Windows 7 or Windows 8?

[GhostKillahZero]

I'm planning to building gaming pc but I want to know if should get windows 7 or windows 8, so here are my specs:

• •GTX 980 Ti
  •Samsung 850 EVO 1Tb
  •MSI Z97 Gaming 5 motherboard
  •Intel Core-i7 4790k
  •Corsair Vengence Pro 16Gb RAM

I never built a computer from scratch so I looked up some youtube videos on how to build one but still have an unanswered question, If I choose windows 7, is windows 7 compatible with USB 3.0? will I run into any issues with incompatibility?

Which of these OS is the best OS for a gaming pc?

[Tapwave]

It's more of a budget/utility difference at this point. 8 has more functionality than 7, but has a rather annoying control panel for some things. Generally, I've preferred 8.
It won't make too much of an impact on performance considering your setup, which is already pretty damn tough. Pick whichever pleases you the most and fits your budget.
If you're a power user who really wants to make sure their OS doesn't bother them with too much overhead, I suggest using Process Lasso to contain it somewhat.

[Nevander]

If it's between those two, Windows 7 no contest. These days Windows 10 might be better than when it launched, and will be a good choice for the long term. However, I still stick by my Windows 7 and will not upgrade until I have to. I did the same thing with Windows XP, didn't upgrade until it came time when they "ended support" for XP. I hear it still gets updates though, at least I know it did a while after, not sure about now though.

[Graf Zahl]

Windows 8.0 is crap. 8.1 is fine. What everybody else seems to ignore is that you are using an SSD, which almost makes 8.1 the necessary choice because SSD support is far better integrated in 8 than it is in 7. Although 7 by now supports SSDs, the system itself is too old to have this considered everywhere. So, I'd say either 8.1 or 10, depending on what you think about 10 in general.

[Rachael]

Agreed with Graf but not just for SSD considerations.

7 is going the way of the dodo, soon, whether you like it or not. It's going to attain "not supported" status within the next few years, just like XP did. Its popularity alone may be enough to hold that off, but that won't last forever.

8.1 will last far longer, but it too will fall off the map as well.

If you want to keep using things like GZDoom or other new releases in the future (we're talking years for this to happen, though, like 2024 at least), upgrade to 10, now. You can disable most of the telemetry bullshit, it's possible to disable automatic updates (just set the associated service to disabled), and you can bring back the old start menu (ClassicShell) - which is enough to make the experience livable.

[Accensus]

You can disable most of the telemetry bullshit

Correct. Never use express install. It kills people. When I upgraded from Win 7 to Win 10, I demolished everything in the system drive and started anew. Also made damn sure I put each and every slider in the options on "Off".

[Hellser]

Windows 10 isn't that bad, and I've been using it for quite some time on a computer which does a ton of gaming. I recommend to follow Eruanna's and Lud's advice too if you do get Windows 10.

[Graf Zahl]

Win 8.1 should be supported long enough for the lifetime of a computer being purchased today, though. My main issue with 10 is the update policy. I absolutely want automatic system updates but I absolutely do not want automatic driver updates ever!

Disabling updates is like driving a car without seat belt but if Win 10 combines that with filling in experimental fuel every now and then I'd get a combination I do not trust.

[Rachael]

Before Windows 10 was launched (in fact it was during 8.1's time to be in the limelight) Microsoft borked updates with system-deep code - this was not with drivers, this was with kernel-level code. This effectively bricked Windows installations for my friends on more than one occasion - and since some are not computer-savvy like I am, they can be forced to do a reformat and reinstall to fix the problem.

I am sorry but I do not trust updates - period - until they have been widely tested. I will update, but it will be at a slower pace than Microsoft tries to "force" me to do it. It's easy enough to flip the switch and let updates flow again.

Additionally, forcing a restart because Microsoft has to change one line of code every other day (I don't know if it actually happens this often, but even once a year is way too much) is also a big deal-killer for me. I want to be in control of when I restart the system - *without* nag prompts.

[Dancso]

Forced restarts would be like, my worst nightmare.
So many times I keep little notepads open with stuff that's not worth saving but worth having as a reminder. I've gone months before restarting

Would someone care to elaborate in what way does Windows 7 fall behind in SSD support? I mean like, an example rather than some vague generality.

[wildweasel]

Would someone care to elaborate in what way does Windows 7 fall behind in SSD support? I mean like, an example rather than some vague generality.

Windows 7's support for SSDs has to be manually set in a few ways that are not exactly intuitive. While the installer does its best to automatically set a few of the things necessary for it to work at its best, you do still have to make sure of where your paging file is at (it's best that it be placed on a separate HDD).

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

I think the problem with Windows 7 is going to be the same as the problem with Windows XP was... even if you try to stay with it you'll end up being forced out due to the way MS updated their compilers in a way that made stuff built with them no longer work on XP, so you start finding less and less of programs that'll still work. This became an issue for me with SLADE for instance. Not saying there's any grand conspiracy but it's how it is.

The frequent demands to reboot are indeed the most infuriating thing about Windows 10 for me, but otherwise it seems quite good on the stability/efficiency fronts even on my crusty old machine (funnily enough, it performs better on this machine than XP did, which seems counterintuitive but hey, I assume it means they actually improved stuff for once instead of just bloating it up.) Personally I haven't had issues with the updates breaking anything but I've heard it has happened to some people, so I dunno.

[ibm5155]

The kill feature for me is the Xbox dvr on Windows 10, you can record, any kind of games (including dx11,d12,opengl,vulkan and even software rendered games [zdoom I'm looking at you]), and it ends up in a compressed format, the days of people using the pirate version of fraps 2013 are now gone ...
And also the edge browser, that since it's a metro app (ehm, sandboxed app) I would say it gets quite more secure than any other browser in the Market...

And it also has a plus of not having the aero stuff, so many old games that tend to glitch the color in Windows 7 will work just fine with Windows 10 (Starcraft and Armyman II, I'm looking at you).

And if you want or not, but on W10 there're gonna be more games since there are just some Xbox games going only to the Windows store.

Forced restarts would be like, my worst nightmare.
So many times I keep little notepads open with stuff that's not worth saving but worth having as a reminder. I've gone months before restarting

Would someone care to elaborate in what way does Windows 7 fall behind in SSD support? I mean like, an example rather than some vague generality.

You better get notepad++ OR, save your stuff

... I absolutely want automatic system updates but I absolutely do not want automatic driver updates ever

There's a way to disable driver updates, not a simple task, but it doesn't involve neither regedit or cmd (still, it's a "nice" feature for people that doesn't even know what a gpu is, so they'll end up Always have the latest drivers)

[Graf Zahl]

And also the edge browser, that since it's a metro app (ehm, sandboxed app) I would say it gets quite more secure than any other browser in the Market...

That's quite careless to think. Browsers have security holes because of programming errors. Exploits have the nasty habit of bypassing security measures. Normally a website isn't even supposed to get out of the Javascript sandbox and yet this happens far too often.