I did a similar "switch" where I kept my macbook/retina display laptop hardware but switched to Windows 8 for the OS.
It's been a good experience except for one thing: Apple delivers no drivers for the integrated video, disables it in EFI from Bootcamp, so it runs hot and has a short battery life when not in OS X. I haven't seen anyone reporting success working around this problem, and it's been going on for years for us "switchers" to Windows.
It's been a good experience except for one thing: Apple delivers no drivers for the integrated video, disables it in EFI from Bootcamp, so it runs hot and has a short battery life when not in OS X. I haven't seen anyone reporting success working around this problem, and it's been going on for years for us "switchers" to Windows.