my job efficiently.

I was looking forward to Win7 and thought it might run halfway decent with the ease it ran XP. It picked apart the bottlenecks in no time.

[xj4094dg]

ubuntu

[renowilliams]

I installed Windows 7 on an 8 year old IBM Thinkpad with 1 gig of memory and it ran just fine. You have to install the 32 bit version with just 1 gig of memory.

[exalted512]

Well, I'm back up and running on my laptop for the most part...aside from I need to find the driver to get my sound to work, amongst other things. Next on my to do list is my desktop. I recently got a pretty nasty virus on it that won't let me get on any kind of internet browser...it acts like I dont have an internet connection, but AIM and my google side bar still work, so i know my connection is good.

So far, Avast hasn't fixed it...but I'm still hoping!
-Cody

P.S. Laptop is flying again!