17.5TB of storage? Wow!

I have a RX 580 with 8GB GDDR5 on it.  It more than fits any needs I have. But then, I only have a Ryzen 7 1700 8 core hyper to 16.

I just jumped to a GTX 1060 3gb from a GTX 750TI. It seems my psu has 2 6 pin connectors, plus the 1060 was $85. I have an older HP ENVY. I upgraded the cpu from a Intel 4430 to a 4970 with 32gb of DDR3 memory. 

Soon I'll be putting together a parts list for a new one. I'd like to go with a 9700K and a 2060 gpu. We'll see.

Well the 2x Crucial 500Gb M.2 SSDs arrived this morning, as did the other Coolermaster case.... and WOW, I like it better than the CoolerMaster Cosmos II.   While it isn't a Super tower like the cosmos II, it has fantastic cabling options where pretty much all the wiring and stuff is hidden from view with removable plates/covers. 

So, the new case is more compact and is so aesthetically pleasing, that I'm seriously thinking that I will rebuild the Big Beastie in the new case and relocate my AMD Ryzen 1700X build to the bigger case.  Having said that, however, I still love my Cosmos II and will continue to use it as a hub for storing my music, family photos and video clips that I've accumulated over the years.

Sure, it is going to require more work to swap things around, but at the end of the day it's going to be well worth it, practically and aesthetically.... and it's not that I'll lose all the music or family stuff on what will become my primary PC, I'll be able to access it on the home network, and there's always USB sticks if ever I need them.

Anyway, here's some pics of the new case:

The photography ain't the best, but it was never one of my strong points.  I usually leave that sort of thing to Shaunna, but she's not here at the moment so I had to do it myself.

So, what do you folk think about swapping the ThreadRipper build into the new case?  Personally, I like the idea, despite the extra work involved to set it all up, as it would end up being two builds I'd be doing.  I think I've made up my mind, though.... and the ThreadRipper build in the new case would make it easier and a hell of a lot lighter to move around, especially if I needed to take it into the shop for some reason.

I have a question Mark, where do the drives go, I don't see a drive rack.   

Beautiful setup Mate! Cheers!         

Well I made some progress, though not as much as I would have liked.... too many distractions and interruptions during the day to achieve much, then at 1.00am [Friday morning], Bianca rang us to say that her bloke had taken a bad turn and needed to go to hospital.  Shaunna went to the hospital to be of support to them both, and now I can't sleep because I'm concerned.

Anyway, I did some work on the build and got some pics to show you all:

That was earlier in the day where I managed to install the motherboard; CPU and cooler; RAM and the M.2 SSDs.

This one was taken after Bianca rang and I couldn't get back to sleep.

Another, slightly better one.  It's 3.20am and I'm awaiting a call from Shaunna to update me on what happened/is going on, so may as well do a bit more so I'm not sitting here twiddling my thumbs.

It will look a heck of a lot better when I'm done connecting stuff and the cabling is neat and tidy.  Sure, the case has covers and poor cabling could get hidden behind them, but I was always taught that it's better to take the time and do it well than to do a sloppy job and not be able to have any pride in the final product.

I'll post a few more piccies before I replace the covers, so stay tuned and be prepared to be totally amazed at what will be the most exciting event in history.

Hah; "there's not much more to do"  Famous last words as I had an absolute **** of a day.  The machine I'm currently on shat itself and I had no end of trouble getting it running again.  I tried system restores, recovery images and repairs via the installation disc, but nothing worked.  Something was preventing any attempt at repairs, so I tried to boot from disc and perform a reformat, still no go.

In the end I had to use my HP 2-in-1 to wipe the OS drive and create another Windows image, but even that wasn't going well.  I used 5 Sony DVDs and the burn failed each time.  They are a good brand, right?  Not so today!  I managed to find some no-name brand discs and the first burn with those worked first time.  So I ran it in the contrary machine and Windows installed without issue.

So why was it so important to get this machine going when I've built another, more powerful one?  Apart from my HP 2-in-1, this is the only working PC in the house just now, the new one still needs a bit of work, and I needed a PC to do some important stuff.  Besides, I don't have a spare copy of Windows even if I did get the new one started up.

