| Windows 7: My Future Build |
27 Jul 2012
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| | Windows 7 Home Premium x64 153 posts |
My Future Build | My System Specs |
| Computer type PC/Desktop System Manufacturer/Model Number Acer Aspire AM3400-E2212 OS Windows 7 Home Premium x64 CPU AMD Athlon II x4 635 Quad-Core Motherboard AMD 880G Memory 4GB DDR3 Graphics Card ATI Radeon HD 5670 Monitor(s) Displays Samsung SyncMaster 740B Screen Resolution 1280 x 1024 Keyboard Acer Mouse Acer PSU Crosair CX500 Builders Series (500 Watts) Case Acer Cooling Stock Fan Hard Drives 1TB Seagate Internal Hard Drive x1
500GB Iomega Desktop External Hard Drive x1
3TB Toshiba Desktop External Hard Drive x1
250GB Western Digital Internal Hard Drive x1 Internet Speed 100 Mbps Antivirus Windows Defender |
27 Jul 2012
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| | Windows 7 SP1, Home Premium, 64-bit 7,566 posts |
I don't know much about AMD, but I think that is a dual channel board. Is there any particular reason you are buying a triple channel memory kit?
Which of your drives will get the OS?
Are you locked into an MSI board, an AMD processor, and a green Seagate drive?
Is your current Windows 7 license OEM? | My System Specs | | System Manufacturer/Model Number Ignatz Special; 4 speed manual gearbox; factory air conditioning; one of one OS Windows 7 SP1, Home Premium, 64-bit CPU Intel Sandy Bridge i5-2500, not overclocked Motherboard Gigabyte H67A-UD3H-B3, full ATX Memory 4 GB Crucial DDR3-1333 Graphics Card none; graphics are integrated on CPU Sound Card onboard: Realtek ALC892; external: USB Behringer UF0-202 Monitor(s) Displays NEC 90GX2-BK 19" LCD Screen Resolution 800 x 640 Keyboard Leopold Tenkeyless with Cherry Blue switches, USB Mouse Logitech or Microsoft optical wired; either USB or PS 2 PSU Seasonic SS-560KM, modular Case Antec Solo II Cooling CPU: Scythe Big Shuriken; Case: Scythe Slipstream 800 & 500 Hard Drives System: Intel 320 Series SSD, 80 GB;
Data: Samsung Spinpoint 103SJ, 1 TB;
Backup: WD Caviar Green WD15EADS-00P8B0, 1.5TB Other Info Power consumption of this system, including monitor: 68 watts at idle; 144 watts at full load |
27 Jul 2012
|
| | Windows 7 Home Premium x64 153 posts |

Quote: Originally Posted by ignatzatsonic I don't know much about AMD, but I think that is a dual channel board. Is there any particular reason you are buying a triple channel memory kit?
Which of your drives will get the OS?
Are you locked into an MSI board, an AMD processor, and a green Seagate drive?
Is your current Windows 7 license OEM? Theres 4 RAM slots, but I dont really need a lot of memory.
My 1TB drive has Windows 7 Home prem. 64-bit.
I heard MSI were good.
AMD was the one I have been using for a long time, since I dont really know much about Intel.
Seagate were mostly showned in Newegg's builds. (and cheap!)
My Windows 7 came with my Acer computer. | My System Specs | | Computer type PC/Desktop System Manufacturer/Model Number Acer Aspire AM3400-E2212 OS Windows 7 Home Premium x64 CPU AMD Athlon II x4 635 Quad-Core Motherboard AMD 880G Memory 4GB DDR3 Graphics Card ATI Radeon HD 5670 Monitor(s) Displays Samsung SyncMaster 740B Screen Resolution 1280 x 1024 Keyboard Acer Mouse Acer PSU Crosair CX500 Builders Series (500 Watts) Case Acer Cooling Stock Fan Hard Drives 1TB Seagate Internal Hard Drive x1
500GB Iomega Desktop External Hard Drive x1
3TB Toshiba Desktop External Hard Drive x1
250GB Western Digital Internal Hard Drive x1 Internet Speed 100 Mbps Antivirus Windows Defender |
27 Jul 2012
|
| | Windows 7 SP1, Home Premium, 64-bit 7,566 posts |
I'd buy either 4 GB of RAM or 8 GB. If you use three sticks, I think your RAM will be running in single channel mode. It will work, but it's not ideal.
