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Building a new PC but keeping my HD
Well my current PC has finally crapped out on me and because it's one of those mini PCs with a mATX motherboard, PSU and low-profile cards; it's too much of a hassle to find replacement parts and put them in. So I've decided to upgrade.
Getting an: Asus P8Z77-V LX Motherboard, Intel i7 2700K 3.5Ghz Sandy Bridge, Zalman 9900 Max Heatsink+Fan, 8GB DDR3 1333Mhz RAM (for now), 650W PSU, Geforce GTX 660, plus all the extra bits an pieces. However I would like to keep my current Hard Drive, just to allow me to back up some stuff I forgot to back-up and to quickly get back to doing what I enjoy doing, until I feel like upgrading my HD. However apart from having to install all the new drivers, is there anything else I should be aware of when using my current HD on a new system?
And I would like to know your thoughts, on the parts I'm considering for the PC I want to build.
Comments
While I can understand where you are coming from I feel based upon your initial reasoning you should seriously give a look to the following website:
http://hardforum.com/index.php
If you go to the small form factor system section you will clearly see there are MANY ways to upgrade a current system utilizing existing parts to a more modern PC without feeling like what you have now is ultimately useless. This of course is based solely upon the fact I have no idea what your current system has in it. That said stating that you can't/won't upgrade because it happens to be a smaller size computer (whether that is the MB or case) has absolutely ZERO to do with the upgrade options available to you.
That site is also a great source of information on just about any system component you can think of, not to mention it has a section completely devoted to current online retailer deals.
If you should later decide AFTER reading over the sections I mentioned you still prefer to overhaul your system into something completely different I and the community here are more than willing to give advice.
Well I can't really give certain specifics of my current system, because I can't even turn it on to check, here's what I know:
Well the 1st thing most people will ask is why you need an i7? As in most cases the often cheaper i5 2500k/3570K will work as well as the i7. Also why have you gone for the year old CPU rather than the 3770? Some people may use the HT but if you are only gaming then get the i5 and spend the savings on a 670 or 7870. Also with the 0 difference in price you should be looking at the 1600mhz ram instead.
As far as the whole HDD thing goes i would suggest buying an SSD (my pref is the Samsung 830) install your OS on here and then having your old HDD as storage.
All your data will be on there and at your disposal. Grab all the stuff you want back it up, then format the HDD to get rid of the Windows install and all the un needed software installs and then put everything non game related back on your storage HDD.
What do you want to do with the system by the way? Is it purely a gaming rig?
After looking into the i5, I guess you're right that the i7 simply isn't worth it, unless I'm a professional visual editor. I do a fair amount of editing but not enough to warrant the i7 or any Ivy Bridge. So I'll go for the cheaper 2500K and overclock that. Also just found a good deal for some Cosair Vengeance 4gb 1,600mhz RAM sticks, so I'll get those instead.
Well until I finalize my purchases, I'm open to more thoughts and suggestions.
As an IT professional and someone that built high-end consumer PC's for the past 5 years, I will give you the following advice:
You made the right decision in terms of Intel chipset, but I would look at alternative manufacturers. Asus in recent years had been a poor value. They make very good high-end electronics, but their product offerings in low to mid range components offer little over other manufacturers for a higher price. Look into manufacturers like ASRock or Biostar. You can often get a product that is just as good for a considerably lower price.
The cost of getting a DDR3 8 Gig kit that runs at 2133 (CAS 11), isnt that much more than the other kits you have your eye on. It's worth it. ( I recommend the Patriot Viper series.)
And most importantly -- spend the money you saved on getting a reliable WD Black HDD, reload the OS on it, and stick the old drive in the new system as a backup/data dump. Please don't put anything other than Windows 7 on it either. Also...avoid onboard RAID controllers. For most users its not worth the heartache.
Edit: Forgot to mention --- if you want to save even more money...look at the new Core i3 3220. $129.00. 29 Watt TDP when using discreet graphics. Pretty damn decent gaming performance.
Windows will, best case, throw up a reactivation screen and lock out in 3 days if you don't all them (based on replacement of the motherboard).
Worst case, it won't boot at all (based on new SATA controller and hard drive placement).
What I would recommend:
Back up all your data somehow.
Go ahead and plan on re-installing Windows.
