Can my 6 yr old laptop handle Windows 8 pro?(upgrade)

[poohbear]

Hey all, i have a 6 year old Samsung SensQ35 Laptop with WinXP pre-installed (says "Vista Capable" on a sticker on the laptop... but we know how that turned out!). The specs are:

Intel CoreDuo T2300 @ 1.6ghz (65nm)
2.3gb DDR2 RAM @ 4-4-4-16
5400RPM 61GB hdd
Intel 945GM integrated graphics
WinXP 32bit

It runs WinXP fine with no stuttering or slowdowns. My question is, if i upgrade to Windows 8 for $39.99, can this laptop handle Windows 8 or will it be slow, stuttery, & sluggish? I ask cause its a really old laptop (i'm surprised it even lasted this long!). Would Win8 detect the drivers for it automatically or do i have to manually find them?

Thanks for any feedback!

 

[JackMDS]

Speed will probably be OK, the problem is the old Graphic chipset.

Before you do the move make sure that you can find Graphic Drivers.

http://communities.intel.com/docs/DOC-19647

http://www.neowin.net/news/how-to-install-legacy-intel-hd-graphics-drivers-on-windows-8

 

[bbhaag]

My wife uses that exact same laptop but in the Toshiba form. It's a Portege M400-S4031.
I upgraded it to Win7 Ultimate a few years ago and it handles it no problem. I would think that if it can handle Win7 Ultimate it can surely handle Win8 Pro.

 

[poohbear]

the windows update drivers are'nt enough?

 

[lamedude]

If you have the Intel® 945, 946, 965, 3, or 4 Series Express chipset, only drivers provided on the Windows 8 installation media are available for these chipsets.

Looks like it will be good to go.

 

[MontyAC]

You can try running the upgrade assistant from MS:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/system-requirements

 

[atguy10]

The deciding factor will be drivers (video, sound, ethernet, wireless). If you can find the right ones then you can use Windows 8. Also, you might be able to use Windows 7 or even Windows Vista drivers for Windows 8. They all share the same driver model.

One last thing, your CPU is only 32-bit so you will be limited to Windows 8 32-bit.

 

[Evander]

I have a similar spec laptop from 2007. Win 8 doesn't have any speed issues on it, but the biggest issue (personal dislikes aside) is the SD card reader doesn't have Win 8 drivers (Texas Instruments pcixx12). Neither does the 56k modem, but I can do w/o that. The thing is, the Windows 8 compatibility assistant listed both items as being supported by Win 8.

There's a trial version of Win 8 out there somewhere so you might want to give that a try if you have a spare hard drive or if you're willing to wipe out your current install