Reaper is good. Last time I checked it was free.
Download and install..... it's a pretty light weight app. You can only try. I think you can even run it from a USB stick.
RAM is important.... the i7 should handle the CPU side. I've got an i7-3770 @3.40GHz with 32GB of RAM running Cakewalk X2 and I throw everything at it. No issues whatsoever. The CPU and RAM meter in Cakewalk barely ticks over.
One thing to note: Sometimes wireless cards can interfere with the DAW.... pops, clicks etc. Just disable the wireless if you can't be bothered troubleshooting. This is what happened to me when I ran XP Pro. Now I'm running Win7 Pro 64 and once in a blue moon the wireless may cause an issue. Oddly it'll disable on it's own every now and then. It's most likely a conflict within the OS but I can't be bothered 'fixing' this.... so I manually disable the wireless if I need to record something.
Another thing you can do (only if you know what you're doing) is disable certain Services within the OS. Do some research on this before mucking around. Disabling certain Services that may not be required can free up RAM and CPU plus make your PC Start Up quicker. I've disabled a number of Services such as "Remote Desktop Configuration, Remote Access, Smart Card, Telephony" amongst many other Services because they are useless to me.
Here's links to give you an idea of what I'm talking about:
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6039416
https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-gb/articles/207355205-Optimising-your-PC-for-Audio-on-Windows-10
http://www.rivetedstudios.com/windows-7-daw-performance-tuning/
Only you know what should be disabled. Google lots and read lots and then 'progressively' disable Services and see if anything is affected. The worst that can happen is you need to go back and 'Enable or Start Automatically'.
-B