Ferry_vO
Retired SOH Administrator
It's been almost four year since I bought my computer, during which time I only upgraded a video card once, so I decided it was time to do a big overhaul. Yesterday I ordered the components I wanted and they arrived today. While I'm typing this I'm still in the process of installing all sorts of software but since I've been busy all afternoon and most evening I thought I'd write a bit about the process.
My old computer was an i7-920 (2.67Ghz running at 3.25 with a stock cooler), 1Tb Samsung HDD, nVidia 560Ti videocard that replaced the GTX275 it came with originally and 6Gb 1333mhz RAM. The motherboard was an MSI X58 Pro.
From my old computer I retained the video card for now, but I will replace it later this year (The GTX770 looks promising). Also the Cooler master HAF 922 case, 700 Watt power supply, monitor, mouse and keyboard and the HDD.
New components are an i7 3770K (3.5 GHz stock) with Cooler master Hyper 212 evo cooler, Asus P8Z77-pro motherboard, 8Gb Corsair Vengeance RAM, 2Tb Western Digital HDD and a Samsung 120Gb 840 pro SDD.
So this stack of boxes arrived today:
A close up of the rather cool looking memory modules:
The motherboard; not my first choice as I wanted the Asus Sabretooth but of course I had to wait another month before it would be delivered, so I went with my slightly cheaper second choice:
Both RAM modules installed:
The stock intel cooler on the left, the 212 Evo on the right; can't believe how big it is!:
The 212 with the fan removed, the copper heatpipes are clearly visible:
A tight fit, in fact I had to remove the RAM closest to the cooler to install it properly. Not the easiest thing to install as you need more than two hands really... :
The motherboard screwed into the case, an easy job as it fits perfectly on the same stand-offs as the previous board. Plenty of cooling as you can see!:
The SSD is very small compared to regular 3.5" disks, but none seem to come with cables or mounting brackets! Since most SSD's are 2.5" wide it should fit in a floppy disk space, but since those disappeared a long time ago, there are no 2.5" slots in most cases these days anymore! Solutions found on the net include double-sided tape, velcro and even blu-tac while others seem to prefer to not mount it at all... Not an option as I do sometimes move my case so I got a pair of spare screws I had lying around and screwed the SSd\D to the chassis just below the DVD drive, where I found two holes that fit perfect. A somewhat more elegant solution than blu-tac or velcro!:
Installation so far have not been easy unfortunately, some software problems, one crash and at one point the SSD (With windows on it!) disappeared leaving me with only the DVD drive... shutting down and unplugging solved that problem and it never occured again (Fingers crossed!). Panda AV crashed when I lost internet connection and it is not working at the moment and I can't seem to reinstall or remove it?
All disks are working now though; the SSD I'll keep for Win7, the WD 2Tb disk is split in two with one part for Flightsims and the other half for other games while the old Samsung 1Tb will only be used for backups, photos and music.
The boot up from the SSD is lightning quick; less than 10 seconds on a clean install! No doubt it will get slower in time with more stuff installed though. Noise levels are very low, but I've yet to push it to its limits, something I will do once Steam is done downloading Far Cry 3.
My old computer was an i7-920 (2.67Ghz running at 3.25 with a stock cooler), 1Tb Samsung HDD, nVidia 560Ti videocard that replaced the GTX275 it came with originally and 6Gb 1333mhz RAM. The motherboard was an MSI X58 Pro.
From my old computer I retained the video card for now, but I will replace it later this year (The GTX770 looks promising). Also the Cooler master HAF 922 case, 700 Watt power supply, monitor, mouse and keyboard and the HDD.
New components are an i7 3770K (3.5 GHz stock) with Cooler master Hyper 212 evo cooler, Asus P8Z77-pro motherboard, 8Gb Corsair Vengeance RAM, 2Tb Western Digital HDD and a Samsung 120Gb 840 pro SDD.
So this stack of boxes arrived today:
A close up of the rather cool looking memory modules:
The motherboard; not my first choice as I wanted the Asus Sabretooth but of course I had to wait another month before it would be delivered, so I went with my slightly cheaper second choice:
Both RAM modules installed:
The stock intel cooler on the left, the 212 Evo on the right; can't believe how big it is!:
The 212 with the fan removed, the copper heatpipes are clearly visible:
A tight fit, in fact I had to remove the RAM closest to the cooler to install it properly. Not the easiest thing to install as you need more than two hands really... :
The motherboard screwed into the case, an easy job as it fits perfectly on the same stand-offs as the previous board. Plenty of cooling as you can see!:
The SSD is very small compared to regular 3.5" disks, but none seem to come with cables or mounting brackets! Since most SSD's are 2.5" wide it should fit in a floppy disk space, but since those disappeared a long time ago, there are no 2.5" slots in most cases these days anymore! Solutions found on the net include double-sided tape, velcro and even blu-tac while others seem to prefer to not mount it at all... Not an option as I do sometimes move my case so I got a pair of spare screws I had lying around and screwed the SSd\D to the chassis just below the DVD drive, where I found two holes that fit perfect. A somewhat more elegant solution than blu-tac or velcro!:
Installation so far have not been easy unfortunately, some software problems, one crash and at one point the SSD (With windows on it!) disappeared leaving me with only the DVD drive... shutting down and unplugging solved that problem and it never occured again (Fingers crossed!). Panda AV crashed when I lost internet connection and it is not working at the moment and I can't seem to reinstall or remove it?
All disks are working now though; the SSD I'll keep for Win7, the WD 2Tb disk is split in two with one part for Flightsims and the other half for other games while the old Samsung 1Tb will only be used for backups, photos and music.
The boot up from the SSD is lightning quick; less than 10 seconds on a clean install! No doubt it will get slower in time with more stuff installed though. Noise levels are very low, but I've yet to push it to its limits, something I will do once Steam is done downloading Far Cry 3.
