Installing upgrade components - question(s)

Freegrazer · 17 Jun 2020 at 23:01

Hey all.

Did my very first build around 7 years ago. A modest build, certainly no gaming beast and used mostly as a home theatre type PC for movies, music, and general all round internetting.

Covid-19 lockdown has given me some free time to get into astrophotography, and image processing is too intensive a task for my current rig to manage. So, I need to upgrade the CPU, the SSD, and some extra RAM. Again nothing beasty, just enough to handle the image processing related tasks. Sticking with my motherboard (ASUS Z77 Sabertooth) as I'm not doing a whole new build.

Upgrading from ----> upgrading to:

Intel Core i3 3225 ----> Intel Core i7 3770
8GB (2x4GB) Corsair Vengeance LP ----> 24GB Corsair Vengeance LP (just adding an extra 2 x 8GB)
Samsung Pro 860 SSD 128GB ----> Samsung EVO 860 SSD 1TB

Plan is to clone my existing SSD to the new SSD, and use the new one as my main boot drive.

Have some questions before I go ahead and make the upgrades, hoping you guys can offer some advice.

1. Is there any particular order I should install the new components? Should I swap out one component at a time and boot up in between? Should I clone the SSD first, or does it even matter what order I do the upgrades?

2. Do I really need to clone the SSD? Yes it's a much larger capacity drive, but I'm wondering will my astro-image processing tasks perform better/faster if operating from the new drive which will also be my new main boot drive, or will the tasks be just as efficient if the new SSD is just used as additional storage for images I'm working on and I just continue to use the current SSD as my boot drive?

I know the PRO is a little faster to read/write compared to the EVO, but ignoring that difference in speed will the EVO be the better choice as both a boot drive and the drive where image related tasks are performed?

3. Rig is also currently rocking Windows 8.1 Pro, but I may move to Windows 10 in a while after I've upgraded. Does this make any difference in how I should approach the upgrade? Move to Windows 10 before or after upgrade?

Also worth mentioning I've already gone ahead and bought the new CPU, RAM, and SSD. Oh and I already have another 4TB of HDD storage to keep my finished astro-images and projects on, so defo not short on storage.

Appreciate any info, thanks guys.

Freegrazer · 17 Jun 2020 at 23:36

The SSD is brand new (€100), but the CPU and the RAM are used but in perfect condition and bought from a buddy (€90).

8 year old hardware for sure, but pretty much a bargain and defo needed as the i3 and 8GB certainly wouldn't handle the image processing tasks. Also didn't want to spend very much as I'd just dropped an uncomfortable ball of cash on a fancy new telescope

And yep, I'm thoroughly ashamed I've been putting the W10 upgrade on the long finger for so long!

Thanks for the info!

Freegrazer · 18 Jun 2020 at 00:09

Yeah that sounds like the right way to go about it. As you said it's worth the ball ache.

Only thing is I'd need to actually buy Win10 for a clean install wouldn't I? As far as I'm aware, I can still upgrade from 8.1 to 10 for free because the free upgrade facility still exists even after the MS imposed deadline has long passed.

Could pick up an OEM Win10 Pro for around 80 quid, and a clean install would be nicer. Decisions...

Freegrazer · 18 Jun 2020 at 00:24

Ahhh interesting! Thanks for the tip, I knew I'd come to the right place to ask my questions

Freegrazer · 3 Jul 2020 at 18:38

Hey again!

So just checking in to say the hardware upgrade has gone swimmingly and I'm seeing immediate difference in all around performance with task switching and application loading times etc.

I managed to get a Win10 Pro key (thanks again for the tip) and have the install USB ready to go for the new SSD. But I just wanted to double check something before I install Win10.

I want to put Win10 on the new SSD, but keep Win8.1 on my old SSD for a little bit while I set up and fully configure Win10 to my liking on the new SSD. Once that's done I'll then format the old SSD. I do not intend to use either SSD as storage to be accessed by the other in the meantime. So does this mean I can just go ahead an install Win10 on the new SSD and manually (UEFI) boot to either SSD as I choose each time I switch on the PC, and I don't need to worry about messing up partitions or C: drive letter designations or MBR?

It's dual booting, but independently as I will never access one SSD while booted into the other. Just that I've read some users who had issues with dual booting and drive lettering etc. so I want to be damn sure I don't mess anything up and run into problems.

I suppose I could just disconnect whichever SSD I'm not booting from each time I boot, but that's more hassle than I'm willing to deal with

Are there any pitfalls or anything else I need to watch out for?

Freegrazer · 3 Jul 2020 at 22:53

Great Stuff, thank Sparx!

So just to be clear, I don't need to disconnect all other drives when I go to install W10 to the new SSD? Every guide I look at suggests doing this in case the bootloader gets installed randomly on a drive other than the one you're installing W10 to. I don't see why that would happen but apparently Windows sometimes randomly decides to do it.

Can I just whack the USB into the slot and install without pulling all other SATA cables first?