R51 and 7?

[akkadian]

According to the minimum requirements for 7, the R51 still meets the needs. Does anyone use 7 on the R51e? How well/poorly does it run? Are you compelled to stay with XP? Here's my specs:

ThinkPad R51e (model 1844-5GU)
-----------
Intel Pentium M 1.73GHz
512MB RAM (will upgrade to 2 GB)
15'' LCD screen
ATI Radeon 200 video card
40GB hard drive (Will upgrade to 80 GB)
DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive
Modem & network card

So they are more than the minimum but not by a whole lot. Would the Aero theme be a pain? I know not havng it on will make things much faster but will Aero just barely work?

[lifrancis]

I have tried it on my T41 with similar specification. ATI is not supporting the old video cards. Even without Aero, the graphic performance was not good. So I have decided not to install Win 7 on the T41. I don't mind paying money to speed up the machine, why should I pay money to slow down my computer?

[emeraldgirl08]

I have an R51e and use both Linux and W7 on it. My Ubuntu 9.10 runs pretty good but as usual with linux- some work has to go into it to tailor-suit it.

I need to correct lifrancis here. The R51e and T41 are different in hardware. The R51e is able to use DDR2 while the T41 does not. We have different ATI cards also. It seems our R51e is a rare offspring of ATI and Intel. Our R51e's were also designated as Vista ready at one point. I found some of the info out while I was reading up on my capable yet lacking in features laptop.

This is my R51e Windows 7 screen with aero enabled. Click here.

And this is the properties of our video card for W7. Click here.

The dock at the bottom of my screen will work for the T41 if you want a snazzy interface lifrancis. I used it on my T30 and R40 at one point. While the eye-candy is very nice with aero enabled with W7 I turn it off 100% of the time. I have decided to use the dock alone for a nice desktop.

Edit:

I forgot to add that I let W7 find the correct driver for me. It showed up after I went to Start>> Control Panel >> Windows Update and updated from there manually. Happy Thinkpadding on your R51e and if you have any questions ask!

[emeraldgirl08]

Akkadian do yourself a favor and get the 2gb of RAM. I think you posted that you were also getting a new HDD. I hope you get one that spins faster than 4200! Mine came barebones but I'm lucky that I have spare parts and an gentleman who helped me with mine

My specs are:

1.86 PM Dothan (I bought this off ebay for about $12; nice processor; doubt there would be a huge difference between yours and mine. Oh lol the processor that came with mine was a filthy 1.4 celeron. Gak! Glad I changed it out )

1.5 gb of DDR2 RAM (using 1gb + 512mb for now. Money is an hurdle these days; will get an extra 1gb soon.)

80gb Seagate 5400 RPM (the nice thing about the R51e is that we are on par with the T43 and R52 in certain specs and we do not get a 2010 error when we use whatever HDD we desire )

DVD/CDRW (added; it seems you already have one. They R51e uses an Enhanced Optical Drive However- you can put a T4X/R5X slim-drive in the R51e IF you put a shim under the ultrabay optical drive; a little crude but hey! It does the trick )

So these are pretty much the basics for a decent experience with the budget Thinkpad. I was going to add this last night but fatigue and a trip out of town distracted me.

Have a nice day!

Edit: Oh I'm going to post this in the thread of yours. I think that some ppl would benefit from it j

[akkadian]

Cool! thanks for all the helpful pointers! I may switch to 7 when I get the $$ for RAM. For now though I'll keep XP with a 7 transformation pack so I still get those low requirements.

[akkadian]

UPDATE

I'm running 7 on my R51e now! Even wit Aero Theme there doesn't seem to be much slowness. It could boot a little fast for my wants though. However, it's important to note that I haven't upgraded my RAM yet There is still only 512 MB running and the aero theme doesn't seem to be a burden. I launched Word '07 and it booted 8 seconds! I can live with that! I only paid $160 for this machine too.

[emeraldgirl08]

Nice to hear! I did get W7 running on 768mb of system RAM and 16mb of dedicated Video RAM on an R40 that I owned. I certainly did not expect that to work!

Akkadian do me a favor and right-click on desktop >>screen resolution>>advanced settings. Let me know how much total graphics memory, dedicated video memory, and shared system memory you have there.

I also would like to know how Windows Media Player works for you. It seems a little quirky when executing video. When OSD and a running video both are on (ie. when you have a video running and you are turning the volume up or down) the video will get a little choppy. I'm asking b/c I have the RC7000 version of W7 and want to know if that has been worked out.

TIA.