It’s time for the next segment in my Windows 7 installation diary. This article covers the results of the actual Windows 7 RTM (release to manufacturing) process on my main production system. Since this is a clean install of a new operating system into an existing PC, we’ll take a look at the hardware for this particular installation. Drivers are always a concern when installing a new version of Windows, so it’s worth taking a reality check regarding hardware and drivers.
We’ll also look at how well the pre-install prep I performed actually worked. Did I overlook anything? Were there any disasters, minor or major? Is the Windows 7 process any smoother than installing Vista? Let’s find out.
Since this my production system, the hardware is fairly high end:
Motherboard: eVGA X58 SLI Motherboard. Based in Intel’s X58 core logic, it’s been stable and solid at the mild overclocks that I typically run at.
CPU: Intel Core i7 965. The default core clock speed is 3.2GHz; I’ve got it bumped up one speed grade, so it runs at 3.35GHz. Voltages are standard, though I plan on experimenting with undervolting in the future, to reduce thermal load.
Memory: Two OCZ DDR-3 1600 6GB kits are plugged into the six memory sockets. That’s six 2GB modules. All are running comfortably at DDR3-1333; both memory controller and DDR3 voltages are bog standard.
Power Supply: Seasonic M12D-750EM. This 750W modular PSU is rated at 80-plus silver. This means it needs to run at a minimum 85% efficienty at 20% load, 88% efficiency at 88% load and 85% at 100% load. Did I also mention that it’s a pretty quiet PSU as well?
Graphics Card: eVGA Nvidia 285 GTX SSC. This is a factory overclocked 285 GTX that’s no longer being made, apparently superseded by models with 2GB of video memory (!). The core clock runs at 702MHz, while the memory is clocked at 2.65GHz.
Sound Card: Creative Labs X-Fi Fatal1ty Pro PCI Express. A pair of AudioEngine A5 speakers are attached to the sound card.
Hard Drives: Two physical drives are installed; the primary drive is a 1TB Western Digital WD1001 FALS 7,200RPM drive. The secondary drive is a 1.5GB Seagate 7200.11.
Optical Drive: Sony BWU-200S Blu-ray burner.
Keyboard & Mouse: Logitech Wave Pro cordless, which consist of a cordless Wave Pro keyboard and MX1100 mouse.
Monitors: The primary display is a Samsung 27-inch 275T; the secondary display is an NEC LCD2690WUXi2-BK. Both have a native resolution of 1920×1200.
External Hard Drive: Western Digital My Book Studio Edition II. This is my backup drive, and is set to RAID 0, which gives me 4TB of backup. It’s connected via an eSATA port on the eVGA motherboard.
The whole affair is housed in an Antec P192 chassis. Yes, it’s very large, but it’s relatively quiet.
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3 comments
killerplat says:
August 12, 2009 at 2:23 am (UTC -7 )
nice one lloyd. That is basically what i did over the weekend. Now i have 4 systems up and running with windows 7 rtm. So far everythign is humming along nicely apart form my antivirus, a last minute driver change has now prevent my antivirus driver engine from running. Lucky the guys at sunbelt software are already on it and are having a patch out in the next couple of hours, so i can test.
Don’t know about you but the final build is working much muc smother than the RC. Things seem to run better but a little slower. but start up and shut down has been improved alot. with start up speed i am talking about from the windows login screen till when you can start ie 8 for me its about 10 seconds with all my stuff loaded on start up. impressive.
Loyd Case says:
August 12, 2009 at 12:14 pm (UTC -7 )
Haven’t noticed speed changes, but I’m liking all the little tweaks. I’m going to do an upgrade on my laptop from Vista, and see how that goes.
pfabrie says:
August 13, 2009 at 11:29 am (UTC -7 )
Awesome article. Sounds like everything works good. Not a surprise to me. Win7 is awesome.