Tweak my PC

dUnKle

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Few months back I purchased a PC which had the following spec

Intel Core i5 2500K Processor overclocked to 4.6GHz
Asus P8Z68-V LE Motherboard
4GB PC3-10666 DDR3 Memory
AMD Radeon 6670 1GB Graphics Card
1000GB SATA 7200rpm Hard Disk
24x Sony DVD-RW Drive
500watt Basic EZCool PSU
Onboard High Definition Audio
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OEM

Its the first new desktop I have had in over 8 years, so technology and what to do with it has slowly passed me by. I used to be very competent with PCs and often built my own but now am back to learning again

As it stands I just have the PC set up as it arrived - I do plan to add an SSD this week (just for the OS) to speed up on booting (this PC seems to take same amount of time to boot as my old one)

However just wandered if anyone has any tips, tricks and tweaks that I should be aware of to get the best out of my machine

In regards to SSD, is my motherboard (Asus P8Z68-V LE) able to handle one, does it have limits as far as they are concerned ?

Also is there anything I should do with regards BIOS settings to get the best out of what I have ?

Cheers
 
In regards to SSD, is my motherboard (Asus P8Z68-V LE) able to handle one, does it have limits as far as they are concerned ?

Yes your board is SSD ready. Make sure you plug your SSD into one of the two SATA 6GB ports (gray colour) otherwise you will not get good speeds. You can always check your speeds with AS SSD benchmark to see it's all working ok.

Also is there anything I should do with regards BIOS settings to get the best out of what I have ?


With your SSD, you need to make sure that you set the BIOS to enable AHCI mode and not IDE or some other setting. This will allow you to take full advantage of the drives features and speed. As you're installing this drive, post build, I would read the link below. I'm thinking it won't apply to you as you'll be doing a clean install of Windows 7 on your new SSD right ? But, read it anyway in case you start getting BSOD's after installation.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976
 
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Will do reinstall yes,
also ordered 4gb of extra memory from crucial so will do all at the same time
 
What size SSD have you ordered? Bear in mind you will lose 8GB for the hibernation file and up to 8GB for the swap file. You may wish to disable hibernation and/or move the swap file to your other drive.
 
Replace the cheap generic power supply?
 
What size SSD have you ordered? Bear in mind you will lose 8GB for the hibernation file and up to 8GB for the swap file. You may wish to disable hibernation and/or move the swap file to your other drive.

Ordering a 128GB Crucial m4 2.5-inch SATA 6Gb/s from Crucial itself
Is this ok ?
 
Ordering a 128GB Crucial m4 2.5-inch SATA 6Gb/s from Crucial itself
Is this ok ?

Actually ordered the Samsung 128GB 830 Series SSD kit from ebuyer in the end

hope its ok
 
I ordered a Samsung 830 128GB yesterday from Ebuyer at just past 1300hrs
It arrived before 0900hrs this morning !

I know people say SSDs are quick but was not expecting that
 
I cant locate the disk that came with all the drivers for my motherboard

Can anyone advise what I need to download and install for Win 7 64 bit ? oh and where from
 
If the Asus board you quoted in your original post is the one we are talking about then you will find the drivers you need in this link:

ASUS - Motherboards- ASUS P8Z68-V LE

Is this in relation to problems installing your new SSD ? If so, you want the SATA drivers from the above link.
 
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If the Asus board you quoted in your original post is the one we are talking about then you will find the drivers you need in this link:

ASUS - Motherboards- ASUS P8Z68-V LE

Is this in relation to problems installing your new SSD ? If so, you want the SATA drivers from the above link.

Cheers
Yeah installed the drive (painless) but need network, sata and all other drivers for MB
 

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