Windows 7 Clean Install questions
 

My home built computer has had Win XP Pro on it since the beginning. Here is what I have in the comp...

-Lian Li PC61B case
-Corsair HX520W power supply
-Asus P5K-E WiFi-AP edition
-Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 processor
*I have an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 proc that I just acquired...thinking about replacing
the E6750 with this...and yes, I know I would be going from a 1333 FSB to a
1066FSB ... any other downsides to this decision?
-Arctic Cooler Freezer 7 Pro
-Mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 memory
-XFX GeForce 8600GTS - 256MB DDR3 video card
*I have a VisionTex HD4870 - 512MB DDR5 video card paired with an Arctic Cooler
Accelero Twin VGA cooler ready to go into the system
-2 Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB drives with 32MB cache - brand new and
unused...plan to partition one of the drives and install Windows 7 Professional on it
-2 Toshiba/Samsung SH-S203 DVD writers
-Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music sound card
-Klipsch Pro Media speakers

I have a couple of questions in regard to a Windows 7 Professional (non-upgrade, full version) installation.

(1) Windows 7 upgrade advisor tells me that my GeForce 8600GTS is not powerful enough to run Aero on Win 7...will the new VisionTek HD4870 be sufficient?
(2) I have the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor. Will this be sufficient for the time being until I can afford to build an i7 machine sometime in the as yet undetermined future? Or should I try to come up with something like an Intel Core 2 Quad 9550 proc? Not sure I want to spend the money on the 9550 when I could put the money toward a modest i7 rig. I am not a gamer, but am a digital photographer and do a fair amount of picture manipulation as well as watch video on my computer.
(3) Will the Corsair 520 watt p/s be big enough wtih the above configuration or am I going to need something between a 750 and an 850 watt p/s?
(4) Will the Arctic Cooler Freezer 7 Pro be adequate for the Q6600 (or Q9550 should I decide to go that route)?
(5) What about my sound set up...any suggestions about the Creative sound card or the Klipsch speakers?

Thanks ahead of time for anyone who answers these questions. I do like to dabble with my computer and really do want to move up to Win 7 as soon as possible. I am waiting for my copy of Win 7 to get here...otherwise I have all the parts to begin the re-configuration. Any advice???:o

1) Yes
2) You use multiple programmes at the same time ?
If not, no need to 'upgrade'.
3) yes it will be enough.
4) if you don't upgrade ? If you upgrade, yes it will.
5) no idea.

1) 8600 GTS will work fine with DX10 and Aero
2) Q6600 is plenty fast, E6750 has clock speed advantage, both are closely matched.

regarding 64-bit Win7 Pro: would go for it because you can then use more than 3gb, and Pro edition because of XP mode integrated.

If you have the Q6600 already, then just use that. Arctic Freezer 7 will cool it easily at stock speeds.

Agree fully with JMke, 8600GTS will run Aero Glass as long as you use a current driver.

5) Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music sound card
=> it works without problems in Windows 7, I have one and can confirm it. You can find drivers on the creative website.

The 8600GTS should run Aero without a problem. All NVidia 8XXX cards can run it. I have a Gigabyte 8400GS in a HP hd7600sff with an LGA 775 pIV@3.2GHz & 4GB Kingston RAM@667MHz, sound on board (Realtek) and it runs Windows 7 smoothly with all whistles and bells. I only use that PC as a juke-box and to watch TV (has a dual-boot Win7/WinXP) because my Freecom DVB-T USB stick isn't supported by Win7...

Windows 7 supports all Creative soundcards from the Audigy II upwards.

I must add that NVidia drivers (detonator 191.07) aren't performing very well under Win7, especially with games that are a few years old. I've been playing Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion again since a couple of weeks on my second system (Antec 1200, E8400, Asus P5K-E, Kingston HyperX@1066MHz, Asus EN8800GTS-Top 512MB (@802core, 1950shader, 1101memory) Antec True Power Quattro 850W & Creative Audigy II with Logitech Z5500, Acer V243W@1920x1200 and the game 'performs' worse under Win7 than on the same system but with XP-Pro SP2... Mass Effect, Crysis and Fallout 3 work like a charm, on the other hand, so go figure.

