Thanks, I plan on following your advice to the letter. I take it any updates already installed won't be an issue? Before I found this post I installed what's called "Service Pack 2" and updated the framework to 4.8. My install disk came with SP1.
After seeing what legit copies of Win7 were going for these days, I thought I'd check out Win10 to see if several old programs I need would run. During the install I started shaking my head. Besides talking down to you, they ask if they could spy on virtually your every action. I half expected them to ask for my social security number and if they could install a keylogger. One of my programs wouldn't run so that was that and I formatted the drive. Then shelled out $170 for Win7. Ouch.
One of the hardest parts of this build was finding a decent PSU. I had one explode on me before, throwing fireworks out the back of my comp so I'm picky about them. After doing a lot of research I decided on an EVGA G3 with all Japanese capacitors. Most places like Newegg were out but Office Depot had them in stock at a decent price. A week later with no tracking number I found out that they get them from a "partner" who was out. I cancelled and found slightly lower quality EVGA in stock at Tiger Direct. Decent price also until I checked out and saw the $30+ shipping for regular ground service. I despise that tactic but needed this final part so I bit the bullet. Same thing as Office Depot, a week later they tell me their partner is out. I was getting desperate and checked Walmart. To my surprise they had a partner with a G3 in stock so I grabbed it. The price was about $40 too high but it had free shipping. I went to check out and see that it is a Canadian company. At that point I just started laughing and went for it. I have nothing against Canada, I just figured that I wouldn't see it for a month. It came in a week and a half later in good shape in spite of very minimal packaging. Whew. I found out that high tariffs on China are the likely reason for PSU shortages, rebranders like EVGA are trying to find companies to make the components that aren't subject to them.
