Dumb question, Skylake, Vista, Win10, oh my.

[Betaboy1983]

So this may be a stupid question but here it goes. I am building a new Skylake rig, and I guess all my mental energy has been going into finding the right parts for my budget but one thing slipped my mind. Windows. Dumb moment on my part for sure.

I was planning on installing Vista on it again but after hearing how Intel's new CPU's won't work on anything but Win 10 I did some searching. From what I read, even installing Windows 7 fresh on a skylake build can be hard because of USB driver issues. If that's the case I presume Vista won't work at all since it won't have any chipset drivers.

I know everyone is thinking "Why the hell are you wanting to install crusty old Vista on a new computer anyway?" I guess I forgot about it and didn't add a new O/S into my budget. Just curious if I could slap it on to use the beast, or if it will be in the closet until I can buy stinking Windows 10? What about Linux for that matter, could I put Mint on it in the mean time?

I feel like it's 1985, I just spent $400 on a NES only to realize it didn't come with any controllers.

So, my REAL question is (since I haven't clicked 'proceed to checkout yet). Do I re-build my rig with Haswel and go Win7? So much hate with Win 10, and now this. I know Win7 on skylake pretty much just means no support, but after reading about USB driver problems it just got me scratching my head.

 

[JNavy89GT]

personally, this is what I'm doing. I went skylake b/c I wanted to play with the new parts, and being able to overclock lower binned parts(non K cpus). I'm putting together now a rig with an i3 6100, 16gb Gskill PC3000, and an ASrock Z710 itx board. Have to run a stock cooler due to case I'm using, so not sure how oc friendly it will end up being. I've run this chip stable at 4.4 on a full size Z710 board so it will do that with a Hyper 212 cooler. TBH Win7 feels old to me now. I run Win7/8.1 and now 10 as well on different pc's. Win8.1 and 10 seem to boot faster and the user experience for me is somewhat better on Win10 once I get rid of edge and put Explorer back for the browser. Personally, I'm converting to Windows10 on my rigs. Why? I'm sick and tired of all the damm "upgrade to windows 10" ads MS has pimped into Win7/8. It's nauseating; so yeah I'm worn out and giving in(not proud of myself).

But at the end of the day; if you like win7, then do the patch/install and it "should" work. If you have my luck it would flake out, not install, be buggy as hell etc... Everyone else 99% would work lol. I'd say tho if you have a copy of Win7 give it a go. If not, u can download the win10 upgrade disk install and skip through the part where u enter ur code. It will allow u to use for about 30-90 days to see if u like it. If you do, then buy a key off the forums here for $35-40. Or, you could install Win8.1 and one of the start menu mods(buy key off forums here, and dl install).

 

[Betaboy1983]

Eck.. I don't have a copy of Win7.. Sounds like I need to put it in the closet until I can get Win 10, or keep considering Haswel. Seems that everything I've heard (for the most part) is a horror story in one way or another when it comes to Win10. I guess it's inevitable anyway though. This will be the 'main' PC in the house so Windows is pretty much needed as it will have to play everyone's favorite games.

Here I was thinking I could grab a cheap SSD on top of my build but.. now I might have to wait on my video card and buy Win 10 instead. We'll see.

Still makes me wonder if I could run some Linux Mint or something in the mean time. Been building PC's for a long time and I've never had to worry about this kind of crap. I am on a tight budget now though.. Life happens..

Thanks for the input JNavy!

 

[Monkey God]

I don't know about Vista but I just installed W7 on a Skylake build. Intel makes drivers for USB 3.0 so you can install from thumb drive. It works just fine. If you dont want W10 go buy W7.

 

[Betaboy1983]

Basically.. I'll probably try Vista/Linux. Either it will work or I'll wait another week or so and go with Win7 and upgrade option, or clean install with just 10. Just can't decide yet. I've always liked clean installs. I never have upgraded an OS in my life.. But just reading about 10 makes me cringe sometimes.