Will Windows 10 be compatible with my HP Compaq 6000 Pro Microtower?

[MaghdalenaLogan]

I'm thinking of Dual booting. I'm between Windows 10 and Linux MInt. I need to know if Windows 10 is compatible with my HP Compaq 6000 Pro Microtower. I don't want to spend the over 130-200 that it takes to get Windows 10 Pro if it won't work on my computer. I tried it out on a VM, and it did load, but it's real slow. It was the Enterprise Evaluation copy which is due to expire in about a week. 

Here are my specs from New Egg where I bought it (it was refurbished)

Model

Brand

HP

Model

6000 PRO

Part Number

15VFHPDT0325

Quick Info

Type

Student / Home Office

Form Factor

Tower

Usage

Consumer

Processor

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0 GHz

Processor Main Features

64 bit Dual Core Processor

Cache Per Processor

6 MB L2 Cache

Memory

8 GB DDR3

Storage

2 TB SATA 7200 RPM

Graphics

INTEL GMA 4500

Ethernet

Gigabit Ethernet

Keyboard

Yes

Mouse

Yes

Operating System

Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit

CPU

CPU Type

Core 2 Duo

CPU Speed

E8400 (3.00 GHz)

L2 Cache Per CPU

6 MB

CPU Main Features

64 bit Dual Core Processor

Graphics

GPU/VGA Type

Intel GMA 4500

Memory

Memory Capacity

8 GB DDR3

Maximum Memory Supported

16 GB

Storage

HDD

2 TB

HDD Interface

SATA

HDD RPM

7200rpm

Optical Drive

Optical Drive Type

DVD-ROM

Audio

Audio Chipset

Integrated

Communications

LAN Chipset

INTEL 82567LM

LAN Speed

10/100/1000Mbps

Front Panel Ports

Front USB

4

Front Audio Ports

2

Back Panel Ports

PS/2

2

Video Ports

1 VGA

Rear USB

6

RJ45

1 port

Rear Audio Ports

2 ports

Expansion

PCI Slots (Available/Total)

1 PCI
1 PCI Express x16
2 PCI Express x1

I'm hoping someone can help me and let me know if it is compatible with this, and if it will run smoothly and/or flawlessly, or if I should go with Linux Mint.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you for your time and help.

Sincerely yours,

Katherine "Maghdalena" Logan

[WAWood]

@MaghdalenaLogan 

The test of compatibility with Win10 is not real-time performance but if all the hardware works properly -- which, from what you say, appears to be the case.

With a Virtual Machine, you're always going to have a performance hit -- even a noticeable one if you have only a couple of cores and only 2GB of memory to devote to the VM.

You should see a marked improvement in speed once you install it natively.

My suggestion is that you do the following:

1) Remove the VM, completely

2) Install a third-party utility to do a full system backup to an external drive or large USB stick (more on this below)

3) Boot your Win10 Enterprise install media and install that over the top of what you have

4) See how that works -- if it is OK, then Win10 pro will work well, also

5) You can then restore your current install from the image backup you made

------------------------

I personally prefer to use third-party Backup solutions as they tend to be both more flexible and more reliable than any built-in solutions.

Macrium Reflect (MR) provides a FREE version that can be used to image and restore partitions or entire drives.

What I recommend is the following:
1) Download and install Macrium Reflect (MR) from here: http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
2) Run MR and choose the option: "Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows" to write a full backup to an external drive or USB stick
3) Use the option to create a boot USB stick or CD

My experience is that MR, when using the High Compression option, typically can compress the saved image file to about 50% of the USED space in the OS partition. This means if you have an 80GB OS partition, and 40GB is used, MR only needs about 20GB to store the image file.

I use this all the time and it typically takes less than 15 minutes to do the image backup and about the same time or less to do a restore.

NOW, you have the means to restore a full working system from the external drive or USB stick in only a few minutes.

[MaghdalenaLogan]

The Windows 10 Enterprise was an .OVA file. Actually, I wasn't even sure it would work at all, and was expecting a performance lag. I have Acronis True Image, but so far I've never used it. so feel a little awkward,  but I'll give it at try. I do have a partition of 878 GB as I was planning to dual-boot with Windows 7 Professional and either Windows 10, or Windows 8.1. and an external hard drive on which I have all my files on, that is I pointed my libraries to that drive. I think they call it symbolic links or something. Everything but my Dropbox and OneDrive is on that, if that helps.

One thing I'm concerned about with Windows 10 is their major updates. I've heard a lot of horror stories about being "bricked out" and not able to log in at all. How often does this happen.I found at least one case where there was a solution. Something about the System Restore reading older drivers before the new drivers causing a "code stop". Is this a common thing, and what are the chances of this happening since the updates are "rolling"? 

I know a lot of questions. I don't have a problem with upgrading to Windows 10, but I want to be sure that this is a rare thing that happens, that is if I could be sure that it doesn't happen with each update, at least the 2 big ones each year. The "Anniversary updates"

Thanks again.