Within the next few days, I will be removing my Asus Maximus Formula motherboard and Intel Q6600 processor to upgrade to the new I7 965 Extreme processor, Asus P6T Deluxe motherboard, Corsair Dominator DDR3 memory and ATI Radeon HD 4870 video card. These are the new additions due to the X58 structure. I will continue to use my WD VelociRaptor 300 gb hard drive. My concern is pertaining to Windows XP Professional. I have the retail version of the OS installed. Question: Should I format all the contents on the HD before installing into the new system or do it later when XP starts going thru it's process of loading?
If you don't mind me asking, why the i7? Games actually work better on the Core 2 Quad platform for the most part.
I only play games on downtime from doing Graphic Design work which entails some encoding of video as well.
Right ok, the 965 makes sense then. You may not need to reformat the drive at all, but if you do, back everything up and do it when XP is installing.
Ok. But this is where I get a little confused. Being that the OS is already installed on the HD then how will the new bios react. And, my main concern is that Microsoft will be able to determine that some new components have been installed when I do the automatic updates at their site. Can't they then lock your system because they think I have installed the OS on two different systems?
Not really, what they do is ask you to reactivate windows as soon as you boot. All you need to do is request a new product key by using 'activate over the phone' and following the instructions.
I did some research and found this explanation below which makes things a lot clearer like you mentioned earlier. Thanks http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1755
Hey guys ... hope you don't mind if I jump in I sure do like the sounds of your system Basenco ... I'm not building anything quite as impressive. I'll be doing my first build within the next few months & I'm wondering ... running programs such as photoshop & illustrator ... do I need a unit like you've got going here Basenco? My main needs are the speed to run these programs without bogging down my machine. Any advice you give is appreciated. Thanks. Phil
Hey Phil, I do print and web graphics for clients so speed is very important to me. I used to run a Pentium 4 system with no additional cores and using certain filters in Photoshop and Illustrator would just about crash my system in the midst of a job. I cannot afford those kinds of situations so I learned about building my own systems based on exactly the needs that are important to me. First decide what you would like your system to do for you and then put the right components together and you're good to go. I do some overclocking but I prefer not to go crazy with it as it does slowly kill your components with the over-voltages and such. This is one of the reasons I choose the I7 965. Shouldn't have to build another unit for a few years now. Thanks.
Hi everybody I'm just searching to collect my data to build a high end pc for photo and video editing (for me it will be the 2nd time to build a pc within a year). Here are my data: CPU : Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition Quad-Core Motherboard: Asus Rampage II Extreme Socket 1366 Intel X58 or: Asus P6T Deluxe/OC Palm Socket 1366 Intel X58 CPU Cooling: Thermaltake CL-P0508 V1 AX CPU Cooler Case & PS : Antec 1200 Ultimate and Antec TPQ-1000 1000W ATX Memory : 12 GB Corsair Dominator DDR3-1600MHz Video Card : BFG GeForce GTX 295 (1242Mhz) 1792MB Hard Drives: - OCZ (OCZSSD2-1SLD120G) Solid Series SATA II 2.5" 120GB Solid State Disk orWestern Digital VelociRaptor (WD3000GLFS) 300GB SATA II 10000RPM 16MB (OEM) for the OS. - Seagate Barracuda (ST31500341AS) 7200.11 SATA 3.0Gb/s 1.5TB 1500GB 32MB Cache for the media Sound Card : Creative Sound Blaster X-FI TITANIUM Fatality Champion Series - Premium PCI Express Sound Card with X-Fi 3.5" Drive It is highly appreciated if anybody can give me his idea about this combintion on hardware.
Forgive me if this is genuine, but do you actually have that much money to throw at a system? You've picked out the most expensive parts in pretty much every field.
Thanks for your reply soon. Yes it does worth to get the best parts. but if you have an idea to replace some of them without downgrading system efficiency I will be so gratefull .
CPU: i7 965 Motherboard: Gigabyte EX58-UD5 Cooler: Thermalright Ultra-120Extreme 1366 Case: NZXT Tempest Power supply: Zalman ZM850-HP Memory: 6GB Corsair XMS3 1600mhz Graphics: All you're doing is video editing? You barely need a graphics card at all unless you have a GPU-capable program, uncommon, and they don't work with SLI, so something like an HD4870 will be ample. HDD: WD Velociraptor 150GB, all you'll need Secondary HDD: 2x WD GreenPower WD10EADS 1TB, or wait for the WD20EADS 2TB drive to appear on shelves. Sound: SoundBlaster X-Fi PCI express
Many thanks Sammorris. According to your recommendations: - Is there any difference between Corsair Dominator DDR3-1600MHz & Corsair XMS3 1600mhz ?? - Is Gigabyte EX58-UD5 , which is Triple-Channel DDR3 1333/1066Mhz , is suitable for the memory of 1600mhz? or may be it has to be O.Clocked. - and away from the price difference, is Gigabyte MB more relaible than ASUS one? I'm sure will take your advice in my consideration.
Not a lot, Dominators have better cooling, but unless you're populating all six slots, that's unnecessary. The EX58-UD5 doesn't officially support 1600mhz memory, but it's no big deal, as it overclocks fine in that regard. Cheaper Asus boards are less reliable than Gigabyte but I don't think there's much difference at this end of the scale, other than that the Asus boards are more expensive.
