TL.DR: I've recently switched to Win11 on a new PC, and it's okay. But nothing to write home about vs Win10.
Long story:
At my previous job, we bought these HP "light gaming" desktops four years ago. The reason for the "gaming" part is these machines came with an i7 cpu, 32 GB RAM, decent SSD, and supported 3-4 monitors out of the box for a reasonable price (compared to Z workstation prices). The issue was that ALL 6-8 machines kept getting blue screens. During BIOS and software updates nothing to fix the issue. I suspected some thermal issue.
So, I bought my motherboard (Asus Prime Z370-A- II). and a cheap air cooler (cooler master I think) The rest of the parts came from one of these PCs:
CPU: Intel Core i7-8700 (not K), 32 GB DDR4 RAM, NVMe SSD. My old GPU GTX1080.
Installed win10 then upgraded to win11. So far, there have been no issues or blue screens of death.
I may like it more if the EDGE browser has fewer annoying and constant pop-ups.
But outside of work stuff (Edge does a really good job integrating with M365 and Azure stuff) - I fully switched my daily browser to Firefox, and it also works fine.
Your migration to a Asus Prime Z370-A- II, struck a nerve with me.
After building my new Box in the spring around the Intel Core i7-12700KF Processor & ASUS TUF Gaming Z690with much success, when my son's Gamer Box failed to climb above the minimum specs for Starfield, he had me build him a new rig around the Intel Core i7-13700KF Processor which included a GPU that cost almost $1,200.00 CAN
![Eek! :eek: :eek:](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
. (He paid for all the parts.) It is amazing with CORSAIR VENGEANCE DDR5 RAM 64GB (2x32GB) 6400MHz CL32 Intel XMP iCUE, a couple of quick M.2 SSDs; all on an ASUS TUF Gaming Z790-Plus WiFi Motherboard. (My Box is just a step behind, but I don't game with it.)
Anyway, the deal is when he gets me to build him a new Box, or upgrade his old one, I get the old gear. This time he went 100% new so I have the old Box with a Asus Prime Z370-A. (I see the difference with the Prime Z370-A-II is really about VRM stability with Gen 9 Processors.) It was about 5 years old and running Windows 10 Pro. (Yes, he's now struggling to learn Windows 11 but he'll get there. I gave him his new Box to go gaming last Sunday, and he's been on it ever since.) I did a little research and the Prime Z370-A is Windows 11 capable with just a Bios upgrade, and the Intel i5-8600K is supported as well. So you don't need a 9th Gen Intel CPU Gents.
For grins, after a Bios Upgrade, I did a "PC Health Check" in Windows 10 as I've never let Windows upgrade an OS in decades, as I'm a clean install advocate. I let it download Windows 11 and it installed routinely and automatically restarted a few times to get there. I left the room and went about my business, and came back and it was done. My plan is still to do a clean install, as my wife's Box is not Windows 11 compatible, and this will make a good replacement for her. (She also has a Laptop that I bought her for Christmas two years ago that will be upgraded to Windows 11 when she is ready.)
I must say I didn't like the "Right Click" changes so much in Windows 11 that I installed
StartAllBack and it's been fabulous. I haven't told my son about it too much as I'm concerned it may interfere with some games, but I don't know.