Revised Mobo/CPU/RAM/Cooler questions

[m3dicat3d]

I asked about some similar upgrades a few days ago, and shook the old piggy bank in the meantime and was able to squeeze out a bit more change to update my upgrade list.

Currently I have:

i5 3570k @ 3.4GHz OC'd to 4.2 GHz
CM Evo 212 CPU Cooler
MSI Z77 MPower Mobo
EVGA GTX 1080 SC
16 Gb (2x8) Gskill Trident X 2400MHz
ThermalTake 750W Bronze PSU
A BUNCH of Samsung Evo SSD drives
Win 7 Premium

At the moment I am looking at:

i7 7700k
MSI Z270 M7 Mobo
Corsair Vengeance 2x8Gb LED DDR4 3000
Noctua NH-D15S CPU Cooler

I have two questions. I have my original Win7 Premium OEM CD. Is that usable on the new with the new mobo, or would I have to buy a completely new OS? Also, I seem to recall reading SOMETHING (can't seem to find it anymore) about Win10 limiting RAM or VRAM usage to only 4GB IIRC. In games like heavily modded Skyrim, FO4, etc., that was a deal breaker for me. I wouldn't mind upgrading to 10 for DX12 alone (though I'm a die hard Win7 fan-and DX12 doesn't look like it will ever arrive for that OS). I just don't know if 10 is worth it right now.

The CPU cooler size does concern me considering RAM clearance or anything else. The Noctua site give my new mobo a green check mark for compatibility, so I assume that it is all good, but it doesn't hurt to follow up on that either.

Anyhow, I appreciate you time and expertise, and look forward to getting your advice.

 

[UsandThem]

I have two questions. I have my original Win7 Premium OEM CD. Is that usable on the new with the new mobo, or would I have to buy a completely new OS? Also, I seem to recall reading SOMETHING (can't seem to find it anymore) about Win10 limiting RAM or VRAM usage to only 4GB IIRC. In games like heavily modded Skyrim, FO4, etc., that was a deal breaker for me. I wouldn't mind upgrading to 10 for DX12 alone (though I'm a die hard Win7 fan-and DX12 doesn't look like it will ever arrive for that OS). I just don't know if 10 is worth it right now.

You would need to buy another OS unless you are able to call in and convince them to give you a new activation code. But since it was an OEM copy, you won't have good odds in doing that.

Windows 10 64-bit Home doesn't have a 4 GB RAM limitation. Just avoid installing 32-bit.

The CPU cooler size does concern me considering RAM clearance or anything else. The Noctua site give my new mobo a green check mark for compatibility, so I assume that it is all good, but it doesn't hurt to follow up on that either.

Anyhow, I appreciate you time and expertise, and look forward to getting your advice.

Shouldn't be an issue, but that RAM is pretty tall. Worse come to worse, you might not be able to use the first RAM slot. To get around that concern, you can always by RAM that doesn't have such a tall heatsink, like the Vengeance LPX line. Or you could buy one of their smaller coolers like the NH-U12S if you aren't planning for heavy overclocking. However from your current CPU's speed, it looks like the larger cooler would work for you better.

You can see in this review how they install the cooler and don't use the first RAM slot:

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Noctua/NH-D15S/4.html

 

[Valantar]

1) Skylake is barely compatible with Windows 7. Some have had decent luck with it, others have constant BSODs and instability. W10 is the way to go.

2) Where have you heard that about Windows 10? No matter where, it's total bull. 32-bit Windows (as with all 32-bit OSes) can only address up to 4GB of total system memory, which is how it's been since the dawn of time. 64-bit Windows can address multiple terabytes of memory. You'll be fine. Also, why on earth would MS add in a limitation like that? That makes no sense.

3) What do you use your PC for? Gaming? Other heavy workloads? If gaming, at what resolution and refresh rate? I'm tempted to recommend that you hold off on upgrading until you can get a couple more cores in there (Cannonlake for Intel, IIRC). HT is well and good, but a few extra cores would make that platform last you far longer.

 

[m3dicat3d]

Hello again Valantar, just replied to your post on my older thread. This rig is strictly a gaming rig, and though I dabble with some 3D stuff from time to time, it is primarily a game machine, first and foremost.

I'll just post parts of my reply on older thread so as not to keep two redundant topics going. I actually game with an ultra wide 2560x1080. So definitely no 4K, but still chews up a bit more processing power than a standard 1920x1080. I just can't give up the extra lateral real estate for a 4K, though they are beautiful monitors. The refresh is a standard 60, and I do see frames dip below this on games like TW: Warhammer (that is with mods though) and heavily modded games like Skyrim and Fallout (the worst dip to around 30, but tends to be a more normalized dip averaging about 45). I know those aren't unplayable frames by any stretch, but the stutter effect kills me and I limit my frames to 30 typically to avoid those drops. That said, I still love a good smooth 60+ frames, who wouldn't.

Base games tend to run fine, though I'm not entirely convinced I could run ultra settings on newer games like BF1, ME: Andromeda, Rise of the TR, etc with my current layout. It is also my guess that CPU heavy titles could benefit from an upgrade to an i7 7700k compared to my current CPU, even though I have heard in the past it is still a respectable over-clocker today.

I honestly cannot remember where I read about the memory limits, but I want to say it was likely a forum for Oldrim about modding that game on Win10, where there was a reply that there was a memory limit on Win10. It could very well be that the OP was running 32-bit and I neglected to take note of that.

I'll look into Cannonlake, and consider that suggestion, thanks. Budgetary considerations withstanding, if I can swing it realistically, I might do just that, and if not, just go my current route. Hopefully it will share the same 1151 socket, but that might be hoping for too much. Thanks again!