i7 940, decade?

[KangarooFactory]

I built my PC in the Winter of 2009.
(Original)
Windows 7
Asus 6PT (USB 2.0, Sata 3GB/s)
i7 940 (51C while gaming)
Zalman CNPS9900 Heatsink
6x2GB G.Skill 1333 9-9-9-24
AMD 5770

(2016 Upgrades)
RM750i Powersupply
Fury X
USB 3.0 PCI-E
Creative ZxR PCI-E
SSD 120GB Crucial
1TB WD Blue
2TB WD Black

Doom Vulkan 1080P Ultra: 100-130ish frames. I know my CPU/Ram is bottlenecking my system by maybe 30+ frames in some cases.

I hate Windows 10 for various reasons. Too long to explain.

My goal is to stay on Windows 7 until 2020, while running games, Adobe, Chrome, and applications of all kinds decently. Not top performance, but not sluggish. I'm OK right now.

I was going to upgrade my CPU and Mobo next year. Saw that all new Intel chips will only work for Windows 10. Anger.

Question 1:
Will AMD make the Zen processor Windows 10 only?
Question 2:
Do I even need to upgrade my i7940/Asus6PT? What features am I missing out on?
Question 3:
On average, wow much does overclocking (2.93 to 3.5 Ghz) reduce the life of a chip?
Question 4:
I would like to upgrade to an Ultrawide 3840x1440 at some point in the future. Can I do this well with a 940 and Windows 7?

Thank you for reading.

 

[Mr Kagouris]

...All the Intel chips work fine on older Windows versions (ok, potential issues with XP or older). Microsoft will just stop supporting them officially for older Windows some time in 2017. This just means that if there's an issue (would have to be a very specific issue) Microsoft won't fix it. You'll be fine with Windows 7 (I'm using my 6600k with Win7 too).

Overclocking doesn't really reduce CPU lifespan as long as temperature doesn't skyrocket.

 

[KangarooFactory]

Thanks

 

[Viking2121]

1) I can't tell ya anything about Zen honestly, and I can't really trust what people say about it either as many like to say things and start roomers or whatever, but it should work on Windows 7 as that OS isn't exactly obsolete.

2) As long as your i7 940 is keeping you happy and it meeting your needs. I got a buddy who is on a stock i7 920 and its doing well for him. Your missing out on some things like m.2 or NVMe which all are faster interfaces for storage and maybe USB3?

3) It would have any noticeable degradation over time, and as long as its cooled properly, you should never have a problem.

4) You should be fine with 3840x1440 on that i7 granted you get a GPU strong enough to give decent FPS at that res. Most games at the res become GPU bound rather then CPU. So I really don't think you will have problems as long as you have enough GPU Horse power and Vram which the 5770 will not provide a good gaming experience at the res.

 

[KangarooFactory]

Thanks.

I got around the lack of USB 3.0 with a pci-e card, and I will get around the lack of m.2 with a pci-e SSD card. I will be out of expansion slots at that point. It doesn't seem like there's anything else I'm missing out on at this point.

I have a Fury X, which can decode h.265 and play the newest games. So that cover me for awhile.

Read what Kagouris wrote about heat, so I moved my PSU to the bottom of my case and applied new thermal paste (6 years). Moving the PSU lowered my temps to from 67C to 58C (Prime 95). Artic MX-4 paste lowered my temps further to 53C (P95). I also replaced all my fans and added two more using a drill/hacksaw and some creativity. All the new and extra fans on full blast can bring down the temps to 51C (P95).

I also decided to give Windows 10 a shot while it's still free (assistive technologies). So far it does not appear that Windows 10 has anything tangible to offer besides DX12 and MS spyware. If DX12 does not offer an amazing improvement to Battlefield 1, then I will go back to Windows 7.

Thanks again for the reply.

 

[Viking2121]

Thanks.

I got around the lack of USB 3.0 with a pci-e card, and I will get around the lack of m.2 with a pci-e SSD card. I will be out of expansion slots at that point. It doesn't seem like there's anything else I'm missing out on at this point.

I have a Fury X, which can decode h.265 and play the newest games. So that cover me for awhile.

Read what Kagouris wrote about heat, so I moved my PSU to the bottom of my case and applied new thermal paste (6 years). Moving the PSU lowered my temps to from 67C to 58C (Prime 95). Artic MX-4 paste lowered my temps further to 53C (P95). I also replaced all my fans and added two more using a drill/hacksaw and some creativity. All the new and extra fans on full blast can bring down the temps to 51C (P95).

I also decided to give Windows 10 a shot while it's still free (assistive technologies). So far it does not appear that Windows 10 has anything tangible to offer besides DX12 and MS spyware. If DX12 does not offer an amazing improvement to Battlefield 1, then I will go back to Windows 7.

Thanks again for the reply.

You should be set honestly then, There isn't a whole lot you're missing. Back in the day upgrading CPU's and motherboards after each year or you'd be really missing out. But CPU's and features slowed down a lot.

My brother still games on a q6600 and records 1080p gaming at 60fps at 50,000 bitrate with a gtx 670 with Nvidia's Shadowplay or the NVENC Encoding.

Once you have installed windows 10 to that computer, you can always reinstall windows 10 on it again later and it will be activated still. Even if you move HDD's SSD's. As long as the motherboard is the same.