Swapping out motherboard, ram and CPU

geraldprokop

I'm planning a "soft upgrade" for my audio production PC.  For the time being I'm locked into Windows 7 due to some legacy hardware I have.  But I will want to upgrade to Windows 10 eventually.  Trying to max out on what 7 is capable of and give myself more headroom in terms of RAM and speed so I can run newer plugins.  

Questions I have, given the specs below:
- Is this a good drop-in swap without going down a rabbithole?
- My current board has integrated Firewire, which I need (for now).  I'm assuming an add-on board is just as good?
- Open to cheaper options that still meet my goals or better options in the same price range.
- I would also like to eventually switch from the tower case to a rackmount chassis.
- Is there something I'm missing that is going to bite me later?  

Current config (going away)
Intel DQ35JO Board
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Processor

Planned Upgrade:

Gigabyte B450M DS3H AMD AM4 mATX Motherboard

AMD Ryzen 5 2600X 3.6GHz 6 Core AM4 Boxed Processor with Wraith Spire Cooler
Crucial Ballistix Gaming 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 PC4-25600 CL16 Dual Channel Desktop Memory Kit BL2K8G32C16U4B - Black

In addition to the Firewire, I also use the onboard VGA, DVI and USB ports.  I have SATA drives that I will be keeping and a 1 year old Powerspec PS650BSM I will be keeping.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts. 
Gerald

Ian

Greetings. Ryzen / newer processors do not support Windows 7 so we would not be able to recommend making those changes to your PC. 

geraldprokop

TSIanL said:

Greetings. Ryzen / newer processors do not support Windows 7 so we would not be able to recommend making those changes to your PC. 

So I assume you mean all of the processors you carry.  How about a legacy/transitional processor that would work with that board?  And then, what specs am I looking for?

geraldprokop

geraldprokop said:

TSIanL said:

Greetings. Ryzen / newer processors do not support Windows 7 so we would not be able to recommend making those changes to your PC. 

So I assume you mean all of the processors you carry.  How about a legacy/transitional processor that would work with that board?  And then, what specs am I looking for?

Ok, I found something on eBay that I think will work.  Thanks for the info.

TSTonyV

The B450 chipset is only usable with AMD's Ryzen CPUs, and unfortunately AMD doesn't officially support Windows 7 for anything that's a Ryzen platform, and their older CPUs are not compatible with the newer boards. Intel's newest hardware is the same way.

If you're looking for something that will officially be guaranteed to work with Windows 7, you'd want to look at the used market with Intel's sixth and seventh generation processors/motherboards. 

It's not that it can't work, but rather that getting it work would take extra effort and there's no guarantee it will work properly if you do. Some motherboard manufacturers do provide Windows 7 drivers on some newer boards, but it's hit or miss and AMD would still tell you there's no guarantee they'll work. You could certainly try to do it, but you'd almost certainly run into issues. For example, your USB 3.0 ports not working because Windows 7 doesn't have any native USB 3.0 drivers and needing to add a separate driver in the installation files or use a workaround like a PS/2 keyboard to do the install. There could potentially be stability/performance issues or other features not working as well.

From research I've done online, some people have been able to make it work, and some people can't. There's really no easy way to determine what would happen for you without actually trying, and since it's not officially supported, Microsoft and the manufacturers can't help. 

The alternative would be running a Windows 7 virtual machine in a Windows 10 or Linux installation.