The Seagate green drive is OK if you are just putting data on it, but I wouldn't want it as an operating system drive.
MSI? Well, you can easily find horror stories about any motherboard brand. And regardless of which brand you buy, you can have a bad experience. Having said that, I'd go with Asus, Gigabyte, or Intel. But it's your choice.
AMD? Again it's your money, but Intel outperforms at the mid-price level or above. People buy processors for reasons other than performance and you may be one of those people.
Your Windows 7 is OEM if it came with the Acer. You intend to change motherboards. OEM licenses are restricted to the original motherboard. If you just swap the drive over, it may boot, but you would be in violation of the Microsoft license terms and you would likely run into an update or authentication jam sooner or later. | My System Specs | | System Manufacturer/Model Number Ignatz Special; 4 speed manual gearbox; factory air conditioning; one of one OS Windows 7 SP1, Home Premium, 64-bit CPU Intel Sandy Bridge i5-2500, not overclocked Motherboard Gigabyte H67A-UD3H-B3, full ATX Memory 4 GB Crucial DDR3-1333 Graphics Card none; graphics are integrated on CPU Sound Card onboard: Realtek ALC892; external: USB Behringer UF0-202 Monitor(s) Displays NEC 90GX2-BK 19" LCD Screen Resolution 800 x 640 Keyboard Leopold Tenkeyless with Cherry Blue switches, USB Mouse Logitech or Microsoft optical wired; either USB or PS 2 PSU Seasonic SS-560KM, modular Case Antec Solo II Cooling CPU: Scythe Big Shuriken; Case: Scythe Slipstream 800 & 500 Hard Drives System: Intel 320 Series SSD, 80 GB;
Data: Samsung Spinpoint 103SJ, 1 TB;
Backup: WD Caviar Green WD15EADS-00P8B0, 1.5TB Other Info Power consumption of this system, including monitor: 68 watts at idle; 144 watts at full load |
27 Jul 2012
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| | Windows 7 Pro X64 SP1 2,616 posts Danbury, CT |

Quote: Originally Posted by Razor505 Looks OK, as far as I can tell, with one possible exception:
The motherboard and CPU support dual channel RAM, not triple. I suggest instead something like: Newegg.ca - G.SKILL Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C9D-8GAO
(2X4GB). The price is $5CA more than the triple-channel kit that you list, but it's 8GB, rather than 6. There are a number of makes of 2X4GB kits listed at Newegg for about the same price; I'm not sure which is best. (The one I linked to is low-profile, so there's be no CPU heatsink clearance issues.)
Your existing Windows license is OEM. If you transfer it to a new PC, it will require a new activation, and Microsoft may refuse to do it. (OEM licenses aren't transferrable.) I have read of people persuading MS to activate a "repaired" machine, where the repair was a 100% hardware replacement, but you don't want to count on that. Budget for a new copy of Windows.
The least expensive Windows license for a new machine is a system builder (generic OEM) one. You are supposed to sell the PC rather than keep it, bust as far as I know, there's no enforcement of that.
(Or you could put the Windows 8 Release Preview on it. It's free, but it dies at the end of January, 2013.) | My System Specs | | System Manufacturer/Model Number homegrown OS Windows 7 Pro X64 SP1 CPU Intel Core I7-3930k Motherboard Asus P9X79 Pro Memory 16 GB Gskill DDR3-2133 Graphics Card eVGA GTX680 Sound Card Creative X-Fi Titanium Monitor(s) Displays As PA246Q Screen Resolution 1920 X 1200 Keyboard cheap Logitech USB Mouse Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer (old optical) USB PSU PCP&C Silencer 750 Crossfire Case Silverstone FT02 Cooling Noctua NH-D14 Hard Drives Corsair Force GT, 120 GB
WDC 1.5TB Caviar Black Internet Speed 6Mb cable Other Info Pioneer BDR-205
Samsung SH-203B
Monsoon 5.1 speakers |
27 Jul 2012
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| | Windows 7 Home Premium x64 153 posts |

Quote: Originally Posted by ignatzatsonic I'd buy either 4 GB of RAM or 8 GB. If you use three sticks, I think your RAM will be running in single channel mode. It will work, but it's not ideal.
The Seagate green drive is OK if you are just putting data on it, but I wouldn't want it as an operating system drive.
MSI? Well, you can easily find horror stories about any motherboard brand. And regardless of which brand you buy, you can have a bad experience. Having said that, I'd go with Asus, Gigabyte, or Intel. But it's your choice.
