I'm Thinking of Changing My System

Garth J Lancaster

did you fix your machine ? graft everything into a new case with decent psu ?

OriginalGriff

That's the idea, yes - OS and Apps go on the SSD, data on the HDD (because it changes more). But a re-install isn't necessarily needed - when I switched in February, I used AOMEI Partition Assistant[^] to move it - it has a "Migrate OS to SSD" wizard which did it all for me. Took less than 30 minutes for Win10 and all my apps and it did the whole thing for me! (And it's free, which is truly amazing) Win 10 didn't even ask for a key or complain about anything! :laugh:

Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...

OriginalGriff

Oh yes! 200W became 500W, fans got supersized, and the new case even has a mounting for the SSD drive!

Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...

xiecsuk

Thanks for that very useful information, OG. With it being that easy, I will definitely look at switching to an SSD. After all, I am building the new machine to get the maximum speed out of it. I presume I need to install the current HD and the SSD and boot up Win10 from the HD, install AOMEI Partition Assistant and then do the transfer from HD to SSD. I presume I would then have to alter the boot order in the BIOS to boot from the SSD.

OriginalGriff

Pretty much, yes. IIRC, AOMEI sorted out the boot order for me as well, so I didn't have to do it. And it makes a huge difference! I got a SanDisk Ultra II 960GB which is fast enough and cost me £160 (plus a SATA III interface card as my MB only supported 2 * SATA II connections and I needed three anyway: SSD, HDD, and DVD) and I can load VS2013 and the complete solution in 7 seconds - ready to start typing!

Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...

Simon_Whale

Shh!! I'm watching paint dry :laugh:

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Garth J Lancaster

excellent :-D

xiecsuk

I've just added a 240GB SSD to my new machine spec. My current system disk is only using 130GB at the moment and that holds all the progs I currently use including MS Office 2016, Visual Studio Community 2015 and SQL Server 2014 Management Studio.

xiecsuk

At my age, most of the friends I would wish to communicate with can't even use a tablet properly let alone social media. The only people that complain are my two granddaughters who, unfortunately, live in Australia. My wife, bless her, tries, and sometimes succeeds, to look at their Facebook pages and whatever else they use.

Rage

I did that a little while ago, also following OG's advice. Worked as expected.

Do not escape reality : improve reality !

Rage

OriginalGriff wrote:

200W became 500W, fans got supersized

And the fact that your PC is now an helicopter does not bother you ? :rolleyes:

Do not escape reality : improve reality !

DaveX86

I just built a box a few months ago with almost the same parts: - Intel Core i7-6700 8M Quad-Core 4.0 GHZ - 32 gigs ram (G.Skill Ripjaws 4 series) - same motherboard (I originally got a Gigabyte Z170X-UD5, it crapped out) - Deepcool Gammaxx S40 CPU cooler - Gigabyte Radeon R9 380 graphics card (tried to go with onboard graphics but it kept crashing with the Gigabyte Mobo) - 750W Cooler Master power supply - 1 Terabyte Samsung SSD - Antec Three Hundred Two case. If I had it all to do over again, I would have gotten the regular locked Core i7 processor with the stock cooler...I'm never going to overclock this computer. So far, the system is working great aside from the initial troubles with the GB Mobo and deciding after on getting a graphics card. Makes my old Core i7 920 look like a 386 :) ...the SSD made a big difference.

Lost User

To add to Griff's good advice: Take a look at Samsung's 850 PRO series of SSD's. They are more expensive than the "regular" EVO series, but are based on a new technology which is supposed to greatly extend their life. Go for PRO if you can afford it. My 512GB cost me $217. Warning: Leave the Samsung CD in its sleeve. You don't need it. The drive works great out-of-the-box. The Samsung software will offer to upgrade your drive's firmware. Do NOT do this. A great many Amazon customers complained that it totally ruined their drives. Is the BIOS on your main board capable of booting UEFI? Do you want a legacy or UEFI boot? See this (My apologies for the plug): Preparing a Drive for UEFI Boot[^]

Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!

kmoorevs

Agree with others regarding system OS on SSD. When I rebuilt my system (moved to Wen) at the end of last year, I was able to get a 480GB SSD for around $200. It was the only new hardware component in the build (the rest of the components are about 7 y/o), but really makes a difference with everything I do. It's like I got a new system for $200! Boot time is around 20 seconds. :)

"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse

GenJerDan

A Radeon card? No, no, no. nVidia, always.

We won't sit down. We won't shut up. We won't go quietly away. YouTube and My Mu[sic], Films and Windows Programs, etc.

Dan Neely

OTOH the amount of time I spent a year ago trying to get my windows install to migrate from an i7-920 to an i7-4990k I could've reinstalled the OS, all my applications, and all my configurations. *TWICE* The first time was over hardware differences; most notably BIOS/MBR to UEFI/GPT. The second ultimately turned out to be from wreckage of a decadish old obsolete task scheduler hack to work around a problem that was IIRC fixed a month or so after I put the kludge in place that decayed into registry rot. :doh:

Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies. -- Sarah Hoyt

xiecsuk

Thanks for that. I had originally specified an NVidia card using a system builder setup. I don't know how it got changed. Probably finger trouble without me noticing. I've changed it back to the NVidia card.

Lost User

I would recommend 750+ power supply, a dedicated sound card (maybe ASUS) and GTX 970 instead of the R7.

it ain’t broke, it doesn’t have enough features yet.

xiecsuk

I have a Creative SB Audigy card in my old machine which I will transfer over. IMO the 500W power supply is adequate. I am not a gamer apart from things like Sudoku, so it is just general usage and programming. Similarly, I cannot see me ever using the power of a GTX 970. I have upped the R7 up to 4GB which I think will be sufficient.

BillWoodruff

Sounds like a great system ! I'd suggest a slightly larger power supply for future-proofing. And, why go cheap on the case if you are spending this amount ? Better case, and lots of cooling-fans (depending on where you live temperature wise) can save your investment. good luck, Bill

«There is a spectrum, from "clearly desirable behaviour," to "possibly dodgy behavior that still makes some sense," to "clearly undesirable behavior." We try to make the latter into warnings or, better, errors. But stuff that is in the middle category you don’t want to restrict unless there is a clear way to work around it.» Eric Lippert, May 14, 2008