Anyway, tomorrow is another [hopefully better] day.  I'll get myself a legit Win 10 license and get the new beastie running...... so 'til then.

 All I have is a copy of Win 8 and a copy of Win 8.1.... both have been used to upgrade to 10 before.  I don't think you can use a copy twice to upgrade, can you?  I did have a copy of 7 gifted to me, and it did activate okay, but one day it popped up a message in the lower right hand corner saying that it was not a legitimate copy.  MS reckoned that it expired and that I should purchase a Win 10 license.  What bullshit!  I have 3 copies of XP and none of those expired.  Shame I can't use those to upgrade.

I was going to go to a site that majorgeeks links to and buy a 2 machine license for 48 bucks, but if [?] I can use the old Win 8 copy to upgrade then I'll just use that instead.  Damned computers, especially this one.  I've had nothing but trouble with it since day dot.  I had to RTM the motherboard twice because of BIOS issues  Damned ASUS; damned Intel.  Won't ever be going that way again, I'll stick to AMD, especially since the Ryzen series has up and beaten Intel counterparts on many an occasion.  And no, I'm not an AMD fanboi, it's just that I never had the issues with AMD based products as those I've had with this POS.

Anyway, I doubt very much if I'll ever build another PC, given the pain in my hands these days.  I had a cortisone needle in each hand about a year ago, but they aren't helping much with the pain anymore, and PC building requires healthy hands.... well hands healthier than mine, at least.

It hasn't been active for perhaps a couple of years now so I'll give the Win 8 a try to see if it'll upgrade to 10.  I have nothing to lose.  If it does then good, and if not, I'll do what I was planning anyway and get that 2 machine license I mentioned before.

Heaven forbid!  I'd rather not have to, but my new beastie needs an OS and I mightn't have a choice if the old Win 8 doesn't upgrade.  Thing is, if it comes to that, 48 bucks for 2 licenses isn't too bad.

With 10 already on the machine, you can simply download an up-to-date copy using the media creation tool from MS. You just follow the prompts to burn a disc and install 10 over the top of the current version.  That's one good thing about 10, it assigns itself to the hardware signature of the PC it is first installed on, meaning that you can continually update the machine via disc without having to activate it every time.

That was the pain in the neck with earlier Windows versions... once your allotted activations expired you'd have to ring MS and jump through hoops to reactivate.  Anyhow, all the best with it.

And if I also do my machine it'll need to be 3 out of 5 ....and I don't like them odds...

Well I'm finally on the ThreadRipper Beastie, but what a flamin' performance to get thus far.  Today was a good and bad day.  The good was the build starting up without a hiccup, but when I weigh up the pros and cons, today was an absolute 'expletive' of a day.  I got Win 8 to install okay, but from there it went downhill from there.

The motherboard disc wouldn't load any of the drivers because MSI skipped Win 8 and went straight to 10 from 7.  That meant I couldn't connect to the internet to activate it because there was no network drivers installed.  I had to search for compatible drivers using my HP 2-in-1.  I finally found some and was able to connect to the internet and activate Win 8.  That was another good thing, being I needed 8 to be activated to activate 10, but that's about where it stopped.  Win 10 started to install but twice stopped at 73%. 

I then remembered something about updating Win 8 to be the most recent before trying to install 10.  Well that's what I'm doing now, all 129 of them, and then I think there's more to update to Win 8.1 once the prerequisite files are installed.  Thing is, it's going as slow as a wet week and I was hoping to get 10 installed tonight.  It's now 10,57pm and I don't know if I'll be able to last it out 'til then. 

Effin' computers, who the fech put me onto them?  Before that I was happy drinking and chasing wild women, now any satisfaction comes with a lot of pain and frustration.  All I can say is that whoever it was, they're lucky that my memory is up the shit.

Wow, the updates are up to 78 of 129.  Maybe, just maybe, I'll get 10 done yet... depending on whether there's another round of updates or not.  Hmmph, there's more updates, so I'm going to let them run their course and call it a night.  I will leave 10 'til tomorrow as I have a damned headache coming on.... effing computers.