Upgrading current sys with Vista, to W7 - A history and some questions

I took a chance and bought a refurb laptop from Newegg. Cost was $189.00. The machine has
Win7/64 Pro, dual core, new battery and has run perfectly for two months.
BTW, I also received the disc for the OS. Sometimes refurbs can be a great deal.

Its turning out to be more pricey then I thought. Rebuild ready to go, ~$500.

Maybe a refurb Intel Core i3 or i5, with ddr3.Start at $250, but raise to $300 quick, and 20 more computer from $325 - $400.

Intel 2000 series any good?
This page is good for comparisons
Gaming CPU Performance - Hierarchy Chart - Intel vs. AMD
this too
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compar...tel_processors


I read that there is a great performance upgrade from ddr2 to ddr3. Most seem around PC3-10600 (1333 MHz) and not PC3-17000 (2133 MHz) or PC3-14900 (1866 MHz).

It seems to me a SFF will sometimes have only 2 slots for DIMM ram, not the usual 4. That can be a huge drawback. Guess the Mobo is smaller, then there would be less other slots too. I need something for SSD-HD, and a USB 3.0 card slot too.

I bought on Walmart On Line top of the line refurbished Hp tower for 325 Costco the same computer: 600. Do not listen to stupid people about bad Win 10. Win 10 is AWESOME !

SoftwareGeeks is where I bought 3 Windows 7 Pro codes for 20.00 GBP each which is $40.00 Canadian Dollars each or $30.00 USD.

I figure I would wait a while for prices to come down to get into the Skylake game. My current system is from 2008 so its time for a upgrade sooner or later.

Is SoftwareGeeks legit?
Is my purchase still a gamble?

Man looks like Software Geeks is a fraud.
Vista to Windows 7 activation key rejected by Microsoft

Its been 5.5 months now I wonder if I can get a refund with Visa.