AMD? Again it's your money, but Intel outperforms at the mid-price level or above. People buy processors for reasons other than performance and you may be one of those people.
Your Windows 7 is OEM if it came with the Acer. You intend to change motherboards. OEM licenses are restricted to the original motherboard. If you just swap the drive over, it may boot, but you would be in violation of the Microsoft license terms and you would likely run into an update or authentication jam sooner or later. I changed some stuff with my build
RAM: Newegg.ca - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9Q-8GBRL
Motherboard: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16813131831
CPU/ Processor: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16819115070
Buying a new Windows 7 sure isn't cheap but is there any way I could install it with a product key? | My System Specs | | Computer type PC/Desktop System Manufacturer/Model Number Acer Aspire AM3400-E2212 OS Windows 7 Home Premium x64 CPU AMD Athlon II x4 635 Quad-Core Motherboard AMD 880G Memory 4GB DDR3 Graphics Card ATI Radeon HD 5670 Monitor(s) Displays Samsung SyncMaster 740B Screen Resolution 1280 x 1024 Keyboard Acer Mouse Acer PSU Crosair CX500 Builders Series (500 Watts) Case Acer Cooling Stock Fan Hard Drives 1TB Seagate Internal Hard Drive x1
500GB Iomega Desktop External Hard Drive x1
3TB Toshiba Desktop External Hard Drive x1
250GB Western Digital Internal Hard Drive x1 Internet Speed 100 Mbps Antivirus Windows Defender |
27 Jul 2012
|
| | Windows 7 SP1, Home Premium, 64-bit 7,566 posts |
We can help you with choosing Intel, but that requires an Intel type motherboard, rather than the AMD type board you have chosen.
If you have a valid retail Windows 7 product key, you can download a Windows 7 ISO, burn it to a disc, and install from that.
But I assume your product key is the one from the sticker on the Acer---that would be an OEM key and is not legal on a different motherboard.
I'd come to a conclusion about your Windows license problem before I got serious about new hardware. | My System Specs | | System Manufacturer/Model Number Ignatz Special; 4 speed manual gearbox; factory air conditioning; one of one OS Windows 7 SP1, Home Premium, 64-bit CPU Intel Sandy Bridge i5-2500, not overclocked Motherboard Gigabyte H67A-UD3H-B3, full ATX Memory 4 GB Crucial DDR3-1333 Graphics Card none; graphics are integrated on CPU Sound Card onboard: Realtek ALC892; external: USB Behringer UF0-202 Monitor(s) Displays NEC 90GX2-BK 19" LCD Screen Resolution 800 x 640 Keyboard Leopold Tenkeyless with Cherry Blue switches, USB Mouse Logitech or Microsoft optical wired; either USB or PS 2 PSU Seasonic SS-560KM, modular Case Antec Solo II Cooling CPU: Scythe Big Shuriken; Case: Scythe Slipstream 800 & 500 Hard Drives System: Intel 320 Series SSD, 80 GB;
Data: Samsung Spinpoint 103SJ, 1 TB;
Backup: WD Caviar Green WD15EADS-00P8B0, 1.5TB Other Info Power consumption of this system, including monitor: 68 watts at idle; 144 watts at full load |
27 Jul 2012
|
| | Windows 7 Home Premium x64 153 posts |

Quote: Originally Posted by ignatzatsonic We can help you with choosing Intel, but that requires an Intel type motherboard, rather than the AMD type board you have chosen.
If you have a valid retail Windows 7 product key, you can download a Windows 7 ISO, burn it to a disc, and install from that.
But I assume your product key is the one from the sticker on the Acer---that would be an OEM key and is not legal on a different motherboard.
