Zarathustra[H]
Extremely [H]
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2000
- Messages
- 39,074
I think the older PC would notice more of a difference with windows 8 as its better on resources.
I can vouch for this (but not in games).
I'm using an old Dell Zino HD cube as my HTPC until I save up to build a new one to my liking. I upgraded the RAM in it, so that's not an issue, but the highest end CPU supported is an Athlon X2 Neo 1.8ghz, and the integrated Radeon 3200 IGP is pretty bad.
It did not like HD videos much in Vista Basic (which it shipped with) or Windows 7 Pro, but it handles almost everything I throw at it in Windows 8. The fact that I can use the non-Silverlight Windows 8 Netflix app means Netflix HD content works as well (which it doesn't in a browser, as with silverlight there is no GPU acceleration)
So Windows 8 is definitely helpful on older hardware, and a pretty damned good OS for a HTPC. The arrow keys on my Windows Remote navigate the the metro interface nicely.