As I recall, "they didn't play well with win 7" was not the real issue. You were pissed that your wife's and your win7 install had bloomed to 65 - 75 gigs. And you couldn't figure out why. And when you finally quit trying to find the Space Goblins, you installed Win 10.
My Win7 install and various programs on the C: drive is now 65 gigs and I couldn't care less. That includes all the "important" (formerly Critical) Updates. I could not figure out why that bothered you and I still don't understand. There is a ton of space available beyond the win7 install, whatever the size.
I believe your hardware selection is GTG just the way it is today. Yes, it means hours of work, but think how much more you would enjoy using your powerhouse with Win 7.
Fractal Design R5 | Asus Z170 Pro | Intel i5 6600k | 16 GB G.Skill Ripjaws DDR4 2133 | Seasonic 650w PSU | eVGA GTX 550 TI | Samsung 960 M2 500 GB | Samsung 850 EVO 500 GB | ASUS Burner | Windows 7 64-bit