Upgrade hardware without Windows 10 being required

Shoza

Shoza

Shoza

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Joined
5 Jan 2011
Posts
724
Hi

I have an aging system and would like to make some substantial improvements but I am concerned by what I have read that newer hardware requires Windows 10 to run properly.

I am currently running Windows 7 with an i2500k and a GTX 970 and wish to stay on Windows 7 for as long as possible without a forced update to Windows 10.

What hardware could I realistically upgrade too, without having to have Windows 10 installed?

Thank you
 
AFAIK it is only certain CPU feature support and DX12 that requires Windows 10 and you can work around the software limitation for newer CPUs - but you do lose some of the low level feature support such as faster power state transitions which aren't a major deal but can be nice to have.

Avoiding complications like that you could go with such as the 5820K/6800K which gives you decent access to multi-core CPUs with the 2011-3/X99 platform but that isn't cheap and coming to the end of life now.

GPU wise there are no real limitations right now unless you nee DX12 support which largely isn't a big deal right now.

EDIT: One things you do lose from newer CPUs is access to security updates after 2018 but that is pretty much the risk you take sticking with Windows 7 anyhow and largely a moot point as its not like Windows 10 is a paragon security wise.
 
So would it not be worth going for a z270 or z370 gaming bundle? I was thinking about one of these with my other existing hardware (have a good SSD. PSU, case, monitor etc) already so I was looking at those overclocked bundles to upgrade the major hardware in one go.
 
Ultimately you aren't going to be any worse off I guess going for Z270/370, though a little extra complication, as you wouldn't have any of the extra feature benefits anyhow if you stuck with older hardware though the security updates might be a consideration but then older hardware will be depreciated earlier for security updates anyhow.
 
Why are you so bothered about staying on W7? Upgrading to W10 is a great move, I found it much smoother, reliable and easier to use.
 
Sparx said:
Why are you so bothered about staying on W7? Upgrading to W10 is a great move, I found it much smoother, reliable and easier to use.
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Lots of people complain it's laggy, unreliable and harder to use than Win7 and I've had so many gaming mates crash or lag out because of all of the dodgy updates for Win10.
 
I'll echo what Sparx has said. W10 is just as stable as W7 at least in my usage and I certainly wouldn't base my upgrade decisions around trying to avoid it. I'm sure some people will have some niche cases where W10 doesn't do the job but it's a good OS.

I think you can still get the free upgrade from 7 to 10 and it doesn't invalidate your Windows 7 key - why not install Windows 10, see if you like it and then take your upgrade from there with a wider selection of CPU choices, or not if it turns out you really do only like W7?
 
Shoza said:
Lots of people complain it's laggy, unreliable and harder to use than Win7 and I've had so many gaming mates crash or lag out because of all of the dodgy updates for Win10.
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I honestly also had this opinion of windows 10, but I was also needing a computer upgrade badly and wanted to take advantage of all the black friday sales that just happened, forcing my hand to upgrade to Windows 10 without using a ridiculous work around. You can untick all the tracking stuff upon first install, and I've installed the classic shell for Windows 10 and can honestly say I've had no problems and it is basically now Windows 7 to my eye. Now I've had it, I couldn't not recommend it as I've had no problems at all since install. Windows 10 has matured now so all the problems perhaps reported at launch are no longer issues, and in reality you have to remember most new updates for programs are coded with Windows 10 in mind.

The other issue is that Windows 7 will stop receiving security updates in 2020 and become EOL, which is a pretty serious deal and this could easily occur before your next hardware update, and as such may facilitate such a move to a new OS before you'd have wanted if you want to stay fully secure...
 
I wouldn't listen much to people complaining about windows 10 and gaming. Yes windows 10 has its fair share of problems but at least with gaming, I've yet to see any serious issues. It's not better and its not any worse either.

The main thing to consider is going to new hardware, windows 10 is going to be better supported in terms of drivers/functionality.

I would recommend disabling windows update, when the new updates comes there are always some problems that get fixed after a few weeks, so when that stuff gets fixed and any update won't affect gaming time then you should update.
 
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