I bought windows 8 at the 39.99 price point and installed it. Well, 2 days later I was back to win 7. I think it comes down to driver and hardware support at this point. I was having SO many issues with games, sound card, usb 3.0 and various other things that I just went back. In my opinion, unless you really want a touch based experience, there is no need. The whole 'xbox live' thing is more of a gimmick than a true perk. The only saving grace I saw with windows 8 was the built in storage options. The Windows 8 OS basically has a software raid controller built in that is extremely easy to use, and from my experience works well. Other than that, I didn't see one thing that would have made me live with multiple games not working, my sound drivers not totally working, usb 3.0 not working, and numerous other little stupid things that would make me live with it.
I do own a win 8 serial, but it will be a LONG time before I try that mess again. I had lengthy support chats with Origin/EA and others about it, and they basically told me that compatibility just isn't there yet.