Upgrading an old setup with a new GPU and switching from Win7 to Win10

[leznis]

Hello, recently my dad decided to finally switch from Win7 to Win10, but his setup is a bit old. I need confirmation, will everything work here properly?

 

Motherboard (the part I'm worried about): Asus P8P67 LE

CPU: Intel i7-2600 3.40GHz

current GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 (I don't know how much VRAM it has, but it's probably the "mid" solution)

new GPU (not yet bought, but will be second-hand from my friend): GTX 1060 (Gigabyte)

RAM: Kingston 4x8GB (he upgraded his RAM, and apparently didn't know that his Win7 can't handle more than 16GB :') )

He also has 600W Power Supply and SSD drive, so that won't be a problem I guess

 

So the situation looks like this:

My dad finally felt the need to switch to Windows 10 (not Win11, but it's still a good thing). Before we start formatting the drive and setting it up, he wants to buy a better GPU, and my friend is also upgrading his PC, so he will be selling GTX 1060 to us. The real problem is: Will it all work together? My dad is not planning on playing intensive games, but will probably use the GPU more than he used the GTX 660 since he likes to upscale something from time to time. (It needs to be prepared to work at 100%). The MB has PCIEX16_2, so will it be able to recognize the new GPU and transfer data properly? The next question is, are there drivers for things like this old CPU? Will Win10 recognize it, and work okay? I mean, will this CPU cause the system to lag, or even bluescreen? If the 1060 GPU is not suitable for this setup, will the old GTX 660 still work? It would be a great help if there's a site where I can check latest drivers for these specs on Win10.

 

That's it, I think. Please let me know if you need more info on my dad's setup or current situation.

 

[Needfuldoer]

18 minutes ago, leznis said:

he real problem is: Will it all work together?

I don't see why not.

 

Just make sure you have a good, working backup of anything important before you erase the drive. Better yet, pick up a new SSD, hook it up, and disconnect the old SSD. Then install Windows 10 from scratch on the new drive. That way if anything goes wrong, you can just hook his old drive back up. It's extremely unlikely you'll run into the issues you're worried about, but this will at least give you peace of mind.

 

18 minutes ago, leznis said:

The next question is, are there drivers for things like this old CPU? Will Win10 recognize it, and work okay? I mean, will this CPU cause the system to lag, or even bluescreen?

Windows 10 should work just fine on Sandy Bridge CPUs. The only problem is there aren't decent drivers for the integrated graphics, but you're using a dedicated GPU anyway so that's irrelevant.

 

By the time Windows 10 hits end of life, you'll want to replace that PC. It's far older than Microsoft officially supports for Windows 11, and while you can trick Win11 into running on older CPUs, it's just more hoops to jump through. Besides, it will be almost 15 years old by then.

[leznis]

Just now, Needfuldoer said:

if anything goes wrong, you can just hook his old drive back up.

My dad would've format the drive either way, so everything he need will be on external, backup drive. We have no additional SSD drives prepared to have OS installed, and I guess we'll just have to "risk it", but from what I understood, there is actually no risk, right?

 

Quote

Windows 10 works just fine on Sandy Bridge.

Thank you for clarifying, this does make me feel better about this change. I'm just unsure whether he would encounter any problems with weird errors popping out on the screen, because something is not supported or has no proper drivers. Anyway, again, thanks for the help. If anything comes up, I'll update the post.

[Needfuldoer]

1 minute ago, leznis said:

We have no additional SSD drives prepared to have OS installed

Is picking one up within your means?

  

1 minute ago, leznis said:

from what I understood, there is actually no risk, right?

There is always risk of losing data when you format drives. The stars could misalign and your backup drive gets corrupted, for example.

 

2 minutes ago, leznis said:

I'm just unsure whether he would encounter any problems with weird errors popping out on the screen, because something is not supported or has no proper drivers.

That's why I'm suggesting you get a separate drive, so you can easily roll back to his existing drive. If you're this worried about it, it wouldn't hurt to do a "dry run" to make sure everything works properly.

 

Remember, Windows 10 was released in 2015, when your dad's PC was less than 5 years old. It's not a huge stretch to presume it's going to work.

[leznis]

1 minute ago, Needfuldoer said:

Is picking one up within your means?

My dad wants to put as little money into this as possible, so he probably won't buy another drive.

I actually have one SSD external, but it's for our photos and videos, and in this case I don't want to do anything with it.

 

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so you can easily roll back to his existing drive

Okay, so if something went wrong, the only thing that he would lose is his drive, and then it should be completely formatted?

He is going to format it anyway, and if Win10 won't eventually work out, he wants to have a clean install of Win7, with his userfiles safely waiting on the external HDD.

 

[tddk25]

These parts should work fine together. If he is gaming there will be about a 13% GPU bottleneck, but that's ok since it leaves extra room for the i7 to do background processes while waiting for the 1060.

[leznis]

20 hours ago, tddk25 said:

about a 13% GPU bottleneck

Seriously? Wow, I thought the CPU was much MUCH slower, since it's five years older. Obviously we knew there would be bottleneck eventually, but this is just great! Thanks!