Looking to install Windows7 on B450M motherboard, Ryzen 3200G, NVMe

I'm moving from an ancient AMD Phenom (yes, that ancient) on a AM2 motherboard (I told you it was that ancient) using a 5.25 Sata HDD (did I mention it was ancient?) to something more modern. Usage is home office type stuff. I don't play computer games outside the occasional casual game of Among Us. My primary goals are something that is stable and will reliably run for 10+ years or more. I bought my current PC 11 years ago so I do not upgrade frequently. Yes, I know the likelihood of using Window 7 for another 10 years might be low, but I can cross that bridge when I come to it. I'm planning on using it for at least the next 2-3 years at a minimum.

I have both retail and MSDN downloaded Windows 7 x64 pro iso's with valid keys, so authenticity is not an issue. What would I need to make the install work?

• Do I just go to Update your Win 7 installation media, download the updater, mount an ISO, run the updater, make a USB with Rufus and away we go?
• Do I need to run either the Gigabyte or MSI utilities to add USB3.0 and/or NVMe drivers for the install? The motherboard I am buying DOES have PS/2 ports so I can use those to skip the need for USB3 drivers to install, but I do want USB 3.0 working when I have the PC set up
• Do I need NVMe drivers to load during the instal process so the Win7 installed will see the HDD?
• I am on ESU and getting updates, do I need the patch on github that allows Ryzen's to get Windows Updates?

I am considering using a spare SATA platter drive I have that is less than a year old and was never used. I know it will be slower, BUT it saves me $60-$70 and would bypass any concerns I have about getting NVMe to work. Thoughts?

I'm hesitant to spend $400-ish on new components and put everything together only to find out I can't install my OS, or I can install it but not everything works, or everything works but not everything is recognized, or everything is recognized but I can't get ESU updates.

Thanks for your help. Ive been out of the PC building loop for a LONG time and it was much easier back in the day.

Do I need to run either the Gigabyte or MSI utilities to add USB3.0 and/or NVMe drivers for the install?

No, they are included in the 7updater

Do I need NVMe drivers to load during the instal process so the Win7 installed will see the HDD?

The 7updater integrates them automatically


You will probably need ryzen apu drivers.
Win 7/Win8.1 x64 Ryzen APU Video driver（Update 2020.12.01 Vulkan/OpenCL API support!）

The easiest way is to add those to the drivers\installx64 folder

Then when 7updater has completed, copy the sources\install.wim file into the win10 installation media

Then install using that win10 installation media ( having replaced the win10 install.wim with the updated win7 install.wim.)

That saves trying to get win7 boot.wim to work with the ryzen apu.

I'm not sure why W10 is mentioned,was that a typo?

No.


1. Update the win7 media. Make sure you put the ryzen drivers in the DRIVERS\Installx64 folder so they get integrated.

2. Copy the updated win7 install.wim into the sources folder of win10 installation media. (Delete the win10 install.wim or install.esd from the sources folder first ).

3. Use that altered win10 installation media to do the install.

You will want the mainboard and the apu drivers.

Not sure why the link points at AMD_AM4_X399_TRX40_Drivers_B6_Win7_8.1_SHA256

The latest ones from canonkong are AMD_AM4_X399_TRX40_Drivers_B7_Win7_8.1_SHA256

Ask him.

Because it is not trivial to get win7 boot.wim working with ryzen apu.

As I already said in post #2

That saves trying to get win7 boot.wim to work with the ryzen apu.

The same way it installs win10 except you have replaced win10 install.wim with win7 install.wim, therefore it will install win7.

I would probably pop winntsetup onto the usb stick and run that from booted win10 media, I prefer it to using windows setup.exe

WinNTSetup_v45b3