You don't need to format the drive, or erase it, just re-install Windows on top of the old install. It's going to ask to reactivate (although it may not require you to call in, depending on how long ago you had originally activated it) That gets the MBR updated on the drive, the drivers taken care of, all of the older hardware gotten rid of in the registry, and all your old files will still be on the drive (they just won't show up as installed - most programs won't care and you just need to make a new shortcut).
Why get an older Sandy Bridge processor as opposed to Ivy Bridge?
And if you've got the budget to consider a Core i7, then you've definitely got the budget to add an SSD.
1) The cheaper brands are cheaper for a reason. BioStar in particular has a serious chance of not working right.
2) Even with a quad core Core i5 processor, the performance difference between 1600 MHz and 2133 MHz memory will rarely be more than a rounding error. And with the dual core you recommend? Will that be show any difference from memory speed in anything at all other than synthetic memory benchmarks?
3) If the original hard drive is old enough, there's a good case for replacing it, or at least not assuming that it won't die. The mild performance boost of a WD Caviar Black was nice some years ago, but today, it's cheaper to get a ~120 GB SSD.
4) There's no sense in going for extra low power chips if he's not trying to fit the new computer into an ultra-small form factor. And at the same $130 price tag, it's likely to get blown out of the water in gaming performance sometime around next Tuesday.
Ah Quiz has beaten me to it.
Was going to say with the z77 mobo you really should be looking at the 3570K as already it should give a performance boost over the 2500K and as the chipset gets more settled you should see even more of a performance boost over the 2500k. Also i certainly would not be in a rush to overclock the system as well, no need.
With the current games on the market atm overclocking is more because you can rather than it being needed.
I have to say you should listen to these guys and save the money by getting an i5 and use that money towards a better graphics card or even an ssd.
I just built a system earlier this month with an i5-3570k and a GTX 670 and most games don't even touch the CPU. I don't know what kind of games you play but lets take TES: Skyrim for example, I checked the other day and the game did practically nothing with the CPU. It was all GPU.
Have the same cpu on a z77 board with a GTX 370 and it's a dream, never had issues, upgrading this month to the 670 how goes it? :P
www.daneslaw.com
@GamerKurisu
Awaiting Darkfall Unholy Wars
Any system that uses HDD technology is going to be garbage compared to one that uses SSD tech. I suggest trying to get the data backed up and then buying a 120K IOPS SSD with your new system, and going from there.
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Oops aha I meant GTX 470**
www.daneslaw.com
@GamerKurisu
Awaiting Darkfall Unholy Wars
Thanks for all the info you've all provided. A particular thanks to Ridelynn for answering one of my initial queries. I've made a lot of revisions from what I previously allocated on my future purchase. Going for the following:
Looks good, you should not be disappointed
Yeh a 660 is looking good mate - as good as a 7870 and able to eat most games for breakfast
What shops you using? My trusted sites are: Overclockers, ebuyer, scan and Dabs
Except that it isn't. A Radeon HD 7870 is a little better than a GeForce GTX 660, but also tends to be a little more expensive.
Except that it isn't. A Radeon HD 7870 is a little better than a GeForce GTX 660, but also tends to be a little more expensive.
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Well different game bench marks i have seen have seen for both these cards have them level pegging depending on the game. Sometimes the 660 wins sometimes the 7870. Now in all cases they are using single HD monitors so maybe a case of multiple monitors etc may see a difference. Also price wise in the UK both cards are more or less the same price again depending on brand etc.
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I've noticed this trend as well. Sene numerous benchmark test comparing the Geforce GTX 660 to the Radeon HD 7870 and they really are just trading places between the different benchmarks tests. So I say they are pretty much equal in their gaming performance, with minor differences depending on the: game, card manufacturer and system.
My personal reason for going for the GTX 660 is not only because it offers good temps & performance for the price, but because I feel like getting an Nvidia card this time. Just seems like there's a trend of games launching with more optimization issues with ATI cards (Rage being the worst offender). Just recently a guildmate upgraded his PC with a Radeon HD 7000 series card and was getting worse performance than my crappy mATX PC with its Radeon HD 5570. So after 3 Radeon cards, I'll try Nvidia this time.
Useful information. But Asus is consider good compare to dell.