Do you prefer Windows 7 or Windows 10? If so, can you explain why in detail.

I do.

my reasons:

Stability
comparability
Legacy support
Easy to use
Not annoying
Has classic theme

All of these either were non existent or poor in 10, at least for the stuff I use my PC for.

It's true. Win. 7 was probably the best system ever made, for the reasons vlad01 stated above. I've owned an XP and a Vista, and none of them compare to the Win. 7  that I currently own. The newer systems are just frustrating to use and too 'aesthetic' for my taste. I had a Win. 10 briefly and I felt like I was using a fancy car rather then a computer.

I used win 10 for a year at my last job and at their customer's site.  Caused me and the customs no end in grief.  I asked permission from IT to nuke my laptop and install 7 and exactly what i did. sorted all the weird issues it had right out, even though the laptop never shipped from the factory with something as old as 7, pretty ironic the hardware was fully compatible using an OS that predated it while 10 had all sorts of compatibility issues, especially with forced updates you couln't turn off or avoid.    And how much faster it ran on 7 was mind blowing!

Win 7 for work and for gaming. Win 10 for showing off.
Seriously now it's been 3+ years since Win10 has launched and it is still plagued with numerous issues. I tried running 3DMark's TimeSpy DX12 benchmark which can only be run on a Win10 machine but it hanged no matter what setting I've tried.
Also every time a new semi-annual major update rolls out, there are ridiculous issues reported and M$ postpones the update.

Regarding HarbingerDawn's new 1080ti gpu I could never understand why companies need to build soo ridiculously large PCBs for the high end range of the GPUs. Yes I know you will say it is for more efficient heat dissipation but still they make them too unnecessarily big imho. Thank God there is a manufacturer called Zotac which builds its mini series of the high end GPUs and that is what I have purchased for my system even though it is a full size tower that can fit the biggest GPU PCBs that exist in the market.
Its performance is maybe ~5% slower than the average 1080tis out there but that is because I have underclocked it (nothing severe: just returned it to NVidias stock settings) in order to adequately cool it (never goes > 78C with my custom thermal throttling) But I can still play Elite & SE at 5760x1080p MSAA8x and all settings maxed and achieve 60fps (almost) constant.

The reason for big GPU PCBs is because of the VRM requirements, bigger VRMS with more complexity brings about features like phase dropping, current load balancing and high efficiency and higher/cleaner power delivery capabilities, a requirement for for last several gen but only really implemented in the last 2-3 gen.  GPUs in the past were quite lacking in VRM capability and now that is mostly sorted, but a compromise is PCBs must get bigger to fit all the components.

Take past examples like 400 and 500 series. Their pcb and vrm designs were so poor they often blew up mosfets due to inadequate VRM and by extension PCB designs for the GPU requirements.


The larger the VRM (simplified) the better and the better the GPU will perform (not power constrained and cleaner supply) , better durability and life and cooler temps due to higher efficiency.


This is equally important when choosing a motherboard, so much so that some CPU's will not run to spec due to power constraints (cough cough z370 and 9900K)

Just had my first drive failure in years, also first seagate one too. 40GB drive I was testing on my retro PC to see if win 7 would now install with a BIOS conversion that previously caused a BSOD on setup loading from the DVD.

I have a 500GB Hitachi on the system but didn't want to wipe the server 2003 OS just to test so I chucked in for testing win 7. I had issues with detecting the drives, both. Then I put them on separate controllers but still had lock up issues in win server when checking the content of the 40GB. I kept hearing occasional buzzy beep sounds. 

tried just the 40GB and got as far as install but getting to desktop I heard the same noise and locked up again.  Wasn't until I held my ear on the drive for the whole time that I pinpointed the issue. It randomly would power cycle itself when accessing a lot.  The beepy sound was the spindle stopping and spooling up again.

That is interesting! no loss. I have a ton of drives only this one was one of only 2-3 that are IDE which I need for this system as sata is impossible to get windows to install on.  Sil3114 controller drivers are garbage.

Time to pull it apart and have a look.

I kept hearing occasional buzzy beep sounds.

I've heard of that. Apparently it's because the internal disk has a sort of etcher for recording data. This can malfunction and literally 'burn' the internal disk, rendering the drive useless and inaccessible. The beep is a warning sound (I think).

Tell us what you find when you crack it open. I'm curious because I have my new Toshiba external drive, and wouldn't mind a few physical tinkering pointers (although I won't do anything while it still works of course). 

I found nothing inside and stand alone with power only seems to be fine.  I think its a controller board issue as it only happens to power off and back up when connected to the PC and being accessed and it's not a power connection issue as I have checked multiple molex cables and it does the same, even rocking the connectors and moving everything around does not cause it, only does it randomly itself when being read.

Yeah it's stuffed but electronically I am pretty sure.

Despite the fact that I started using Windows 10 on a new laptop just for Space Engine, I guess then I've been lucky until now, and my clients too. I can understand the need of forcing updates, the sheer amount of virus attacks in latest years was certainly one of the main reasons for that.
The fact is, when an operating system is in the process of phasing out, you better start evaluating pros and cons of maintaining the status quo. Microsoft lost a good amount of customers with the Millennium Edition first, then doubled down with Vista, packing a gift for Apple. Even most used Linux distributions noticed a positive change in user numbers.
That's why Windows 10 is approaching the rolling release concept. Will see what it brings us with time.

Zotac was a good choice for a budget price since the start, never failed me.

they often blew up mosfets

Yikes!

they often blew up mosfets

Yikes!

yep, well not you
just a random search on 500 series found this quick.
500 series aka Thermi 
 

Duhhhh, so you can eat da new graphics cards now? Aww, cool . Talk about multi-usage hurr hurr hurr. 

no but you can cook your steaks on a GTX 580!  The way it's meant to be grilled!  Jensen said so him self.

Jensen said so him self.

Well, if Jensen says so, it must be okay to cook my meats on my GPU! But I will blame him for any technical errors/overcooking .

I found this great video on GPU architecture differences for the main 3.

[youtube]cMeV-CoeIJo[/youtube]