I have little experience with windows and am only starting to get into more intense tasks and gaming. I have not used 8 and have only used 7 to do web browsing at a friends house. Money is not an issue I can afford either for my build.
No point in getting windows 8 if you like 7 already.
Personally, I recommend 8** more than I do 7 nowadays. It's generally faster in games, booting up, etc. DO NOT upgrade to 8.1 though, it's just... no (when it comes to video games anyway).
*if you're using windows 8, download startisback for it (watch Tek Synd's vid on it)
**There's a program that does the same thing as shadow copy from win7 that I also recommend.. I think it's called shadow explorer or something, I highly recommend it.
Microsoft is offering a free trial on Win8.1 enterprise edition for 90 days right now. Might be a good way to see if you like it or not. You can get more info about it here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/hh699156.aspx#