Child's diseases, but also, and this is a personal wild guess, because of some conflicts and recalculations because there's three types of DirectX involved: DirectX9 for the game, DirectX10 for the GPU and DirectX11 for the operating system.

I have an Asus HD5870 which I tested in the above system and on that card Oblivion runs like a Concorde on XTC.... As a comparison: the 8800GTS gets an evaluation of 6.9 in Win7, while the 5870 gets the max of 7.9... there you go.

I've been playing Dragon Age: Origins on my laptop with a GTS 8800M and haven't noticed any performance hits so far, everything has been pretty smooth.

Your right tho, a 8800GTS should smash right through oblivion...try updating the drivers recently? 5870...nice hoping to grab one myself soon (ish)

I don't know, at 1920x1200 Oblivion is not dominated by last generation yet ;)
should net you 40-50fps without any fancy mods
http://www.madshrimps.be/images/vga/madshrimps22-6.png

there are however a couple of really nice looking Oblivion overhauls, new textures, new water effects, etc which really increase IQ a lot, but performance will drop, even on Geforce GTX 285

Missed the 1920x1200 :S I'm still gaming at 1680 x 1050 until my Ultrasharp U2410 shows up (hopefully soon)

Well, the 8800GTS did smash thru Oblivion like a hot knife thru butter... when running XP... On Win7 it's getting on my frail nerves, because of stuttering when going through a city gate, blacking-out for one or two seconds before I appear at the other side. Sound runs normal (squeeking and slamming sound of the city gate) but the pic blocks for a few seconds everytime.

I would like to keep the 5870 in that system, but I can't because of the card's arse being too big (actually, it's the Asus P5K-E which has its S-ATA connectors in the wrong spot) and I'm unable to use any of my hard S-ATA drives/ROMs. I had to traffic a SATA cable to squeeze it in-between the board and the 5870. Even with the 8800, I had to cut off one of the three legs (the one closest to the mobo) at the back of the card's cover to keep the lower 4 of the six SATA connections accessible.

I've got an i7-860 and an Asus Maximus III Gene mATX to go with the 5870, but didn't have any money left to buy memory :p

Sorry for highjacking the topic, by the way... :(

OK...so I spent like four hours this afternoon removing the nvidia drivers and cleaning everything up software wise...pulled out the GeForce card, moved cables, etc, etc, etc...went to install the 4870 ATI card...and guess what??? The card is too long and with the Asus P5K-E mobo, the card covered up the SATA plugs...not to mention the fact that I could not have the SATA cable and power cable plugged into my hard drives and make the graphics card fit. Aggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh. Any suggestions?

Either I need a different motherboard...or a different case (deeper so both graphics card and hard drives will fit)...or ???????? So the GeForce (8600GTS) is back in the case. Still have not had time to change proc out to the Q6600. Now maybe I should look for another 775 mobo, new case, p/s etc and build a whole new rig. Any suggestions out there. I know you all have been here at one time or another.

OK...so I worked for about four hours trying to get the ATI card to fit...but it installs right over the SATA connections on my Asus P5K-E mobo. Also, my hard drive cage is directly behind the vid card and the power connector and SATA connector stick out far enough where installation of the vid card is pretty much impossible.

I know you can get right angle SATA cables...and that is what I will most likely do for the SATA cables going to hard drives and DVD drives. Does anyone know if they make a right angle connector that will go between my power cable from the P/S and the back of the hard drive? (and where it can be purchased?) Thanks guys...bear with me as I try to get this vid card into the computer.... I still have not swapped out the Core Duo E6750 with the Quad Core Q6600. One thing at a time though, right?

