upgrading my pc.. need assistance

J

jsx1115

Weaksauce
Joined
Oct 23, 2007
Messages
82
my motherboard seems to have died so its time for an upgrade.. i use my rig for moderate gaming and mostly multimedia use

current build:
evga nforce 680i LT sli
e6750 w/ thermalright ultra120 heatsink
antec 900 case
2x2GB gskill ddr2
corsair 620w
evga 8800gt superclocked
x-fi xtremegamer
1tb wd caviar black
dvd writer
windows 7 home premium

looking to get:
asus z68-v pro
i5 2500k sandy bridge 3.3ghz quadcore
2x4G gskill ripjaws

how do those look?
will i be needing a new power supply as well?
do i need cooling/heatsink for the cpu?
anything else i should know?
thanks for your help
 
Your current PSU will be enough. That upgrade is fairly solid
 
that 8800gt might be a bottleneck for that cpu no? Me looks at Danny-Bui. :)
 
hossdaddy said:
that 8800gt might be a bottleneck for that cpu no? Me looks at Danny-Bui. :)
Click to expand...

Not sure if the GPU is a bottleneck for the CPU per se. With that said, after the CPU + mobo + RAM upgrade, yes his 8800GT will be the next weakest part for gaming in that system. But if the 8800GT is meeting his needs now, then no reason to replace it unless he wants a jump in GPU performance and FPS.
 
whats your budget for the upgrade? What size/resolution are you gaming at? What games?
 
for right now, im tryin to keep it at ~$600.. i plan on purchasing an ssd & a better graphics card in the future.. i just wanna get up & running again asap
 
ok so.. i installed everything and started up the pc but it's saying no hard drive detected.. it shows in bios, and i set the boot priority to first.. is there a problem with drivers? i dont know what the problem is.. anything to with ahci mode? the hard drive already has windows 7 home premium 64 installed.. please help!

im also not hearing any beeps when i turn the pc on
 
Last edited:
jsx1115 said:
ok so.. i installed everything and started up the pc but it's saying no hard drive detected.. it shows in bios, and i set the boot priority to first.. is there a problem with drivers? i dont know what the problem is.. anything to with ahci mode? the hard drive already has windows 7 home premium 64 installed.. please help!

im also not hearing any beeps when i turn the pc on
Click to expand...
When exactly does it say "No Hard Drive Detected"?

Was the OS originallly installed in AHCI mode or IDE mode? Did you make sure that your BIOs is set to either AHCI or IDE mode?

Where there any other hard drives in your current PC?
 
when i turn the pc on, i see the asus motherboard screen and then it says marvell adapter initializing.. and then something about ahci and there's no hard drive detected.. then if i dont press del to go into bios i see the windows repair screen where i can choose to repair windows or start normally.. i tried both, neither fix anything..
the current sata configuration in bios says ahci mode, and i dont remember what mode my previous build had..
when i first turned on the new pc, i had a second hard drive connected as well, but i removed it to see if that fixes anything but it doesnt.. the boot option priorities, if it matters, has my hd first, generic flash hs-cf (whatever that is) second, and my optical drive 3rd
 
With issues between AHCI and IDE mode, you may have to reset your CMOS and reinstall Windows to fix your particular problem.
 
jsx1115 said:
when i turn the pc on, i see the asus motherboard screen and then it says marvell adapter initializing.. and then something about ahci and there's no hard drive detected..
Click to expand...
Ok, don't worry about that. Remember that you have two storage controllers on that motherboard. That Marvell controller is the second controller so unless you have hard drives connected to the Marvell, it's gonna keep saying no HDD detected. So thats fine.

jsx1115 said:
then if i dont press del to go into bios i see the windows repair screen where i can choose to repair windows or start normally.. i tried both, neither fix anything..
the current sata configuration in bios says ahci mode, and i dont remember what mode my previous build had..
Click to expand...
Ok, if you're "booting" into Windows, then it's not a hard drive issue nor the semi-common issue of the boot partition being on the second hard drive. As such, you may need to back up your data. Then attempt to do a repair install from the OS disc and not through the OS drive.
 
Set the board to IDE mode for both the intel onboard and the marvell controller then boot to Windows.

1. Startup "Regedit
2. Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SYSTEM / CurrentControlset / Services
3. Open msahci
4. In the right field left click on "start" and go to Modify
5. In the value Data field enter "0" and click "ok"
6. exit "Regedit"
7. Reboot Rig and enter BIOS (hold "Delete" key while Booting

In your BIOS select "Integrated Peripherals" and OnChip PATA/SATA Devices. Now change SATA Mode to AHCI

I've migrated to AHCI on several PC doing these steps no need to reinstall.
 
Oh forgot about going from nvidia to intel board, enter into IDE mode then boot in safe mode and install the intel chipset driver and reboot before you enter the registry.
 
jsx1115 said:
no external hd.. im on my gf's laptop
Click to expand...

Well try what m_isom said to do and see if that works.

And if you don't have another source (external hard drive, NAS, file server, another PC, etc) where you can backup your data too, might want to pick up an external hard drive even if you do solve your issue without an OS reformat.
 
m_isom said:
Set the board to IDE mode for both the intel onboard and the marvell controller then boot to Windows.

1. Startup "Regedit
2. Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SYSTEM / CurrentControlset / Services
3. Open msahci
4. In the right field left click on "start" and go to Modify
5. In the value Data field enter "0" and click "ok"
6. exit "Regedit"
7. Reboot Rig and enter BIOS (hold "Delete" key while Booting

In your BIOS select "Integrated Peripherals" and OnChip PATA/SATA Devices. Now change SATA Mode to AHCI

I've migrated to AHCI on several PC doing these steps no need to reinstall.
Click to expand...

Thank you! I had set mine up as IDE and wanted to change it. I held off thinking I would have to reinstall everything. This worked like a charm!
 
so if i were to get an external hd, how would i transfer files over from the other hd if i can't access it?
'
 
jsx1115 said:
so if i were to get an external hd, how would i transfer files over from the other hd if i can't access it?
'
Click to expand...

Ok, did you try what m_isom said to do?

As for transferring files over, on your GF's laptop or any PC with a DVD or CD burner that you can use, download the Ubuntu Linux, burn the ISO to a CD, and then on your PC, boot into the LiveCD. From there you should be able to see your hard drive and your external drive. Copy your files over. Once done with that, reinstall the OS if m_isom's steps fail you.
 
sorry, im just confused as to how to follow m_isom's directions if i can't get into windows..
 
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