An intro and can I make it work question:

[rbahr]

Hi All,

I am a staunch anti-win 10/11 person - privacy issues and want to find a capable system that supports Win 7.

I don't mind doing work to make this happen, but I want a solution that will just work when finished. My goals are not necessarily gaming, although I am considering an iRacing setup, but some compute intensive apps. My current machine is an i7-3770 based with reasonable ram and SSD...

That said, Win 7 supports up to and including the Skylake part, and of that the 6700K seems like the best option.

I saw a Alienware Aurora R5 with a 6700k that seems like a reasonable platform, and the question is have people made this work with Win 7?

Also looking for a good alternative that will carry me for a couple of years. I am pretty comfortable with doing 'stuff', engineer with a lot of SW experience...

I will continue to search, but so far, I have now seen anyone say 'yep, works great'

Thanks

Ray

 

[file3456]

The R5 only supports Windows 10 drivers. https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/product-support/product/alienware-aurora-r5-desktop/drivers Unless you can get your hands on hacked Windows 7 third-party drivers, your SOL.

I'd find the fastest CPU withen your budget here and build a desktop around that. eBay is a great resource for parts, but as they say, "buyer beware." My current i5 6600K came from eBay. That was 2018 if memory serves.

Protip: If gaming is not much of a requirement, skip a dedicated GPU and just use the CPU's internal. GPU prices right now are insane!

Use this website to get specs from Intel: Intel(R) Product Specifications

Use this website for AMD: https://www.amd.com/en/products/specifications/processors

I'm posting those two links to see what CPU has a better onboard GPU and for your research...

Use this website to compare Passmark scores. PassMark - CPU Benchmarks - List of Benchmarked CPUs


If you can't build, I can perhaps come up with a parts list. Then you buy the parts and have a decent, reputable PC shop build it. But, I don't like picking parts for people. Everyone is a critic! LOL AMD v. Intel fan boys v. Crucial, Samsung, etc.

 

[rbahr]

Thanks,

Picked up a ROG Maximus VIII with a i7-6700k, some Corsair memory. I was able to get drivers for Win 7. Now all I need are PSU and case, and misc stuff.

Thanks for the offer to help pick parts, been designing and building high performance embedded real-time system for a 'while'. Hopefully I should be able to figure this out, although I suspect that there is a lot of garbage out there...

Ray