carkins,

Dell uses propietary motherboards so you would also have have problems there. I've got an 8yr old Dell in the closet. It was a hoss in it's day, but I wouldn't even consider trying to upgrade it.

As far as Win 8 goes, my son just bought a new laptop and hated the interface. He was going to wipe it and install Win 7. I told him to download this app for $4.99:

Stardock Start 8.

http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/

He now loves Win 8. It brings back Win 7 functionality and even gives a few new tricks for Win 8. You can also switch back and forth between the two.