Impossible to use Coffee Lake with Windows 7?

[mopardude87]

I have been looking into a cpu platform update to upgrade my i5 4670 H81 and DDR3 1333.Got myself a bottlenecked 1070ti at 1080p and in some cases 1440p as well.

From what i understood it took a minute for like Skylake and their I6 6700K to continue being supported by 7 and well i am just gonna stick with 7 till its just dead. I tried 10 a few times and well upgrading from 7 it sure feels like trash and bloated in comparison.All games seem to run better on 7 too.

Is Skylake simply the last you can use for that particular os? Nope not gonna upgrade to that as that would be crazy but idk torn between dropping in i7 4790 and going to Coffee Lake.

What ya guys think?

 

[Iron Woode]

I am also in a similar position except I use win10 on my workstation and win8.1 on my HTPC and on my fileserver. I run an I5 4690K in my workstation and coffee-lake looks good and is affordable.

My personal opinion is dump win7 for something newer, faster and compatible. Perhaps a Linux distro if you are not forced to use windows?

Again, this just my opinion.

PS: I built an HTPC for a friend of mine this past spring using a Kabylake Pentium G4600. I wanted to run win8.1 on it but there was no video driver available from Intel. So I put win10 on it and was amazed how well this basic system ran. It does 4k/30 video and feels as fast or faster than my 4690K.

 

[PliotronX]

Since you wont be relying on the HD integrated graphics for which there are no 7 drivers, all you would need is a USB controller card. It is possible with desktops because of this. There are various other chipset drivers that will not install and may impact performance as it is uncharted territory. It is kind of a pain to inject the USB controller drivers and integrate the NVME hotfixes (if you will be booting from one) into the installer image but it works.

 

[mopardude87]

I got a copy of windows 7 on a 2.0 usb thumb drive. Would it actually be possible to install the os minus any drivers besides a wireless net usb 2.0 adapter,download the update tool then jump to 10 without hassle?

A buddy is going to let me use his z370m pro 4 Asrock motherboard then pay him for it later assuming its not doa.With intels confusing lineup all the glorious these days my buddy thought this 7700k would work with it but nope not the cast obviously. He has new board on the way and this z370m is just going to sit and collect dust.

If i use a computer cases front 2.0 ports and hook into the 2.0 headers on the motherboard i should have no issues just doing the basic install and upgrade right? Oh the back has a single usb 2.0 as well so yay.

 

[RLGL]

Will the following help? From the Asus forum:

Hi there Menthol and everyone else , thank you for trying to help and your input , i manage to get windows 7 x64bit correctly installed and fully working on my Asus Maximus XI Hero Z390 , it's a painful slow process but it works 100% for me. You will need a pci-e to usb expansion card with at least 2 usb ports , a native PS2 mouse and a native PS2 keyboard. You will need to use some software to do this = ASUS EZ Installer ( download from the Asus Strix Z370 support page ) - https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/ROG-STRIX-Z370-F-GAMING/HelpDesk_Download/ , Gigabyte Windows USB Installation Tool ( download from the Gigabyte Aorus Ultra gaming Z370 support page ) - https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/Z370-AORUS-ULTRA-GAMING-20-OP-rev-10#support-dl-utility follow the instructions on this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APcboOpP4TY and this https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=385&v=8VTC4k6SLWY. A windows 7 x64bit usb installation flash drive , Rufus. ** Follow the videos and also you need to inject those asus drivers , eg. you need to use both utilities Gigabyte and Asus to inject all the drivers to be able to install windows 7.
After you finally install windows 7 , install the drivers for your pci-e to usb expansion card with your PS2 mouse from other HD OS installation and that's it a fully working windows 7 x64bit , now you can use those 2 usb ports to use your usb keyboard and usb mouse * Go rip some benchmarks on windows 7 for hwbot , remember to save yourself an image with acronis or other software for re-installation if you ever need to re-install windows 7 again. , back up OS save image.
Important note * The usb ports of the Z390 motherboards do not have windows 7 support eg. No drivers exist for windows 7 , only windows 10 as this is a brand new chipset with all the usb included on that new intel Z390 chipset , blame microsoft and Intel for this end of support of windows 7.
https://imgur.com/POUxZWE

 

[mopardude87]

Friend of mine just bought me a copy of Windows 10 right on a disc. I mentioned my little situation and he insisted on helping me out as i did a ton of pc work on his pc over the years for free. The least he could do he said. Yup saving it for my coffee lake upgrade.

I guess someone looking out for me . ty guys so much for your effort and time put into this thread. Have a blessed day!