Windows 7 Report on Slow Computer

I’ve been running Windows 7 RC 32-bit on my Dell Inspiron mini 10v. This computer houses only a single-core 1.6GHz CPU with 1GB of RAM with a slower 5400rpm hard drive. You would think with hardware this “slow” that Win 7 would absolutely not work.

This is not the case at all.

In fact I’m using it to type up this article as i write this.

Win 7 has in fact proven to be very stable, very reliable and shockingly I feel no need to upgrade the hardware in this netbook whatsoever. The only thing I could upgrade is the RAM from 1 to 2GB, but in all honesty it’s simply not necessary.

Before continuing, bear in mind that most computers out there have processors that are much faster than 1.6GHz, have a hard drive that is a standard 7200rpm instead of the slower 5400 and have dedicated graphics cards with at least 256 to 512MB video memory on them.

This report is to let you know the things I’ve personally encountered that are notably slow and/or annoying. And to be honest it’s not all that much.

1. Web sites with Flash video

Using YouTube as an example, any video there that you attempt to watch in “HD” will go very choppy and sometimes choke. In addition, full-screen video is something that doesn’t work very well. I want to make clear that this only happens with Flash video. If it’s WMV (Windows Media Video), you can full-screen it with no problem. But if Flash, you will get choppiness, dropped frames and the like.

My netbook uses shared video memory and that’s the source of the problem. If your PC has a dedicated card of 256MB or above, you should have no problems with Flash video.

2. Firefox (and IE)

As time goes on and new releases are made, the Firefox browser is becoming increasingly bloated and slow. This is not a Windows 7 fault, but you may want to entertain the idea of using Google Chrome or Opera 10 either as primary or alternative browsers in case Firefox or IE are too slow for normal use.

That’s it?

Yes, seriously, that’s it. I tried my best to find anything to complain about in the slowness department and could find none other than what I mentioned.

In the next article on this I will list some annoyances of Win 7 that I found. They have nothing to do with speed or performance, but will be noted because they’re important to know.