I'd come to a conclusion about your Windows license problem before I got serious about new hardware. I found an Intel i5 is this anygood? Newegg.ca - Intel Core i5-2310 Sandy Bridge 2.9GHz (3.2GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2000 BX80623I52310
and I found the same exact Windows 7 I have Newegg.ca - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - Operating Systems
My total is $609.44, but I was thinking of a computer around $500. | My System Specs | | Computer type PC/Desktop System Manufacturer/Model Number Acer Aspire AM3400-E2212 OS Windows 7 Home Premium x64 CPU AMD Athlon II x4 635 Quad-Core Motherboard AMD 880G Memory 4GB DDR3 Graphics Card ATI Radeon HD 5670 Monitor(s) Displays Samsung SyncMaster 740B Screen Resolution 1280 x 1024 Keyboard Acer Mouse Acer PSU Crosair CX500 Builders Series (500 Watts) Case Acer Cooling Stock Fan Hard Drives 1TB Seagate Internal Hard Drive x1
500GB Iomega Desktop External Hard Drive x1
3TB Toshiba Desktop External Hard Drive x1
250GB Western Digital Internal Hard Drive x1 Internet Speed 100 Mbps Antivirus Windows Defender |
27 Jul 2012
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| | Windows 7 Ultimate x64 8,025 posts |

Quote: Originally Posted by Razor505 My Windows 7 came with my Acer computer. And with your Acer computer it must stay. Plan to purchase another license for Windows, as you cannot move an OEM license from the OEM computer to a new one...and that is what you are going to build...a new computer. | My System Specs | | System Manufacturer/Model Number Self-Built in July 2009 OS Windows 7 Ultimate x64 CPU Intel Q9550 2.83Ghz OC'd to 3.40Ghz Motherboard Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R rev. 1.1, F12 BIOS Memory 8GB G.Skill PI DDR2-800, 4-4-4-12 timings Graphics Card EVGA 1280MB Nvidia GeForce GTX570 Sound Card Realtek ALC899A 8 channel onboard audio Monitor(s) Displays 23" Acer x233H Screen Resolution 1920x1080 Keyboard ABS M1 Mechanical Mouse Logitech G9 Laser Mouse PSU Corsair 620HX modular Case Antec P182 Cooling stock Hard Drives Intel X25-M 80GB Gen 2 SSD
Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black, 32MB cache. WD1001FALS Internet Speed 15/2 cable modem Other Info Windows and Linux enthusiast. Logitech G35 Headset. |
27 Jul 2012
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| | Windows 7 Pro X64 SP1 2,616 posts Danbury, CT |

Quote: Originally Posted by Razor505 
Quote: Originally Posted by ignatzatsonic I'd buy either 4 GB of RAM or 8 GB. If you use three sticks, I think your RAM will be running in single channel mode. It will work, but it's not ideal.
The Seagate green drive is OK if you are just putting data on it, but I wouldn't want it as an operating system drive.
MSI? Well, you can easily find horror stories about any motherboard brand. And regardless of which brand you buy, you can have a bad experience. Having said that, I'd go with Asus, Gigabyte, or Intel. But it's your choice.
AMD? Again it's your money, but Intel outperforms at the mid-price level or above. People buy processors for reasons other than performance and you may be one of those people.
Your Windows 7 is OEM if it came with the Acer. You intend to change motherboards. OEM licenses are restricted to the original motherboard. If you just swap the drive over, it may boot, but you would be in violation of the Microsoft license terms and you would likely run into an update or authentication jam sooner or later. I changed some stuff with my build
RAM: Newegg.ca - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9Q-8GBRL
I would change to Intel if its good, but I am not really experienced with Intel, so I don't know which is the best.
Buying a new Windows 7 sure isn't cheap but is there any way I could install it with a product key? CPU benchmarks: PassMark - CPU Benchmarks - List of Benchmarked CPUs
It looks like the FX-4170 is as good or better than Intel CPUs at the same price. The Intel Core I5-2500k is very popular with enthusiasts, but it's $225: Newegg.ca - Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623I52500K
(Add more for a third-party CPU heatsink/fan if you want to overclock, which is easy with a 2500k. The k suffix indicates an unlocked multiplier.)
There's no way that you could use your existing Windows key on a new PC that wouldn't break the license agreement. | My System Specs | | System Manufacturer/Model Number homegrown OS Windows 7 Pro X64 SP1 CPU Intel Core I7-3930k Motherboard Asus P9X79 Pro Memory 16 GB Gskill DDR3-2133 Graphics Card eVGA GTX680 Sound Card Creative X-Fi Titanium Monitor(s) Displays As PA246Q Screen Resolution 1920 X 1200 Keyboard cheap Logitech USB Mouse Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer (old optical) USB PSU PCP&C Silencer 750 Crossfire Case Silverstone FT02 Cooling Noctua NH-D14 Hard Drives Corsair Force GT, 120 GB
WDC 1.5TB Caviar Black Internet Speed 6Mb cable Other Info Pioneer BDR-205
Samsung SH-203B
Monsoon 5.1 speakers My Future Build problems? All times are GMT -5. The time now is 01:47 PM. | |