I had the same problem with a Gigabyte mobo when I bought my Asus EN8800GTS-Top 512MB... So, I bought an Asus P5K-E Wifi, as I thought that, since it was a new mobo (at the time) built after the release of the 8800GTS, the card would fit... and it didn't. As I mentioned earlier, I had to either take the cover off the card (which I did until my warranty ran out) or saw-off one of the three attachment-legs of the cover (which I did after the warranty ran out)...

The 90-degrees sata cables are too thick to squeeze in-between the mobo and the ATI 5870 I now have, I'm afraid. I made a cable myself, by carefully prying open the L-shaped plug and cutting it off, without damaging the metal pins. Then I bent the connector pins and cut the L-shaped pincover to approx 1.5mm and glued it on the cable over the pins, in fact making a new, much shorter plug, which fits (but only just) in-between the card and the mobo. The fact that the card pushes against the cable and plug, keeps the plug in place, so the selfmade plug doesn't need to be state-of-the-art...

Didn't see yer first post. Best thing to do is get a new LGA775 mobo, because I managed to truncate a SATA cable for ONE HD, but I have 5 SATA HD's and 1 SATA ROM, so I did that to be able to test my 5870, not to us it permanently with that set-up.

Of the 6 SATA connections on the P5K-E, you would only be able to use 2 of them, even with truncated cables, as either direction the cables go, you're always overlapping connections at one time or other. That is, when you use more than two sata devices.

The mobo can be bent a bit, maximum a quarter of an inch, but that is still incufficient to be able to use more than 2 connections with regular L-shaped plugs... :(

Hey Jimmy...before you even suggested it, I went out on Black Friday and purchased a Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P mobo...so the rebuild is started. Now I have this motherboard, the Q6600, the ATI 4870 graphics card (still had to manipulate around the hard drive cage...one of my WD 640s at the top of the cage and one of them much lower in the cage...the 4870 fits, with a little persuasion...but it fits and is up and running). I have plenty of room for the SATA connectors because they are positoned well right of the graphics card. I also installed 64 bit Win 7 and am slowly reinstalling software...but also purchasing upgraded software so as to run efficiently on Win 7.

Next step...after software upgrades...is to upgrade my monitor. I have a Dell UltraSharp 2005 model. Not sure what I will replace it with, but was thinking of a 23 or 24 inch model. Any suggestions? As long as I am upgrading my LGA 775 board, I want it to last for a while...and when i7 prices come way down I will think about moving up to that. Heck, by the time I am ready to upgrade again we may be in the post i7 era. :o :o :o

Glad to see you were able to partially solve your problem, Dave...

I'm using three Acer screens: a 4:3 20" AL2017, which is a tad too dark and two 24" widescreens, a P241W and a V243W.

The P241W has issues with some grapic cards and won't start when the PC is booted and has to be turned off and on again separately a lot of the time. Both 24-inchers have a very high candela-value. Factory value is 400cd, but both screens have a real value of 480cd, which makes for some crisp pictures, both with games as with movies.

When putting-up a black desktop the V243 seems to 'bleed' light a lot, especially at the edges, but strangely enough that doesn't make the pictures deteriorate.

Both screens will go at around 250 euro/dollar. For each, that is.

I can't really make any suggestions, as I've always been using Acer monitors since I switched to TFT.

There's a few high-resolution screens from Dell and LG, but they cost around 1500 euro (1700 dollars). Personally, I don't feel that such a price is worth the difference in resolution. Firstly because I can't afford those screens, and secondly because for 650 euro you can buy a Philips 42" Full-HD LCD TV. Okay, so you're stuck with a lower resolution, but still, those TV sets give awesome pictures...

By what I know from reading around, I guess Acer or Samsung seem to be the best bets, in respect with value for money.

Maybe you could go to big surface markets where there's a lot of screens on display. That's a nice way to see the differences in illumination, contrast and colour. Screens on display usually have their factory settings, so you won't be fooled there.

Good luck mate ;-)


JJ