Is vista on a 3200+ Barton possible?

[iamwhoiam]

I'm currently running a Shuttle SN45G with AMD 3200+ Barton (2.0ghz), AGP 6800GT, and yes, only 512mb RAM

I'm willing to upgrade the RAM up to 1GB+, but there would be no point if the CPU couldn't handle Vista

Of course the suggest speed is 1ghz, but we all know that these figures mean sweet FA when it comes down to real world performance. So what I want to know is, will this system with upgraded RAM cope with Aero/Vista in general?

I use this PC for non-gaming based stuff primarily, though WoW and CS:S pops up every now and then

[dave87]

Yup, perfectly possible - though I would say 2Gb RAM minimum

[aidanjt]

if you stick 2Gb in, it'll handle vista no problem at all.

[Iain M]

You could see what the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor says microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/upgradeadvisor.mspx

[dave87]

I did that with a Barton 3200+ 1.5gb RAM, 6800, and it said no problem

[aidanjt]

I ran Vista RC2 on my prescott and it handled it no problem, it's roughly in the same performance range of the 3200+

[dave87]

Yup, I would just say, take the upgrade advisor with a pinch of salt - its made by Microsoft, and they want to sell the most copies of Vista they can

[iamwhoiam]

Does anyone know of vista experience scores for 3200 barton?
Hoping it'll be over 3.0 to run aero

[aidanjt]

prescott gets 4.2 if i remember correctly. I was able to run aero anyway.

[dave87]

With the 6800 you should be able to run Aero no problem

[CrazyMonkey]

Get more ram and youll run it fine.

[directhex]

i think the 2gib minimum some people are saying is a little pessimistic

seems fine with 1gb on my laptop

[fishboy25uk]

i think the 2gib minimum some people are saying is a little pessimistic

seems fine with 1gb on my laptop

Agreed. Obviously 2 gb for games, but an office type PC would cope fine, and remember you can actually turn Aero off to save on resources.

[pands@scan]

reading some review (cant remember now) , Aero is having less than 1% performance drop on games

[MSIC]

I have ordered Vista home basic for my mums machine, which is as follows:
Athlon 2000 (with a very small overclock, registers as 2100+)
Shuttle case
768MB memory
Radeon 9000 (64 MB)
80 Gig hard drive
DVD / CD-RW

Now obviously home basic doesnt have Aero, but then the graphics card doesnt have 128MB anyway, so i thought that would be pointless.

The whole reason for this upgrade, from a Win2000 install currently, is due to the restricted user access. I had already set up a limited 'user' account, but various people who use her machine (mainly her friend who helps her with accounts) keep logging on as administor anyway. The straw that broke the camels back was one clever person (dont know which) followed a pop-up warning about spyware...only to install an absolute shed-load onto the machine, trojans and all. Took me 4 hours to clean that off, so Vista is a must I feel.

Will let you know how it runs, it only needs to run, not be too speedy.