The Huge Windows 7 Upgrade

Posted by icemonkey9 on Oct 13, 2009 in computer | 0 comments

I'm a huge computer nerd that loves to have the latest and greatest when it comes to computers.  My main computer is actually a Windows PC which is where I do most of my work and play.  I do play PC video games, specifically excited for Command & Conquer 4, StarCraft II and Diablo III all of which are coming in 2010 (hopefully).

I never upgraded to Windows Vista because of a bad experience I had with it from Day 1 (like everyone else) and have been running XP which has served me well.  I have been closely following the development of Windows 7 and been asking friends how it's been running that have been using the Release Candidate which is available for free from Microsoft.  All signs from my friends and industry reviews say Windows 7 is the real deal and is ready to rock n' roll out of the box.  I pre-ordered my copy back in July when they were offering the 50% discount which I am happy about.  The only problem was the hardware!

I have a Intel Core 2 Quad processor that I wanted to keep as I read reports it is still one of the top processors around.  The problem is that my hard drive is nearly full (500GB) and my video card is old.  Originally I was just going to buy a new 1TB hard drive and that was going to be the extent of my hardware upgrade.  Then I learned that all the new video cards use a PCI Express 2.0 slot, which I didn't have.  CRAP.  So if I wanted a new hard drive and a new video card, that meant I needed a new motherboard.  If I got a new motherboard, I might as well get the new memory (4GB) to go with it at the maximum speed.  Oh ... if I wanted the new hard drive (on top of the two I already have) plus the new huge mega-powered video card it turns out my 500W power supply wasn't going to cut it either.  Arg.

So this quickly turned into a "Cow jumped over the moon" story which boiled down to me weighing my options with the hardware upgrade.  I decided that if I really wanted to start fresh with Windows 7, I had to upgrade now to make the process as painless as possible.  So in the end I went with the:

- Hard Drive: 1TB 7200 RPM Hitachi SATA
- Motherboard: XFX nForce 750i
- Power Supply: 700W CoolerMaster
- Memory: Corsair 4GB Kit (2x2GB sticks)
- Video Card: XFX Radeon HD5870 (awesome card, but yes I am aware of the nForce/Radeon situation but I will not be using 2 video cards in tandem ever again)

So that set me back a pretty penny but everything is slated to ship right away and will be here with a few days to spare before the 22nd when Windows 7 arrives in the mail.  In terms what this means for poker, all of the software I use has stated (with more people chiming in on TwoPlusTwo who are using Windows 7 RC) that it's 100% compatible.  It does mean the rebulding of my hand history database, but that seems like a minor nuisance compared to completely rebuilding my hardware system and installing a new OS.  Everything is already backed up data-wise, so I am not concerned there.

Anyways, that's my big news - new computer here I come!