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espresso
07-29-2012, 06:34 AM
First name: Mario
State: CA
Month and date of completion: July 20
Case: Antec Sonata III
Operating system used: windows 7 ultimate 64 bit
Motherboard brand and model used: ASUS P8Z77V LK
Processor brand and speed used:Intel Core i7-3770
Video card brand and model: Sapphire Radeon HD 7750
Amount of system memory: 16GB Crucial Ballistix
Hard drive brand and size: Crucial M4 SSD 120GB (system and programs) + 3 7200rpm 1TB drives for storage and backup
Other: Firewire card

Assembly was pretty straightforward. The hairiest part was probably the system panel connectors, which are tiny and have to be matched to tiny pins on the motherboard. First and second boots went without a hitch.

On first running the Windows Experience Index, the SSD was rated at 5.9. After installing ASUS and Intel drivers, that went up to 7.9.
The information about optimizing an SSD at Sean's Windows 7 Install & Optimization Guide for SSDs & HDDs (http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/seans-windows-7-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdds) came in handy.

The mobo I'm using comes with 2 6GB/s SATA ports and 4 3GB/s SATA ports, but you use up two of the latter to connect the optical drive and a front panel eSATA port. Since I've installed an SSD and three HDDs, all my ports are taken, even though the case has room for one more HDD. If I ever add another internal HDD, I'll disconnect the eSATA port, which I'm unlikely to use.

Thanks to My Super PC for the info.

RickyTick
07-29-2012, 08:33 AM
Congratulations on a super build. Glad everything went well.

Rob
07-30-2012, 09:13 AM
Congratulations on building your own computer! Thanks for the good words and sharing your experiences.